SPN Talk

1
State Policy Network Development Workshop Is
There a Market for Your Mission? Does Mission
Matter? (and more importantly, does YOUR mission
matter?)
2
What is mission?

• The set of important things you have to do in
  order to get where you want to go

3
Why does mission matter?

• Because you need to hire people with brains.
• Because you need to inspire people with money.

4
Two Audiences for Mission

• Internal
• Inspiration
• Coordination
• Focus
• External
• Explanation
• Connection
• Inspiration

5
Initiative
Service
Leader
Responsibility
Mission
Teamwork
Quality
Excellence
Change
Success
Innovation
6
Hypothesis 1

• What we really are is more apparent than we think.

7
To advance liberty by developing and equipping
networks of citizens to influence local
government decisions, so that communities are
energized and become the wellspring of national
political change.
8
Write a few op-eds. Attend some conferences.
Whatever.
9
Hypothesis 2

• It is not heresy to speak to people in a language
  they understand.

10
Hypothesis 3

• If you measure success in terms of the
  organization youve built, then youre measuring
  the wrong thing.

11
Hypothesis 4

• Our good intentions and intelligence do not
  entitle us to other peoples money.

12
Hypothesis 5

• If people dont understand what we do, its our
  fault.

13
Tonys Favorite Mission Statement
To make good beer and sell it. Miracle
Brewing Co.
14
To By So
15
To Lose weight By 1. Not eating after 8
p.m. 2. Exercising at least 30 minutes/day
3. Giving up soft drinks and chips So I feel
better about myself
16
To Advance educational choice By 1. Building
network of choice advocates 2. Mobilizing for
pro-choice candidates 3. Staging
attention-grabbing events 4. Coordinate with
policy experts, legal groups So We rescue
children from a bankrupt system
17
Hypothesis 6

• The problem with a poorly worded mission is not
  poor wording.

18
It is much cheaper to make yourself obsolete
than to be made obsolete by your competitors.

• Peter Drucker