Writing anything as a group is like well-meaning locals trying to give a stranger directions to an obscure address. The kind helpers all speak over each other and the visitor ends up taking a left at the big oak tree rather than a right. Most school mission statements sound similar to confusing directions. The more they say, the less comprehensible they are, and the less they create clarity and impact.
My Elevate colleagues, Leah Van der Sluis and Natasha Goddard, and I have been thinking a lot about what mission statements can do for a school both externally and internally. More and more frequently, we’re being tapped to help schools reinvent their statements toward their intention without shrouding them in convoluted sentence structures and unnecessary adjectives and adverbs (hint: we like quality verbs).
When neglected, mission statements become toss-off language, a way to say something that sounds important but means very little to the actuality of the school either on a day-to-day basis or in moments of crisis or opportunity. Board members, school heads, and other school leaders regularly assert that their school is mission-driven, but many of them would not like to be put on the spot to quote it. They might even just start saying the word “excellent” over and over again!
For many reasons, this is, of course, not nearly good enough. Let’s think about why:
- Mission Drift: Schools face unprecedented pressures to meet the most immediate and loudly voiced needs. Inevitably, making the most expedient and most often well-meaning decisions in the moment can, over time, lead to losing sight of the mission. Centering directly on the school’s mission, however, and beginning important discussions with the mission as a transcendent refrain creates a context that can prevent mission drift.
- The Threshold Moment: Post-Covid, post George Floyd, post-January 6, post-invasion of Ukraine, post…post…we are crossing over a painful line or demarcation, but we are frustratingly unsure about where we are arriving. We don’t need new compasses–rather we need to remember we already have one – the school’s mission. It may get lost in the static of squeaky wheels and fast-paced news cycles, but it is there, and we need it the most when it is hardest to center our decision-making in it. A strong mission transcends the moment to remind us of something larger than the moment and larger than any single agenda or challenge..
- The Student Center: Poignant and deepening student wellness needs require new approaches to meet the needs of our students, but strangely, schools, particularly when subjected to significant outside pressures tend to try to serve too many masters at once – parents, individual trustees, teachers, even political headwinds. The right mission statement centers on students and what the school’s job is for the young people it serves and will serve in the future. Sourcing decision-making and strategy-making from the mission creates the correct center of gravity when complexity and immediate pressures push leaders into the temptation to be reactive.
- The All-things Fallacy: In the desire to make as many people as happy at once as possible, schools have at times tried, and inevitably failed, to be all things at once. School budgets have accreted line after line often because taking on something else is easier than the alternative of making some constituents unhappy. This is not a result of laziness – school folks may have flaws, but slagging off is not usually among them. Busy people like solving problems and moving on. A great mission gives a school permission to make the hard decision over the expedient one that will please the most people.
- The Spot on the Horizon Aspiration: Perhaps the strongest reason to revitalize your school’s mission is that done well, a mission statement creates the necessary tension between who we are and who we aspire to be as a school. This tension is a requirement to move a school forward. The beginning of a school’s aspiration is held in an effective mission. Every school I admire has a spot on the horizon it is moving forever toward. With a vital mission shared by committed people, schools can approach exactly the ambitious and bold work that will doubtlessly be required in the years ahead.
Activate the school’s mission at the moments of critical decision-making. It is the first and best tool leaders have in a school.