Organisations of all types and sizes recognise the importance of having statements of their vision, values and mission. But how to avoid them being meaningless ‘corporate speak’?
I was really helped recently by reading this encouragement from Dr Peter Fuda, to be “simple not simplistic” when describing a corporate vision or values. Statements like “we put the customer first” are very common, very easy to write and very hard to be motivated by. They’re simple, sure – but also too simplistic to be useful.
A simple-not-simplistic statement of vision, values or mission is short enough to be accessible and memorable enough to be internalised. But it also conveys a meaningful message about who we are, what we’re about and where we’re heading.
How do your comms stack up against this? Summarising who you are, what you care about and where you’re going is an essential leadership activity – but have you ended up with something so simplistic or generic that it doesn’t actually say anything or inspire anyone?
This comes up so often when I’m working with teams and organisations on refreshing their vision or strategy. One of the key tips I’ve used for moving away from bland ‘corporate speak’ is to ask staff outside the C-Suite / Exec team to describe it. That usually provides a much better starting point for finessing the language, than crafting the language within the leadership bubble.