The change process can benefit from a mission statement which tries to encapsulate the key elements of the intended change in a few short sentences.

Arriving at a mission statement can help:

• clarify the aims of the intended change
• assist with its communication up, down and across the management structure
• assist with the decision-making process by asking 'how does this relate to our mission for change?'

It can be used by teams or individuals and at all levels within the organisation.

The aim is to provide a clear and succinct description of the scope of the change initiative, programme or project.

The characteristics of a good mission statement are:

• It should be clear
• It should be catchy
• It should represent succinctly 'what we are trying to achieve'
• It should be short - describing the change in no more than five sentences

There are a number of ways in which the writing of the mission statement can be accomplished. It is useful if some groundwork has been done on the nature of the change before attempting to write the statement and it can be helpful to set a specific time limit for this activity since it can be extended almost indefinitely.

Although it can be accomplished individually (by a good wordsmith on behalf of the team) it is perhaps better if each member of the team starts by writing the key phrase or phrases that they would like to see in the final statement. These are then shared and the best one(s) selected and the final overarching statement written.

Once agreed, you may want to consider how to communicate the 'mission' to other interested parties.