Leaders: Stop writing your mission statements without input. We can tell

Recently, I found myself reading a February article about the new value statements Mark Zuckerberg set when reimagining Facebook as Meta. I had never bothered to read the value statements associated with Facebook and was a bit surprised when this one was quoted: “Move fast and break things.” The article goes on to note that as the company–and hopefully Zuckerberg–matured, new value statements became less reckless. Apparently, they’ve brought back the “move fast” part for Meta, while dropping the (rather childish) “break things” aspect.

The article left me wondering about who develops value statements for most organizations. Given that these statements are often presented as the “soul” of an organization, a set of guidelines for operation, or the words that set the organizational culture (a concept with its own set of problems), it would seem that’s an important question. 

My guess is that it’s normally a group of upper-level managers or administrators, or perhaps even just the CEO. There are, of course, many problems with this approach. Perhaps the most serious is that if it’s just a CEO or a small group of top leaders drafting value statements, those values are not genuinely organizational values: They are the values of the people drafting the statements. This means they are values of wealthy, privileged, often white and male, business or intellectual elites who may have little or no understanding of the diverse experiences and values of people throughout the organization. As a result, there is a good chance that the values drafted by leaders won’t actually resonate all that well with the rank and file employees. 

I encountered this at my own university when conducting a seminar for managers in the facilities division. For one exercise, we deconstructed the mission and values statements of the university. What I learned was that because the statement made no mention of the importance of the physical campus, many people in the facilities division felt disenfranchised from the professed values. They believed—and I think they were right–that they are as deeply involved with and committed to the educational mission of the university as are faculty, but that isn’t reflected in mission statements that had been created by those at the top. 

In order to make value statements meaningful, it’s necessary to have expertise in thinking deeply about values and also about how to gather information across an organization as a means of learning about the values people bring to that organization. Being a CEO does not mean one has the knowledge or expertise necessary to write a good value statement. (That value statement for Facebook seems to support this claim.) 

So, what should leaders do?

First, they should recognize that their own values do not necessarily translate, nor are they necessarily representative, of the values held by many, or even most, people in their organization. A diverse organization means diverse ideas and values. That’s good and contributes to having a strong organization. It also needs to be factored into the crafting of value statements. 

Think of it this way: To what extent is a value statement created by a small group of heterosexual males going to resonate with heterosexual women or LGBTQ+ individuals who are also part of the organization? If that value statement narrowly reflects the values of leadership, will it be viewed as something to follow, or something imposed? Will it be viewed as reflecting diversity or squelching it?

Second, rather than sitting down and writing up some values, enlist the aid of those with actual expertise in thinking about values, particularly as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Your local university would be one place to find such expertise, departments like African American Studies, Gender Studies, Anthropology, Philosophy, and many others have scholars who make it their living to think deeply about these kinds of topics and have knowledge that can be helpful in forming good value statements. They also usually have quite a bit of expertise on how to collect and interpret data on people’s ideas about values and how they relate to work. In other words, they know how to include diverse voices in thinking and writing about values.

The most important thing to keep in mind is the need for a bit of intellectual humility. Being successful as a leader does not necessarily translate into having the knowledge and expertise necessary to be successful in crafting quality value statements that reflect and embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion. If leadership truly wants value statements to be meaningful and to contribute to shaping organizational goals and the organizational climate, the creation of those statements should be taken just as seriously as seeking new markets or investing in R&D.