In addition, data does not always exist in the form of numbers. It may be a collection of photos, a series of anecdotes, etc.

And how cool would it be to plan for THAT? I can tell you that for Creating the Future, it has changed everything about how we think about – well – everything.  For example, how one thinks about succession planning changes when we think, “This is a project with a beginning and an end, rather than an ongoing org.”

In our particular case our vision is so much bigger than our mission that once the mission is accomplished, we can start all over with a new mission to take on the next step in the cause-and-effect chain of events that will lead to our vision. That is exciting!!

And here’s what’s also cool about that: At that time, it may mean that for that new mission, we might need a whole new board, with a passion for THAT mission.  It might mean we scale back down and start totally from scratch.  The opportunities are absolutely freeing when we stop thinking that we are building an organization that must sustain VS we are setting out to accomplish a mission.

I have no idea where this will take us. We know we are experimenting, which is why we’re doing so publicly, so everyone can learn from (and add their 2¢ to) our explorations.  We are still in beta at  Creating the Future’s “Walk the Talk” blog (e.g. still haven’t posted board minutes, etc.).  But you can find at least some of our discussions here: http://blogs.creatingthefuture.org/walkingthetalk/

All exciting, especially when we break out of the paradigm that says the way things have been are the way they need to remain.  Thanks for asking – and sorry so long!!
HG

Reconceiving of the mission statement as an achievable goal to be replaced once it is accomplished also sounds to me like a promising idea. One question I have is, what does the organization do once it achieves the mission it is working on?Maybe one solution is to think about splitting the mission statement into two parts: a current statement that describes the achievable goal that the organization is working towards right now and an overarching statement that describes the priorities of the organization and will govern the choice of the next achievable goal.

We’ve been playing with the concept of a mission statement mirroring plain English usage of the word. In English “mission” suggests “it can be done” – i.e. “Mission Accomplished.” What if THAT were how we used it in the community benefit world?

We’re experimenting with that at Creating the Future. The board actually approved that we will accomplish our mission, and they set a timeframe – a “Kennedy moon launch” date, if you will.  Within 10 years, we will have made approaches that create visionary community change the norm in this sector, rather than the exception.

From there, we’re playing with perhaps a program statement, which will be hugely informed by what you’ve noted above – the “What we’ll do to achieve the mission” statement. 

But even just noodling our thoughts – and the thoughts you have here – is SO helpful in moving our collective potential forward. I can’t wait to bring this to our board. THANK YOU!
Hildy