God has given you a mission. To achieve your mission, you know you must define what it takes to achieve it.

To define your mission effectively, do 5 things:
(1) Get others involved. Actually, get as many as possible involved. Getting others involved increases the likelihood that you’ll develop an effective definition. Getting others involved means that more people will understand what you’re doing and that more people will reflect on what God is calling the organization to do. And getting others involved increases the likelihood that the definition will be implemented throughout the organization.

Don’t write this definition on by yourself. Don’t do it. While it’s possible that your definition might be better than one developed by a group, you forfeit group buy-in, something you can’t afford to forfeit.

(2) Make sure those involved understand the process. Make sure they know who is involved, what who does what, and what the timeline is. Clarifying this at the outset will make the process go more smoothly. Not clarifying this increases the likelihood that people will be confused about why they are participating, about who makes what decisions, and about when the job has to be done. Not good.

(3) Make sure the sure those involved understand the framework and vocabulary. Which framework are you going to use?

• Values → Mission → Vision → Strategic Plan
  
• Values → Vision → Mission → Strategic Plan
  
• Beliefs → Values → Mission → Vision → Strategic Plan
  
• Beliefs → Values → Vision → Mission → Strategic Plan
  
• Beliefs → Mission → Vision/Values → Strategic Plan
  
• Mission → Vision/Values → Strategic Plan
  
• Other: ____________________________________________

Be sure to get others involved in determining the framework, and help all those involved understand the framework and the vocabulary.

(4) Make sure your definition is user-friendly. Before developing your definition, collaborate with those involved to develop criteria for user-friendly definitions of mission achievement. Developing criteria will help those involved to work together effectively and to develop user-friendly definition.

I recommend the following 4 criteria:

1. Specific: Instead of “run fast,” use “run 400 meters in 51.2 seconds.”
   
2. Measurable: Instead of “equip students to impact the world for Christ,” use “90% of student score at or above standard on each student learning outcome.”
   
3. Attainable: Instead of “every person on earth will hear the good news,” use “every nation on earth will hear the good news.”
   
4. Relevant: Instead of “buy ice cream for everyone to make them happy,” use “each organizational standard will have a rating of ‘above standard.’”

(5) Define mission achievement in terms of achievement of organizational outputs and inputs (standards and values). In other words, define mission achievement in terms of results, effective practices, and being Christ-like. Put another way, an effective definition of mission achievement answers the following questions:

• Outputs: What do you want to accomplish? To what degree?
  
• Inputs—Standards: What constitutes effective work practice? How effectively do you want to work?
  
• Inputs—Values: What values guide your decisions and how you work together? To what degree must you implement your values?

What might a definition of mission achievement look like? Here’s an example from Christian Academy in Japan, a school for missionary children that equips students to impact the world for Christ:

1. Outputs: Each of our 15 student learning outcomes will have an achievement rating of 90% of 5th-12th graders at or above standard, scores being taken from a complete set of end-of-course common assessments.
   
2. Inputs—Standards: Each of our 14 organizational (accreditation) standards will have a rating of “above standard,” scores being based on a rubric.
   
3. Inputs—Values: Each of our 5 Christ-centered core values will have a rating of “above standard,” scores being based on a rubric.

Take action. To define your mission effectively, do 5 things:

1. Get others involved.
   
2. Clarify the process.
   
3. Make sure the sure those involved understand the framework and vocabulary.
   
4. Collaboratively develop criteria for user-friendly definitions of mission achievement.
   
5. Define the achievement of your mission in terms of organizational outputs and inputs (standards and values).

Start defining your mission. Today.