Creating Mission/Vision statements - productive or feel-good schlock?

[KitchenWitch]

Poll question: Creating Mission/Vision statements - productive or feel-good schlock?

[femmocrat]

1. Busy work for ass-kissers.

(at least where I work)

[Wapsie B]

2. Hey it keeps MBA's employed. Wasting hours......days of meeting time

conjuring up these mind-numbing statements. :eyes:

[KitchenWitch]

3. And PhDs as well

:shrug:

[Wapsie B]

4. Oh god how could I forget?

Nothing but corporate mind-candy. How dare someone think they actually do tangible work during their day?

[MorningGlow]

5. The best progress-hinderer of all time

I can't even count how many hours I've been forced to debate the wording of a friggin' mission statement and not getting anywhere. And once you have one (MONTHS down the line, if at all), what can you do with it? If they give you a laminated wallet-size copy, you can't even comfortably wipe your arse with it (those plastic corners are sharp). :shrug:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. Corporate America's equivalent of 15 pieces of flair.

The Mantra of Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers: "The secret of doing business is simple. Treat others the way you'd want to be treated."

December 2000: Right before Christmas, Cisco competitor Juniper Networks lays off employees. During a department meeting a Cisco Director initiates a series of catcalls, high-fives and belly laughs after sharing this news. The Director guarantees that there will be no layoffs at Cisco. High-fives and cheers abound. No one really seems to care about what Christmas is going to be like for the families of the laid off employees. They're too busy savoring the stench of death.

June 2001: 8500 people laid off from Cisco Systems.

So mission and vision statements only have value if they are printed on 2-ply.

[liberaltrucker]

7. Corporate bullshit

:hi: You know where I come from there.

:hug:

[KitchenWitch]

9. How about if it is in an Elementary School setting?

:)

[liberaltrucker]

10. Teachin' 'em to bullshit early, eh?

:)

[KitchenWitch]

11. Yah

all icing and no cake.

[liberaltrucker]

13. Teach 'em well!

Our future needs some good bullshitters. The Big Dawg comes
to mind. He can out bullshit a bull! Damn good skill in politics.

:toast:

[Richardo]

8. Almost criminal waste of time and effort.

[WCGreen]

12. It's also in non profit America and Religious America...

Retreats to find the core of our organization, man...

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. If I'm not mistaken, it's *required* for non-profits

I believe when a non-profit files articles of incorporation for 501(c)(3) tax status, a mission statement must be included.

:shrug:

[WCGreen]

17. Believe me, the requirements are not that stringent...

You could get away with raising money to help aids kids in Cleveland....

[Shine]

14. definitely productive

one of the things that keeps us from getting what we want is not being clear about what we want.

:hi:

[Generic Brad]

15. It's a team building excercise

How else can you identify all the assholes on your team?

[Rob H.]

18. Gigantic waste of time

At my last job I worked in a small department with one useless manager, two artists, two graphics production people (I was one of 'em), and six technical writers. We'd have hour-long meetings to work on a mission statement for our department and the writers would spend most of them doing things like trying to define exactly what the word "professionalism" really means.

Those were some of the most excruciating meetings I've ever been to--after a while I started blowing them off completely because I was too busy with real work to worry about stupid bullshit like working on a mission statement.