Repeat yourself. You have to do it often, and you have to do what I call, ‘inspect the expect.’ You can continue to mention it, but are they paying it lip service or do they get it? Unfortunately, for adults, it takes hearing a message seven times to actually get it. That means you have to get their buy-in initially and keep repeating it over and over, making it a part of your everyday encounters with your staff.
It’s making sure that you do review the mission and vision as part of meeting, as part of the go-forward strategy. We don’t just sit around and talk about the strategy all day, but we want to make sure that we’re reviewing it, that we’re talking about it — is it resonating; are we living the values of the organization? You do that through action, but you also do it by ensuring that everyone lives those values, and make sure that it’s always mentioned and talked about whenever anyone is talking with any of our franchisees.
Know your audience. There is an overarching vision and mission for us as far as wanting to be the No. 1 home care provider in the world. Everyone needs to embrace and understand that, but the people on the ground level might not need what is behind every core value. They might not need to know what was the thinking process behind the vision — ‘How do we make that vision live within the client?’ Those kinds of things are more geared to the people actually dealing in those business environments, like the owners and business consultants.
Understanding all the details might not be key to everyone’s success in an organization, but it is key that they understand the overarching vision and mission of the organization. The people on the ground level will need to live them every time they pick up the phone.
Be willing to change, to a point. Missions and visions aren’t in stone; they’re living and breathing things that change with changes in the markets and industry. Which is why it’s important that your people are well-grounded on the basics of the business that don’t change. That’s why you have to stay on your messaging. It’s not just one time.
The parts of your vision and mission that talk about your core values as an organization, those aren’t going to change. Those are going to be overarching. But, for example, one of our goals is continually improving our systems and support. We’re not just going to rest on our laurels. You can get more specific on those types of things when you’re communicating.
You are going to have the foundational core values that aren’t going to change, but then there are certain core values that are detailed to specific missions within the organization, which need to be modified over time. I don’t want to change the core values statement, but I don’t have a problem changing what’s behind it.