Almost every company or organization starts out with big dreams and bold goals. Enthusiastic about their new opportunity, the founders set down their mission, vision and values. They might put this in the business plan, on their About Us page, and use it to entice investors or market to customers.

Then, as it always does, change happens. Those pillar tenets that seemed so perfect at the outset, may need to evolve. This article shares strategies to ensure you revisit mission, vision and values with care and make any changes conscientiously.

First, a primer on how we’re using the terms values, mission, and vision. As we’ve written in the past:

• Values are beliefs demonstrated in practice. They guide the way you treat your stakeholders, both internal and external.
• Mission is a clear statement identifying your organization’s reason for existence and its main goal.
• Vision announces what you project will happen when your organization’s mission is achieved.

But, why would those change? Let’s examine that next.

Common reasons for significant culture shifts

Organizations see employees come and go, products launch and retire, initiatives begin and end. Yet, mission, vision and values are so fundamental that they aren’t—usually at least—responsive to employee engagement surveys or customer feedback. Still, these foundations to strategy and culture can and do evolve.

Key reasons include the following:

• Company growth. What resonated as a rallying cry and values that meant something to you when you were a startup may not speak to your purpose and goals once the business matures. New leadership or a merger or acquisition could also drive a shift in the guiding principles.
• Market evolution. Your customer demographics might change as you introduce new products or programs. For instance, a non-profit that initially focused on feeding the homeless in a single city might expand to more at-risk communities, which could prompt a realignment of values and mission with the target audience.
• Technology advancement. Innovation is accelerating. As breakthroughs are made, a business may need to adjust its vision to better suit the new environment. Take Microsoft. Its original mission was to put a PC in every home. In the past decade it has moved to focus instead on “empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”
• Competitive landscape alters. Emergence of a new player in your market could prompt you to recalibrate what differentiates you from the rest. For example, a company that originally focused on low prices may need to recast its mission when it’s undercut by an upstart.
• Times change. With an administration tackling “woke culture” many organizations are reconsidering verbalizing a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. In a perhaps less triggering example, companies a decade ago may not have valued sustainability in the same way that they want to today.

Key steps in evolving your mission

Having determined your current mission statement doesn’t quite suit you any longer, you’ll want to proceed strategically.

First, get your stakeholders on board. You can’t have just one person decide to change the company values or mission statement and expect everyone else to toe the line. Realigning your core company beliefs will have an impact at all levels of the organization. It can influence company culture.

Ensure that you have buy-in at the top levels and that they agree with the new approach. As with most change management initiatives, it can also help to get support from stakeholders across departments or different levels to smooth the transition.

Second, communicate the change transparently. A credit union that changes its mission statement without telling any of its members might make this healthy re-evaluation of the mission look shady. It’s a better idea to publicize the change in mission statement, telling internal and external stakeholders what prompted the evolution and how decision makers reached this mission.

Treat this is an opportunity to reach out to employees and customers and try to excite them again about your organization and all that it means to them.

Generally, when it comes to organizational values, your core values will remain constant. Aspirational values, the ones that you need to support a new strategy or changing market, can be carefully altered or added. But don’t let them dilute the values that serve as your cultural cornerstones.

When changing values, it can help to recognize people who embrace the new purpose. This provides an opportunity for storytelling, which can help make an abstract concept more concrete. John Coleman, author of the Harvard Business Review’s Guide to Crafting Your Purpose suggests interviewing clients and employees to find people to highlight. You might also prepare short videos of either of these stakeholders celebrating an employee living the values.

Getting your guiding principles right

As we will discuss in more detail later in this three-part series, being fickle with your values or mission can undermine customer trust. Authenticity is critical. If people believe you are simply stating a vision or mission to suit the current climate, you may lose their respect.

If employees, who have been treating the old mission, vision, and values as a guiding star, feel like you’re pandering to the latest whims when you make a change, you could also risk their loyalty. You might rue the decision when you next review your employee retention rates.

A company culture survey can help you understand whether your guiding principles align with your objectives and resonate with your people. Find out more!