Direction from Mission

Positions are no points but paths whose direction is determined by mission.

Once we begin to think of our strategic position as a path, we can begin to see certain things over time. There are not straight-line paths in life. All positions meander as we search for a way forward. However, success in reach goals requires having those goals. Positions that never develop and never grow are those that lack a direction. Direction comes from the quality of a position that we can mission.

The clearer our goals and priorities, the more likely we are to achieve them. If we don't know where we are going, any direction works as well. If we understand the motivations of others, we can work with them more effectively and predict their reactions. It is only our knowledge of goals and values that can change enemies into allies. The better we understand values, our own and those of others, the easier it is for us to formulate strategies for advancing our positions.

Speaking psychologically, we all have plenty of desires, but they change constantly and are often conflicting. When one is satisfied, another arises. In terms of developing a practical strategy, those desires must resolve themselves into a mission to be effective. We must also understand the missions of others before we can choose actions that get the strategic response, we desire.

An extremely common source of strategic mistakes is our failure to identify and clarify our motivations or, more properly, our priorities. There is a whole list of problems associated with the lack of a clear mission. Psychologically, devoting ourselves to our mission provides us with an anchor for our decisions. Without a clear mission, we drift with events at the mercy of our environment. If you are not getting anywhere, the first thing to think about is your mission.

The primary utility of practical strategy is winning the support of others and discouraging their opposition. This depends on their positions. Without identifying the missions that anchor their positions, we will fail repeatedly in predicting people's behavior. Decisions and actions have no meaning outside of the context of goals and values that provide motivation. If we don't understand motivations, we will get into trouble repeatedly without understanding why.

To goal is to develop a shared mission. Find ways to get what you want by giving them what they want. All successful organizations are built on finding shared missions, but so are all successful strategies. As Sun Tzu wrote 2,500 hundred years ago, “It starts with your philosophy. Direct people in a way that gives them a higher shared purpose.” Sun Tzu's The Art of War 1:1:14-15

Key Ideas Regarding Mission

1. Mission in the central element of strategic position, connecting the other four key elements. Our current position only has meaning in terms of our goals and values. The change of climate, rewards of the ground, decisiveness of command, and abilities of skill have no meaning outside of this context. The growth or advance of a position has not meaning without the direction of mission.

2. Mission embodies our philosophy and our values in our goals. Mission is based on a belief system, that is, on a philosophy. Our goals encapsulate what we think is important. In an absolute sense, our mission captures both our purpose in life and the way that we think the world works.

3. Everyone has a different belief system based on their training and experience. Belief systems are extraordinarily complex. We can agree on many beliefs and still disagree on many others. People's unique combination of beliefs are based on their unique life experiences. No two people can live the same exact life because every path is unique. This range and variety of beliefs allow us to discover where they overlap.

4. All our goals and values are inherently self-centered. We can only see the world from our own, unique perspective. We only personally know our own thoughts and feelings. We value our beliefs because they are our own. Those who are willing to die for the one's they love are dying for their personal loves. Those who are willing to die for their beliefs because they are theirs. They believe that their physical life is less important than their ideal of self. Since everyone's beliefs are self-centered, disparaging anyone's goals as selfish is mere sophistry. The question is merely how many of our selfish goals can we match up with the selfish goals of others.

5. Strategic success depends on sharing our values with others. The important goals that create strength are those that can be shared. Finding support from others is impossible without shared goals. Organizations are impossible without a shared mission. The idea of a shared path captures many critical elements in creating a shared, higher mission. People can be on similar paths with different goals, just like people can share the same street going to different destinations. Everyone within an organization can have their own personal goals, but the organization's shared mission, values, and philosophy are the glue that holds those people together in a common business.

6. All shared missions are limited. Missions are always limited in scope of belief and often limited in time. There are only temporary agreements about shared missions. We only agree on some limited aspects of our beliefs. There is no such thing as a knowable and constant "common good." Money makes sharing goals easier because it is a fungible form of value, easily converting one form of value into another. At every point in human history, most things that everyone believed were eventually seen as false. Much of what we believe today will be seen as false.

7. Both creating allies and discouraging our rivals requires empathy. Empathy is our capacity to see other people's mission from their perspective. We must get out of our own heads and into the mind frames of others. Without empathy, we cannot create winning strategies to advance our positions. If we cannot put ourselves into other people's shoes, we can never develop strategies that win supporters. We cannot find positions the discourage rivals unless we can predict their behavior by imagining what we would do in their position.

8. Strategic roles such as ally and enemy are defined solely by mission interactions. In its most abstract form, our "enemy" is any person whose mission conflicts with our own. An ally is someone with whom we share a mission. A practical strategy is one that finds a way to find missions maximizing potential allies and minimizing potential rivals.