In my last article I talked about defining your mission, vision, and values. I promised that my next article would be about living those. I like to keep my promises so here goes…
An example… Patagonia
Patagonia was founded by climber Yvon Chouinard over 50 years ago. Specialising in outdoor clothing it has long been a champion for the environment. Mission statements don’t come much bolder or clearer than ‘we’re in business to save our home planet’.
Patagonia has re-evaluated its values at its 50th anniversary. These values (in condensed form) are…
Quality… Build the best product, provide the best service, and constantly improve everything we do.
Integrity… Examine our practices openly and honestly, learn from our mistakes and meet our commitments.
Environmentalism… Protect our home planet.
Justice… Be just, equitable and antiracist as a company and in our community.
Not bound by convention… Do it our way.
I think we can begin to picture the company’s culture from these statements but their website gives a much fuller explanation of what these values mean. In essence it’s about examining every aspect of their work to minimise the impact on the environment of their activities and to give back where possible.
How does Patagonia live its mission and values?
The short answer is… in numerous ways, but that isn’t very helpful. So here are just a few.
Since 1985 Patagonia has pledged 1% of its sales (yes sales, not profits) to the preservation and restoration of our natural environment. Much of this goes to support small, local groups doing good things for the environment. It also works to connect individuals with environmental groups in their area.
Patagonia’s clothing is made to last. The company offers a repair service to extend the life of its garments and encourages users to return items which have reached end of life so they can be recycled. Where it’s not yet possible to recycle an item the company is storing returned items until it is possible!
On Black Friday in 2011 Patagonia ran an advert in the New York Times with a photo of one of their jackets and the headline ‘Don’t buy this jacket.’ The message was to think twice before spending and to become a more conscious consumer by buying better but less often.
How can you live your mission, vision, and values?
Well you can only live them once you’ve defined them so if you haven’t yet done that you might want to read my earlier article. You may have the skeleton but need to put the meat on the bones by explaining what you mean by each statement so there is no ambiguity for your stakeholders.
It can help to interpret some of your statements, so their meaning is really clear. For example, many businesses these days talk about sustainability but what does that mean? For some that is about being green (whatever that means!), for others it’s about being there for the long term.
You might wish to explain how you will implement your mission, vision, and values. One way many organisations do that is by stipulating how some of their profits will be spent or good causes or initiatives they will support.
Ask questions.
I think it’s useful to have a number of mission, vision, value based questions that you run your decisions by. For example…
- How does this decision contribute to our mission?
- How does this action move us towards our vision?
- Is this decision consistent with our values?
- Would our loyal customers continue to trust us if we do this?
- Does this action demonstrate our values?
Clearly the questions you ask will vary depending upon your mission, vision, and values.
At Fabulous Networking one of our values is sustainability and we use the triple interpretation of People, Planet, Profit. So we will ask questions about how our decisions affect our members, visitors, speakers, venue staff and others we deal with.
When buying supplies we’ll ask is there a more sustainable option? When we returned to in person networking we asked how we could mitigate our increased carbon footprint and committed to a monthly subscription to Ecologi.com. That subscription helps offset my travelling and we plant a tree for every person attending one of our in person events.
Profit always comes last in our considerations as it does for Patagonia. Clearly profit is important but not at all costs. So we will ask, is the extra money worth the compromise?
Matching behaviours
Words can only go so far. We’ll be judged by our actions. How many times have you been disappointed by the service you’ve received from businesses that state that customer service is a core value?
It’s not always easy to behave consistently in line with our values. We need to make sure that anyone representing our business knows what our values are and what that means for how we all behave. We need to challenge those who fall short, including ourselves. (I don’t mean a bo****king! More ‘how could you have handled that more in line with our values?’)
As business owners we need to model the behaviours we want to see. Sometimes that might mean taking a deep breath and a moment to choose our response in a challenging situation.
In conclusion
Your mission, vision and values can help to differentiate your business from a competitor. The way you live them is what will bring trust.
Share your mission, vision, and values when you network. Better still, share the testimonials you receive that praise you for living them.
How do you share and live your mission, vision, and values?
