Refreshing the Vision and Mission
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Vision
A compelling description of how the world is different because of the organization's existence; a description of an outcome state without a commitment to a particular approach or methodology.
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Does the Vision statement clearly define a target population to be served?
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Does the Vision statement define a positive state to be pursued or a negative state to be removed?
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For example, "Rid the world of diabetes" vs. "Ensure every child gets all the education they desire".
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Are there other organizations with similar visions in the area that would be either competitive or redundant with the organization? If so, what is our distinguishing characteristic?
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Are all the activities of the organization clearly targeted toward the achievement of the Vision? Have other activities crept in (usually happens in pursuit of a critical grant)?
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Does the Vision statement contain any suggestions of activities? Could those be moved into the Mission statement to sharpen the focus of the Vision statement?
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Does the Vision statement provoke commitment? Support? Excitement?
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Mission
A broad statement of programmatic activities designed to bring about the vision state.
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Does the Mission statement clearly suggest the activities that are NOT part of the agency's operations?
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Is there a compelling argument for the efficiency of the agency? That is, does the benefit pursued greatly exceed the cost of the activities defined in the Mission?
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Strategic Plan
A medium-term plan with specific objectives and deliverables that reflect the mission of the organization and provide a skeleton or framework for more operational planning.
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Does the SP define a small set of objectives that can drive Agency actions (decisions, resource allocations, staffing, etc.) for the next few years?
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Are there a set of clear metrics that would indicate the achievement of the objectives?
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Does the SP define the key dilemmas that will determine the success of the Agency?
Dilemmas are contradictory goals that have to be balanced or blended.
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