Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Posted Notes An Effective Way to Develop a Mission/Vision Statement?


As a future public relations practitioner, I've been told countless times I would have to write a mission or vision statement for an organization either for a non-profit or for-profit company. Now it's time to develop one. 

In a meeting today at 2:30 p.m., I was told as the PR exec I would need to develop a new mission and vision statement for the SGA Web site. Ironically, in my PR Research and Campaigns course , professor Bill Handy was lecturing about setting goals and objectives for your clients and ways to write these statements. Perfect timing. 

But wait, it gets better. 

Earlier this morning, I was discussing my senior thesis with assistant professor, Gina Noble, she wants me to develop a mission and vision statement for the Journalism and Broadcasting Ambassador Program as part of my thesis. She told me a great way to your team and client involved in developing a mission and vision statement. 

So take notes, it's a great idea. 

First, you pass out posted notes to each member of the group. Second, you ask them "What's your vision for the specific program or organization?" and allow 10 minutes for them to brainstorm and write down their answers. After, each member has written down their answers you put the responses on a board of some sort and seek some commonality among the group members vision for the program or organization.  And that's when you take everyone's ideas and develop a mission and vision statement. 

A great idea? eh? Who would have thought. It's that simple. 

At our next SGA exec meeting, I plan to do this exercise and hopefully develop a mission and vision statement for SGA. 

Another day, another enlightment. You have to love communication.

Until next time, 

GPaul 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Paul, great post and glad to see your continued blogging. Thanks for the tweet to read (hope you enjoyed your breakfast) and nice post on facebook! You may want to check out twhirl which will do both and you can load it on your Blackberry!!

Some food for thought - how can a tactic/website have a vision and mission if it is supportive of a larger goal/mission/vision?

See you tomorrow!

Anonymous said...

I did it again!!! Germaine, not Paul... Would you consider a name change?? Or how about a sincere apology from me?? I'm sorry.

GPaul said...

Thanks Bill for your feedback on my blog. Over the Labor Day weekend, I plan to personalize my blog more to fit me. You'll have to tell me how to use twhirl so I can load it on my Blackberry.

To answer your question Bill, the SGA Web site has a mission and vision statement, however, it's not what the organization embodies. Both the SGA president and vice president want to make the Web site that's easy for students to find documents and information about SGA. I hope that answers your question.

Also, do not feel bad about calling me Paul, everyone initially thinks my first name is Paul and my last name is Germaine, but that's what you get when you have two first names. So no problem. Apology accepted. See you tomorrow!