Mindset and Motivation

After reading, researching, thinking, brainstorming, agonizing and writing numerous blog posts on the subject… I am finally ready to share our very own mission. Theory is great but time to show a real example, one that is close to home.

Our (Sunwapta Solution’s) Mission

“Help people achieve their full potential; including living a fulfilling life.”

Breaking It Down

The first part is somewhat straight-forward.

Help people achieve their full potential. Maximizing the potential of people.

Without the second part we felt that there was a danger that we could help people achieve their full potential but that their lives might not be in […]

“Why? Why? Why?” said with your best Jack Nicholson impersonation (think the Witches of Eastwich movie where Jack plays “gasp” the devil).

Why should you have a mission? Why should you have a vision? Why should your goals and business strategy be tied to these things?

Many (most?) people strive to find a higher purpose or meaning in life; especially once they become aware of their mortality.

Some people, including many business owners strive to create a legacy… to live beyond the grave through their business or some other mechanism.

As someone recently said in a seminar […]

Some people or companies think you can buy loyalty and productivity. As Daniel Pink says in "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" this is motivation 2.0 at work. The carrot and stick approach to management that derives from the factory mentally of the previous century. It works, to a degree, for repetitive work where the problem to be solved is linear and repeatable.

But much of today's work is knowledge and creative work. The outcome is not a linear, repeating process but rather requires a unique solution each time. Software development is generally like this. Sure each […]

Game Recap

Earlier I defined what I thought make a great mission and vision.

A mission is the Tweet of strategy and describes your overall purpose or service to humanity. Your mission should not reference your current product or service.

Your vision is the story (or blog) of where you intend on going. A good story has a beginning, a middle, and a strong ending. It also should touch on why; this will fuel your emotional commitment.

Introduction to Goals

Goals are where things get a little tricky. Not because goals are inherently difficult to understand, but because setting good goals is tricky. There is a big difference between what […]

In my last post, I covered what I think a good mission statement is. Short, serves humanity and when you fulfill it, you are fulfilled.

If a great mission is a tweet, a great vision is a blog post. A short compelling story about what you are specifically going to do to over the next 3-10 years to deliver on the mission.

Unlike the mission, you get to include your product or service here. A mission is timeless but a vision is a picture of a point in the future. It is a moving window about where you are heading […]

Coincidentally this is my 300th blog post. Somehow I am subconsciously compelled to impart something remarkable. So I thought I would share some wisdom that I find compelling… I’ll leave it to you to determine what it is worth to you.

Mission Statements

This is a topic that generates a lot of confusion about the difference between mission, vision, values, goals, etc.

There are a lot of really bad ones out there too. Blah, blah, blah, value to shareholders, blah blah, customers are important, blah, blah, employees, blah, and ethics… blah.

Why This Is Important

I know a number of people who started businesses to […]