Replacing Mission Statements with Invitation Statements

Replacing Mission Statements with Invitation(ˌinvəˈtāSH(ə)n) Statements

By Steve Pavlina

Google’s corporate(ˈkôrp(ə)rət) mission is: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible(əkˈsesəb(ə)l) and useful.

Facebook’s mission is: to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.

Microsoft’s mission statement is: to empower every person and every organization(ˌôrɡənəˈzāSH(ə)n) on the planet(ˈplanət) to achieve more.

The mission statement of Amazon is: We strive(strīv) to offer our customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost(ˈətˌmōst) convenience(kənˈvēnyəns).

What I find interesting about these (and many other mission statements) is that they’re about empowerment. They’re about giving people greater abilities, access(ˈakˌses), and resources.

They’re also infinite(ˈinfənət) in scope. There will always be more information to organize, more communities to build, more people and organizations to serve, and more selection and convenience to develop(dəˈveləp).

Moreover, these missions aren’t necessarily at odds(ädz) with each other. They can all co-exist. They could cooperate(kōˈäpəˌrāt) with each other.

Imagine if we combined all four of these companies into one and gave them a singular mission statement. What would that look like?

Let’s pull out the key elements first:

organize information
provide useful access
empower people
build community
grow closer
achieve more
save money
expand options
improve accessibility

I think we can compress(kəmˈpres) this a bit more since some items are related(rəˈlādəd):

organize information
empower people
connect people
achieve more
expand options
improve accessibility

Ultimately I think we could compress this all the way to just one item: empower people.

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https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/02/replacing-mission-statements-with-invitation-statements/