Tutorial - Mission and Purpose

The Mission and Purpose is the negotiator's navigation compass; a basic discovery tool and means to allocate scarce resources of time, effort, money, and creative emotion.

See Also:

Hierarchy of Missions - Missions for each ring
The "Life Pie"

To achieve what you want you must pay a price. The path of payment is your "mission," the direction of action. The "purpose" of an enterprise captures in a word or phrase the essence of the mission.

Many people think their mission is what they want. No. Your mission is how you earn what you want, how you connect your gifts -- your talents, your resources, the people you know -- to the concerns of those who can make what you want happen. There is one basic rule: all missions launched on power, greed and revenge in the end must founder. Look around you and see how many missions motivated by greed and hatred have really succeeded in bringing comfort or joy. As you sow, so shall you reap.

Step 1

The secret to grounding your mission is to prepare a simple written statement. There is an instant shorthand way to do this (see Mission and Purpose for a complete explanation). Let us begin.

Ask yourself this question: "What is the greatest benefit my cause, product and/or service brings to the key person who can make what I want happen?" (See Decision 1 in the Action Log.) Please write it down.

Step 2

Be sure to distinguish the features of your cause from the benefits. Example: You are learning a practical method (feature) by which you will be able to manage uncertainty and turbulence better (benefit).

See if you can now refine your statement of the features and benefits of your cause, product or service.

Step 3

Now perform the same analysis with the features and benefits you and/or your organization bring to that key decision maker. Write these down also.

Step 4

Next construct a succinct statement of mission, beginning as follows: "My mission is to bring these (benefits) to _____________. This will be accomplished by means of _____________ (features) and so forth. (Again see mission and purpose for a more detailed explanation.)

Step 5

Finally, check the validity of your mission statement against what you have written down in Decision 1. Ask yourself this question: "If I achieve my mission do I get what I want?" If the answer is "yes" you know you are on the right track. If the answer comes back "no" you must adjust, either by amending what you want, or by gathering more resources to support your mission.

Once you have set a mission and have a clear idea about your purpose, magical things can begin to happen. If you are ever in a quandary and do not know what to do -- ask yourself, "What is my mission? How can this decision reinforce my mission?" If you simply attend with patience, an answer will surely come.

An understanding of the dynamics of mission can also help you read the intentions of other players. If you find their intention unscruitable, look behind the moves to the underlying character of your opponent and see if you can uncover the mission. There you will have the source code. (See PIPs Help.)

See the example.