Once you’ve decided on what that statement is — your organization’s North Star — then the real work begins: How to translate that North Star — for me, your company’s identity — into decisions and actions that will illustrate its power and prove its intrinsic worth; in short, make it real. As promised last time, that’s the focus of this article. 

Execution is messy. Getting everyone to sign up for and work toward one central idea about who the company is and what it stands for can be like trying to herd cats ... No matter how dedicated employees may be, no matter how engaged they (hopefully) are, they’re still people, with all the idiosyncrasies, foibles, insecurities — as well as talents and passions — that come with being human. 

I’m not going to address such vital success requirements as consistent, clear-eyed communications, training and development designed to support what your North Star calls for, performance management practices that incentivize and reward behavior and results that reinforce your ‘star,’ or any number of other parts of the business system, which need to be aligned with that star. Much has already been written about these vital necessities. My focus lies elsewhere: It is to harness the essential humanness of all employees in ways that naturally connect their needs with those of the organization. 

What’s the logic?

There’s an unspoken assumption in business that humans and organizations are fundamentally different “beings,” who have different needs that must be met in different ways in order for them to succeed. The facts are otherwise. When it comes to understanding the deepest need of an organization and the deepest need of an individual, each is a mirror image of the other. What is that need? It is to create value in the world and be rewarded for it in return. Whether company or person, this need is universal.

If organizations and individuals have the same fundamental need, then, why not treat them in the same fundamental way? If the company has worked to crack the code on its identity as a way to understand how it creates distinctive value, then, executives should invite employees to do the same — to meet the company on its own terms, identity to identity. 

Doing so gives management a platform to ask people to be responsible for figuring out how to connect the best of themselves with the organization — first, within the context of their current jobs, and second, in relation to the company overall. Hold people accountable for defining, and making, a contribution that is meaningful to the enterprise as well as to themselves, and that becomes part of their performance standards.

A Microsoft moment

Not long ago, a team of nine high-potential employees from different parts of Microsoft was formed to create a new software application. Team members quickly learned what experience and skills each brought to the project. Still, something was missing; there was a lack of appreciation for the special contribution each individual was capable of making. The team leader suggested playing a “game” that would allow each person to clarify their uniqueness and the potential it held in relation not only to the immediate development challenge, but to the development of everyone’s careers. 

Three months later, the team had designed a software application that exceeded management’s expectations in terms of its prospective impact in the marketplace. The result was uniquely their own. Further, team members had come to know each other in deeper, more important ways and were now able to bring their personal identity insights back into their day-to-day activities. 

Having employees clarify their value-creating identities isn’t a silver bullet; the experience needs to be combined with the more conventional aspects of implementation noted above. What the experience will do is spark productivity in surprising ways: It will humanize the process of translating your North Star into decisions, actions, and operations that are distinctive, authentic and sustainable. 

It will bring the chances of success down to earth.

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With good reason, companies today are increasingly seeking to put a stake in the ground that illuminates what they’re all about, why they’re here, apart from the need to make money. Getting this right is a powerful force that can, like a magnet, help attract and hold the right people for the right reasons, improve customer loyalty, and even draw investors, whose time horizons are well beyond the next quarter. Many books and articles have been written that assert seemingly critical differences among various kinds of company statements and, further, how to craft each one. These include mission, vision, purpose, brand, and identity statements. An online review offers these general descriptions:

A mission defines what an organization is, why it exists, its reason for being

A vision isfuture-based and is meant to inspire and give direction to employees

A brand is your promise to customers and other stakeholders, derived from who you are, and who you want to be 

Purpose is the driving force that enables a company to define its true brand and create its desired culture

Identity clarifies who you are as an organization, and what distinguishes the company 

Allowing for a few differences, these descriptions are largely the same. They all potentially represent a company’s “north star,” pointing the way forward in a manner that is designed to guide decisions and behavior. Here’s a statement that, with a few, small word changes (or none at all), conforms to all of these descriptions, equally well. It is Ikea’s stated mission: To create a better everyday life for the many people. The company’s declaration effortlessly translates as follows:

… As its vision: A better everyday life for the many people

… As its brand promise: To create a better everyday life for the many people

… As its purpose: To create a better everyday life for the many people

… As its identity: An organization dedicated to creating a better everyday life for the many people 

Clarifying the logic of one 

There is simply no good reason a company must have a mission, a purpose, a brand promise, and a vision, or even two of these. One will do. And, one type of company statement is not more important than any of the others. What matters most is that whatever statement you select be informed by the unique contribution your company is capable of making in the world; i.e., how it creates proprietary value. 

There are three other criteria worth mentioning. Your company’s north star needs to be distinctive – it is about your company and yours alone. It needs to be authentic – it cannot be fabricated, or invented; it can only be discovered. It must be sustainable – it has to have the bones to be nearly timeless, despite how often you may need to express it differently to maintain its relevance.

In short, less is more. Employees have enough to do without having to memorize, let alone help operationalize, two, three, or four separate ideas. Make it easier for them to succeed: Simplify! What label you choose is far less important than the substance of the statement you embrace.

Eighteen months after the Dow engagement began, the company replaced three of its original statements with one: To constantly improve what is essential to human progress by mastering science and technology, and modified its values to support this mission. The result helped employees put their collective energy into one, value-creating idea that inspired innovation and commitment, and helped produce the economic, social and environmental benefits Dow’s stakeholders deserved.

If you’re in the market for a mission or a (fill in the blank), keep the following criteria in mind. 

Make sure how your company creates proprietary value is the foundation of that statement.

One statement is enough.

Ensure that your statement is distinctive, authentic and sustainable.

Your employees will thank you. Executive communications will be streamlined. Conversations will be more focused. Expectations will be clearer. The connection between company mission and individual jobs will be easier to make. Accountability will be enhanced. 

When it comes to forging a compelling north star for your organization, the above measures are the only ones you really need. Then the real work begins: how to translate that north star into decisions and actions that will illustrate its power and prove its intrinsic worth. (Stay tuned; that topic is coming up next.)

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