Mission drift

Imagine a situation where you are in charge of a non-profit refuge shelter for homeless animals.  One day a wealthy entrepreneur makes an appointment to see you and offers an ongoing annual six-figure donation if you agree to train four animals every month and release them to perform with a travelling circus.

Would you agree with the proposal?  More significantly for the purpose of this discussion, whether you agreed to the offer or not, would you regard this request as an example of ‘mission drift’?

What is ‘mission drift’?  Boston’s Harvard University gives us a real example of actual mission drift.  Harvard’s original mission statement (1636) was “to prepare ministers of upright character”.  By 1701, this has been modified to read “To be plainly instructed and consider well that the main end of your life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ.”  Today, Harvard’s mission statement would be quite unrecognisable to its founders as it now reads “to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for our society through our commitment to the transformative power of a liberal arts and sciences education”.

Mission drift occurs when an organisation consciously or unconsciously begins to engage in work that deviates from its core values.  Rightly, ‘mission drift’ is usually used as a pejorative term because it causes confusion and/or lack of authenticity as the mission (enduring purpose) of the school becomes diluted.  The school’s ‘true north’ direction and values become compromised.

Mission drift should ring alarm bells throughout any school community where it is seen to be occurring because it indicates that the organisation is veering off course in a way that is likely to damage and/or distract the enterprise.  Board members should be especially concerned as they hold the duty to define, monitor and ensure achievement of the mission, vision and strategic direction.

Peter Greer and Chris Horst have written a very helpful book on the subject of mission drift with an admirably easy-to-remember title – the book is called simply “Mission Drift”.  They describe mission drift as “the unspoken crisis facing leaders, charities and churches”, to which I would add “and also some schools”.

Mission drift can arise from a variety of causes, but I suggest four reasons dominate:

• A weak or vague mission statement : A school’s mission statement is a public declaration of its enduring purpose.  It defines the unique identity, direction, values and consequent culture of the school.  If a school can’t clearly fill in these blanks: “We do ____ through ___ in the service of _____,” and if the mission statement is too vague, too broad or simply difficult to understand, then it is failing to provide the boundaries required to preserve the school’s intentional direction.
• Ego : As I wrote in another recent article, successful school leadership requires servant leadership.  Humility is a prerequisite for effective board membership, and contrary to traditional (though outdated) preconceptions, it is also a requirement for proficient school principals.  If, on the other hand, a principal or board members approach their roles with a high sense of self-interest, it is highly likely that ‘pet projects’ will expand in scope and thus marginalise the facets of the school that express its true identity.
• The Bright Shiny Object Syndrome : Schools are almost always highly fertile zones for creative ideas.  In some schools, every week or staff meeting seems to propose a new initiative, always advocated with great passion.  Such proposals, which are especially prevalent in young schools, invariably are designed to bring benefits, either to students or staff, or both.  The problem is, as Jim Collins famously argued, “the good is the enemy of the great”.  Therefore, the risk arises that a ‘good’ initiative may be embraced without asking the critically important question – will this initiative enhance the school’s mission?  If it enhances the mission, it should be explored further, but if not, it should be acknowledged as a worthwhile idea, but rejected because it risks diluting the school’s core mission.
• The temptation of a wealthy donor : Sadly, experience shows that very few donors to schools have purely altruistic motives.  I wish it were different, but large donations usually come with strings attached, and these conditions may have a seductive appeal to convince the board to set aside facets of the school’s core mission or professional practices.  Unfortunately, large donations often demand sacrificing the purity of one or more aspects of the school’s mission and identity, which opens the door to ongoing and accelerating mission drift.  Schools must follow the mission, not the money.

It would be tragic if mission drift were inevitable in schools.  However, the good news is that it is not inevitable – there are several effective defences against mission drift.

• Know the Mission : There are several ways that the mission can become the central pillar of decision-making for the board.  For example, a statement of the mission and vision could routinely be inserted at the top of each agenda document to serve as a focus or reminder.  An interesting exercise might be to set aside a hour or so at a board meeting and begin by asking every attendee to try write down the mission statement as accurately as they can.  This exercise could become even more interesting if each board members was then asked to read aloud what they have written.  After concluding this exercise with some embarrassed laughter, a great discussion about the meaning and importance of the mission statement should ensue.  The discussion could even take the form of completing the sentence “we do ____ through ___ in the service of _____.”  This exercise might even result in agreement to get together again for a larger block of time to reflect on the importance of defending the mission.
• Test everything against the Mission Statement : It is helpful to administer an informal test to evaluate current programs and test new proposed programs in the school (especially if they consume large quantities of key resources such as time, money or staffing).  Having developed a mission statement, best practice suggests that there will be a consequent vision statement that identifies the school’s current priorities in achieving the mission, supported by a set of measurable strategic objectives.  All the school’s current and any proposed programs could then be listed, matched to their specific strategic objectives, and then rated on a scale from 1 to 10 on the extent to which each contributes to the mission.  Programs that rate poorly on this criterion might be flagged for subsequent discussion!
• Re-think the way your Mission Statement is expressed : Although the mission statement is an expression of the school’s enduring purpose, the way it is expressed will need to change from time to time to adapt to our society’s changing language usage.  A 150-year-old school may have once expressed its mission in the form of a Latin motto, but that will hardly communicate effectively today.  An effective mission statement should not only be unambiguous, but it ought to be concise and easy to remember.  A good test might be whether or not a young teenager can remember it so that if someone asks them “what is special about your school?”, their accurate recitation of the mission statement would provide the perfect answer.  The bottom line here is that it is really worthwhile for the board to hold an annual or biennial retreat/reflection on how adequately the current mission statement is articulating the school’s enduring purpose to the school community and the general public.  

-Dr Stephen Codrington