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In defense of mission statements--Tool of the Devil or Handy Dive rsionary Tactic
Subject:In defense of mission statements--Tool of the Devil or Handy Dive rsionary Tactic From:Jason Willebeek-LeMair <jlemair -at- cisco -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L (E-mail)" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 9 Nov 1999 08:58:42 -0600
I love mission statements. They are incredibly useful tools.
For example, say you are starting to feel burned out with your
day-to-day technical writing activities. You can go to your boss and
say "Our department needs a Mission Statement" or "Our Mission Statement
is getting a little stale." Boom. The next thing you know, you will be
volunteered to create or freshen up your mission statement.
(Note: if you are a contractor, you can volunteer to be an objective,
third-party facilitator for this effort--billing appropriately, of
course.)
Once volunteered for the Mission Statement effort, you will experience
all of the joy and power of forming a committee, calling meetings, and
cramming words together in such a manner that makes your eyes water just
looking at it. And, if the Oxford English Dictionary does not have any
suitable words, you can always make up your own.
Like I said, mission statements are useful tools. They are a handy, and
accepted, way to kill a quarter without having to do any real work.
Jason
Whose Mission Statement, "Document Stuff", may need freshening soon.
