Staff Management

On a Mission: Craft a Mission Statement to Reach Practice Goals

By Thomas F. Steiner

An effective mission statement will guide your practice on the path to profitability.

Nearly every business consultant preaches the importance of a company mission statement. They claim that a mission statement is the only way to get employees on the same page and marching in the same direction. Without a compelling mission, employees view work as mundane and uninspiring, and there is no striving for excellence. An inspiring mission statement can give a business a competitive edge.

However, a lot of OD practice owners, including successful ones, remain skeptical about mission statements. If they haven’t already bothered writing one, they may believe a mission statement is a meaningless, pie-in-the-sky abstraction that staff will politely listen to and promptly ignore. Many ODs who have drafted statements feel good about being enlightened executives. But they keep the statement securely in a desk drawer where it can’t distract staff from completing their functional tasks. It’s clear that revenue and profit can keep rolling in without an effective mission statement.

At West Georgia Eye Care in Carrollton, Ga., staff members carry small cards bearing the practice mission statement with them–and read from these cards at daily staff meetings.

Base Your Mission Statement on Core Values
Jim Stengel, author of Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies, believes that what differentiates outstanding companies is that their corporate missions articulate deeply held and widely shared universal human values of great importance to customers. Motivating mission statements say nothing about a company’s financial goals or desire for competitive superiority. Rather they connect with customers at an emotional level by aspiring to improve lives in fundamental ways. Inspiring corporate missions go beyond superior delivery of functional customer requirements, which other companies can copy and which become commoditized over time.

Before Writing Your Mission Statement, Do a Practice Analysis
Every business delivers a range of customer benefits–and you need to evaluate what your practice delivers.Arrange these benefits on a ladder. At the base are the essential, functional benefits that satisfy the rational mind, which must be delivered to stay in business, but that rarely differentiate a company from competitors. At the top of the ladder are higher-order emotional benefits that motivate. Customers will pay more for the higher order benefits and companies that deliver them will enjoy deeper customer loyalty.

For eyecare patients, a benefit ladder appears below.

The Ladder of Eye Care Benefits
Higher-order
Make my daily life more satisfying

Emotional Benefits
–Make me feel self-confident about my appearance
–My eyewear tells the world that I am a sophisticated, stylish consumer who can afford the best
–Make me feel personally cared for through expressions of empathy, respect and understanding
–Provide me peace of mind and a sense of well-being,
–knowing my vision is safeguarded and in good hands

Functional Benefits

–Provide good vision in all vision environments
–Eyewear perfectly complements my appearance
–Provide vision correction products which are durable and easy to maintain
–Provide a comfortable wearing experience
–Provide affordable vision products of good value
–Provide a thorough eye exam and accurate diagnosis

Effective vision care mission statements verbalize higher-order emotional benefits–the desirable positive feelings that patients want to experience when interacting with the practice. It’s unlikely that a mission statement focused on functional benefits will either motivate staff or create strong patient loyalty.

Because effective mission statements focus on the deepest level of patient need, they motivate staff. Everyone enjoys meaningful work that helps other people and is deeply appreciated.

Make Your Mission Statement Effective

Effective missions must be easy for staff to translate into daily behavior. They establish an unambiguous standard for judging the appropriateness of actions or establishing spending priorities. Because an elevating mission is never fully accomplished, it serves as a beacon encouraging continuous improvement.

• “Our goal is to provide quality products and services at affordable prices”
• “We offer a full range of products and services to satisfy every need”
• “Our goal is your complete satisfaction”
• “Service is our most important product”

These statements lack specificity. They provide no standard to determine if a customer interaction was successful or not. They do not define appropriate or inappropriate employee behaviors. They do not elevate daily work to a higher purpose.

After a mission statement has been written, the next step is to decide what concrete actions will bring the mission to life at each stage of the service process. This discussion starts by asking: “What would we need to do to make patients feel like what our mission says we want them to feel?”

Discuss Your Mission Statement with Staff

A staff meeting discussion is the best forum to bring a mission statement to life by detailing the behaviors that will produce the desired patient benefits.

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Thomas F. Steiner has spent 26 years helping eyecare practices succeed, including pioneering the introduction of color contact lenses into optometry. He currently is a consultant withPractice Advancement Associates, a division of Jobson’s Professional Publications Group. To contact him: tom.steiner@cibavision.com

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