To quickly grasp the difference between purpose and mission, think of pursuing a guiding star across a mountain range. Your purpose is the guiding star, always out there on the horizon, never attainable, but always pulling you forward. Your mission, on the other hand, is the specific mountain you are climbing at any moment. While assaulting that mountain, all your focus and energy goes into that specific ascent. But once you reach the top, you sight again on the guiding star (your purpose) and pick yet another mountain to climb (another mission). And, of course, throughout the entire adventure, you remain true to your core values and beliefs.

Unlike purpose, which is never achieved, a mission should be achievable. It translates values and purpose into an energizing, highly focused goal—like the moon mission. It is crisp, clear, bold, exhilarating. It reaches out and grabs people in the gut. It requires little or no explanation; people “get it” right away. Once a mission is fulfilled, you return to purpose to set a new mission.

The Process

Setting strategy involves the following basic steps:

First, review the vision of the company. If you haven’t clarified your vision, do so. In particular, ensure that the current mission is clear. As you recall from Chapter 4, your mission (which is the third component of vision, after core values and beliefs and purpose) is analogous to the specific mountain you are going to climb.

Next, do an internal assessment of the company’s capabilities. This is analogous to examining capabilities and resources of the expedition team.

Third, do an external assessment of the environment, markets, competitors, and trends. This is analogous to studying pictures of the mountain, examining weather reports, assessing new trends in technology that might help you in your ascent, and paying attention to competitors who seek to reach the summit ahead of you.

Finally, taking the internal and external assessments into account, make key decisions about how you intend to go about achieving your current mission. This is analogous to mapping out the route you are going to take up the side of the mountain.

UNCOMMON TAKEAWAYS

• The goal of an excellent service organization is to deliver outstanding results with average employees.

• Many companies design service models for employees they don't have — for a payroll filled with superstars when, in fact, there's a healthy range of talent and initiative on the team. Capture this reality in the design of the business model.

• Successful employee management systems have four main components: selection, training, job design, and performance management.These components must be internally consistent and aligned with the rest of the service model. There's no such thing as good or bad selection, for example. The issue is whether it's consistent with the rest of the employee management system and whether the system is consistent with the rest of the service model.

• IT solutions can help or hurt your employees' productivity, often in dramatic ways. IT tools that work are sensitive to the employee experience, including how and when data is entered in the rhythm of a particular job.The best solutions are developed in tandem with the role itself — not piled on after a job design is already in place.

• The average service employee is overwhelmed by the increasing complexity of his or her job. When a company identifies a gap like this between operational complexity and employee sophistication, it has two choices: change the people or change the job. In other words, (1) train and hire differently or (2) redesign the job so that your current team can do it.

UNCOMMON TAKEAWAYS

• The goal of an excellent service organization is to deliver outstanding results with average employees.

• Many companies design service models for employees they don't have — for a payroll filled with superstars when, in fact, there's a healthy range of talent and initiative on the team. Capture this reality in the design of the business model.

• Successful employee management systems have four main components: selection, training, job design, and performance management.These components must be internally consistent and aligned with the rest of the service model. There's no such thing as good or bad selection, for example. The issue is whether it's consistent with the rest of the employee management system and whether the system is consistent with the rest of the service model.

• IT solutions can help or hurt your employees' productivity, often in dramatic ways. IT tools that work are sensitive to the employee experience, including how and when data is entered in the rhythm of a particular job.The best solutions are developed in tandem with the role itself — not piled on after a job design is already in place.

• The average service employee is overwhelmed by the increasing complexity of his or her job. When a company identifies a gap like this between operational complexity and employee sophistication, it has two choices: change the people or change the job. In other words, (1) train and hire differently or (2) redesign the job so that your current team can do it.