Overview info of Vision, Mission, Goals, etc.

Submitted by davidfcohan on April 1, 2006 - 9:51pm.

At the business meeting Thursday night we decided it would be useful to have a discussion dedicated to getting better agreement on what PPO stands for and what it is trying to accomplish. A frequently used approach for this is to develop organization-specific versions of the components listed below. (The components and their exact definitions vary slightly depending on what strategic planning book you look at but these are similar to what I’ve personally used.) I was asked to send these out to everyone so that people could see them and think about them before we meet.

Note that PPO does have a formal mission statement:

We're a grassroots group of concerned local citizens, from different backgrounds, with different interests, who've separately become aware of the looming crisis caused by the peaking of world oil supplies. We’ve come together to try to:
o Develop individual and collective strategies to cope with this crisis
o Create awareness in the Portland community about Peak Oil
o Influence policies of local government to help mitigate the crisis
o Serve as a community resource as the crisis becomes more severe

The bulleted items in the mission statement are goals under the definition below of “inexactly formulated aims”. People should think hard about the mission statement and decide whether they like it as is or want to modify it. It would be great if people came to the meeting with specific edits they want to make or even posted their suggested edits in advance. Visioning exercises tend to get deep into details so any agreement we have at the beginning will make things go quicker.

VISION AND MISSION
Identification of the organization's vision and mission is the first step of any strategic planning process. The vision sets out the reasons for an organization's existence and the "ideal" state that the organization aims to achieve; the mission identifies major goals and performance objectives. Both are defined within the framework of the organization's philosophy, and are used as a context for development and evaluation of intended and emergent strategies. One can not overemphasize the importance of a clear vision and mission; no subsequent planning will matter if the organization is not certain where it is headed.

GOAL
Some writers distinguish between goals (inexactly formulated aims) and objectives (aims formulated exactly and quantitatively as to time-frames and magnitude of effect). For example, a gambler might have the ambiguous goal: "I want to get lucky tonight". Converting this into an objective, it might become: "I want to make $100 at the blackjack table by 8 o'clock tonight." Not all authors make this distinction, preferring to use the two terms interchangeably.

OBJECTIVE
A measurable, specific, time-certain thing we set out to accomplish to move toward a goal. This is like a destination marked on the map for a trip. It must be measurable so that we can determine what progress we are making along the way...and know when we have achieved our end.

STRATEGY
This is a direction which we believe will best take us to an objective. It is like the route we set out to follow in reaching a destination on a map. When we adopt a strategy, we automatically are committing the various kinds of financial resources required to implement it.

ACTION PLAN
This is a step-by-step layout of what has to be done in order to implement a strategy. It identifies who will be responsible for taking each individual step. It also establishes when each step should start and finish.

‹ Opening schedule for St. Francis Vision Project Open House ›

Where does this begin?

Submitted by Robert Pace on April 2, 2006 - 5:55pm.

Dave,

First off, you do nice work. You've provided a very informative explanation.

From where I stand at the neighborhood level, I see this plan as possibly requiring several arms. Peak oil - the end of cheap energy is the message and in this case, the product. The target consumer for this information is either the neighborhood association, city,county, state and federal governing entities or individual citizens and individuals/family homes and apartments. And I'm probably leaving out some category to be thought of later.

I see the development of a plan as requiring a strategy for each of those domains.

I am looking forward to other peoples feedback and the ultimate choices made by the business comittee of PPO. They may be helpful as we at the neighborhood level seek our own successes in getting the peak oil message out. I see no need to recreate the wheel so I will possibly be utilizing some of the concepts that are decided upon in this forum and from the people in the business committee.

Thanks, Robert

Overview info of Vision,

Submitted by Robert Pace on April 2, 2006 - 6:19pm.

Ultimately, it's about perspective. From which perspective is this plan going to begin? And that's a big question. Robert

Re: Overview info of Vision,

Submitted by dmd on April 4, 2006 - 6:33pm.

Thanks david also.
From my perspective I vote for the mission statement as it stands with no edits. Anyone of the projects I envision can fit into one of these slots.

As to a vision,
>> Ultimately, it's about perspective.
>> From which perspective is this plan going to begin?
As to perspective, I would like to quote Buckminster Fuller in a book called "Grunch of Giants" written in the 80's where he like Hubbert could see into the future and project. We have pretty much squandered 50 years since then and the designs are still solid. He has a vision of 'fluid geography' that visually shows energy systems on a global basis. I envision this in every grade-school.

"My first publication was in 1927, a bound, mimeographed book entitled 4-D, standing for "fourth dimension". I put on the cover, "Two billion new homes will be required by humanity in the next eighty years.
[Five years after I undertook the program in 1927, ] Fortune magazine in July 1932 featured my Dymaxion House in an article written by Archibald MacLeish on "The Industry Industry Missed: The Mass-Production Housing Industry. ...."

"... this can only be realized by a technological revolution involving total Spaceship Earth, using all the resources and know-how as an integrated regenerative system, as in the design of any successful seagoing ship or of any of the bilogical organisms."

"if not bomb-terminated, we are on our ever swifter way to becoming an omni-integrated, majorly literate, unified Spaceship Earth society."

"it may be that thought itself expands outwardly in all directions at a speed even faster than light, maybe in no time at all, to internetwork the people of our eight-thousand-mile diameter spherical space home.
As the networking accelerates humanity into a spherically embracing, spontaneous union, yesterday's locally autonomous, self-preoccupied governments are left in the exclusive control of yesterday's most selfishly successful and entrenched minorities. ...."
**note: Grunch means (Gross Universal Cash Heist) which is what is happening now under our present administration :-)

Re: Overview info of Vision,

Submitted by Robin Canaday on April 6, 2006 - 9:25pm.

I hope this turns out well too :)

Mostly, I'm just curious who you are dmd... all you've got is a username.

Robin Canaday

robincanaday@hotmail.com
ICQ 27717216

I'm curious too.

Submitted by Robert Pace on April 6, 2006 - 10:14pm.

Robin, Im'curious who dmd is too. I'm still scratching my head with one eye squinted, trying to understand his/her? entry. Robert

seems pretty good

Submitted by Jeremy on April 6, 2006 - 8:54am.

While I have limited experience working with mission statements, the points listed above seem to include most things that I would want to do with PPO.

What do we specifically need to add?

Submitted by Robin Canaday on April 6, 2006 - 9:50pm.

David

Thanks for taking the time to post this outline for us :).

I'm pretty happy with the existing mission statement(s), since PPO seems to be organized pretty much along those lines, and not setting goals in stone leaves alot of room for those of us who prefer to "wing it" or those of us who have differing ideas of what a post-peak oil world will look like. I requested your post because it seemed like you felt something was lacking and you might have some ideas of additions to PPO's organizational documents. I was hoping to get some idea of what specific additions you feel we need. I don't personally think anything needs to be added; we have a basic purpose and decision making structures... but I'm certainly open to hearing what others might have to add that can make our job easier.

My main concern is that we will get bogged down in unnecessary definition. There is such a thing as over-organization. I don't particularly want to participate in creating more definition of our purpose because I feel I have enough to work with already and am content to work within the PPO framework as it stands. We do have a great many projects to apply our efforts to already. I question the value of spending a great deal of time debating the finer points of organization.

Granted, we COULD use some nice marketing materials. Undoubtedly there is alot of work to be done in creating literature, scripts and other materials for outreach or policy. I don't know if we need to involve the PPO Council in more than looking it over and making sure the literature is in line with our basic purpose. I feel that the purpose of the PPO Council is to hold things together just enough so that the working groups can do what they are there to do. It sounds like alot of what you'd like to do falls into something better handled by a particular working group...

I hope I don't come across as too negative in this comment; it is simply that I've seen the results of both under and over organization in endeavors, and I'd like to avoid similar results in our organization.

Robin Canaday

robincanaday@hotmail.com
ICQ 27717216

Forgive me

Submitted by Jennifer on April 7, 2006 - 10:12am.

Pleasee forgive me for posting this without fulling reading the thread. We (the biz group) had started talking about vision & goals in Dec, so I researched a little and came up with these guidelines and questions for use on a General Meeting night (so the whole group is included). Perhaps we could these questions to help us figure our goal and visions, etc. Hopefully they will be of some help. Jennifer Rueda

Survey Questions for Dec 28, 2005 Goals Meeting

(Most of these ideas were taken from e-Business Plan Tutorial http://myphliputil/pearsoncmg.come/student/bp_turban_introec_1/MissStmt.html & http://myphliputil/pearsoncmg.come/student/bp_turban_introec_1/BusGoals.html and from two other websites: www.businessplans.org/Mission.html and http://tgci.com/magazine/98fall/mission.asp)

Actions speak louder than words. Your actions are your only possessions.

Definitions
o Values should be determined first.
o Goals are statements of direction. They are guidelines for choosing tasks. In order to know if our ship is on the right course, we need to know the destination.
o A purpose says what we are and what we want to be (our aspiration)
o A mission stmt is a proclamation of why we exist; a clarification of who we serve and an expression of what we hope to achieve.
o Our vision should be practical, workable and realistic
o Our best statements are direct and powerful- A mission stmt should be no longer than 25 words.
o A mission statement says “what” and a business goal says “how”.
o A goal must state, in one or two sentences, the conditions that will exist if the goal is to be accomplished.
o A mission statement incorporates socially meaningful and measurable criteria addressing concepts such as the moral/ethical position of an organization, the public image, the target market, products/services, the geographic domain and expectations of growth and solvency.

Discussion Questions:
1. What are the needs that we exist to address?
2. What’s important about Peak Oil and Post-Carbon Portland?
3. What are we doing to meet those needs?
4. What is PPO especially skilled at, trained to do or good at?
5. What principles or beliefs guide our work?
6. What do we need to do to accomplish our mission?

Brainstorming Exercise #1:
1. List 5-10 words or phrases that describe our movement. Highlight the three most important.
2. List 3-5 words or phrases that describe our movement’s ideal image from the public’s point of view.
3. List 3-5 words or phrases that describe our movement’s ideal image from a management & volunteer point of view.

Brainstorming Exercise #2
1. List the opportunities that we (PPO) intend to address.
2. List the public’s needs that we intend to address.
3. Who are our “customers”? List primary and secondary markets.
4. With our “customers” in mind, list each service PPO will provide.
5. List 3-5 measures of our success.
Portland Peak Oil Goals Survey 12/28/05

Brainstorming Exercise A: Defining PPO

1. List 5-10 words or phrases that describe the PPO movement.
Highlight the three most important.

2. What is PPO especially skilled at, trained to do or good at?

3. What principles or beliefs guide our work?

4. List 3-5 words or phrases that describe PPO’s ideal public image.

5. List 3-5 words or phrases that describe PPO’s ideal administrative / organizational ideal image.

Brainstorming Exercise B: PPO’s Goals
1. List the problem(s) or predicament(s) PPO should address.

2. List any public needs PPO should address.

3. What is PPO doing to meet those needs?

4. What does PPO need to do to accomplish its goals?

5. How will PPO measure its success?

Overview info of Vision,

Submitted by cleancoalfuels on April 7, 2006 - 12:46pm.

I thought I would chip in my .02 on the topic, and offer a frame of reference, having done this fairly recently.

My company's mission statement is tailored directly to address the peak oil issue:

"The mission of American Clean Coal Fuels is to cleanly develop the bridge fuel sources required to bring our economy to a sustainable energy future."

PPO is, of course, a very different type of organization, addressing a very different area of the problem. I am on the industrial supply side, while PPO is very much on the social/policy demand side.
For me, I found when creating my own mission statement it was useful to consider what my desired outcomes were.

From my perspective, the outcomes desired by PPO are:
1. General public awareness of the peak oil problem
2. The pursuit of solutions / changes that will allow Portlanders to continue to enjoy a safe, healthy, stabile, and prosperous quality of life in the upcoming energy-constrained environment.
3. Advocacy and support, using whatever means possible (financial, political, volunteer, etc) to ensure that these solutions / changes are implemented in a timely manner in order to safeguard the points in number two.

Perhaps we could craft from that a vision statement, perhaps something along the lines of:
"The Vision of PPO is to help facilitate the solutions and changes that will be necessary for Portlanders to continue to enjoy a safe, healthy, stabile, and prosperous quality of life in the upcoming energy-constrained environment."

Goals:
1. Ensure that critical services required for health and prosperity such as food and water supply, emergency response, public health, and transportation infrastructure remain present and functional.
2. Help reduce per-capita energy consumption, particularly of liquid transportation fuels, while still meeting everyday needs of the populace.
(I think the supply side numbers are generally pretty clear on this, we need to start consuming less, the trick is to figure out a way to do it while meeting all of the needs of #1, and advocating for those points. Some of this the economy will do on its own thanks too the price mechanism, but price elasticity of demand is pretty low for oil, and public policy on infrastructure and urban development can have a big impact here by giving people options that might not otherwise have been available. The specific objectives to meet this goal can become major initiatives of PPO. Perhaps along the lines of more mass transit (people still need to be able to get to work), relocalization of food supply, moving freight from trucks to trains by politically advocating for improved rail infrastructure, figuring out was to affordably let people live close to where they work or providing energy-efficient transportation options to get them there, making the city more bicycle friendly, ETC...)
3. Educate the populace through extensive community outreach initiatives. (people cannot react to that which they do not perceive)
4. Provide a vision outlining a path to successful living with less-abundant energy. (People do not need problems, people need solutions to problems. without leaders, or a path to, chaos can result. I see PPO as a leader in advocating solutions. We are not leaders unless we can actually help DO SOMETHING about it, or tell others than can do something about it how.)

My .02 for now.
- Stephen

What we have and what we need

Submitted by davidfcohan on April 7, 2006 - 3:53pm.

Hi,
This is a quick response to Robin's question about what I think we still need to do. I'm personally comfortable with both the mission statement and the embedded goals. What I think is important that is missing is the vision statement and at least a start on objectives. I believe a hearty discussion about a vision statement will generate all sorts of interesting comments that will all help us figure out both what we are and what we are not trying to achieve. We may not be able to come to a consensus but the process would be immensely valuable.

Regarding objectives, there has to be some value in coming up with concrete things you are trying to achieve. Again, I think just having a discussion about it will help get clarity. There are many, many different opionions in the group about what's important and what's not, what should be done immediately and what can wait, etc.

I'd just like to see all these get put out on the floor where we can all look at them together.

--David

Vision perspective and objectives

Submitted by dmd on April 10, 2006 - 7:26pm.

Ok, will try this again :-) sorry for the obtuse email. I got an award for this in college :-)

First off, I am (dmd), David Michael Dill, always called mike dill since I was born so there is the dilemna :-) and maybe cybersalmon to some of you, so dmd becomes the shortest login and what I came into the cs with. Guess i should have made it mike. :-)
Vision Perspective:
I look at PPO as an extended family who are joined together because they are sensitive to an upcoming oil crisis and the end to cheap energy. They wish to empower the Portland community to become self-sufficient in the new culture that will develop out of that crisis. They feel the issues that surround this issue are better handled sooner than later. The present mission statement describes this connection.

The objectives for PPO are to:
1) start Projects that are self-running, self-monitoring (within certain constraints (see objective #2)), and self-completing weighted or influenced through the Vision. These projects can be educational, tabling, hands-on but they must all strive for greater awareness in the general community into the oil crisis and the new culture that must develop, hopefully before it comes.

The Strategies to the first objective are
a) Wed. meetings
b) Outreach
c) Preparedness
d) Policy (the process we are in)
(although these might also be objectives, david ????)

2) (this is more my idea :-) To develop an open-source GIS (geographic information system) perspective to all Projects/Stories. I think the greatest lesson that will come out of the upcoming oil crisis is that people will become firmly attached to the land that they habitate. Earthquakes, floods, droughts, are all within GIS perspective to the point of land you habitate. Transportation will become progressively harder (thus more expensive). These forces will change our culture to become land-based and local-based with modern technology science and solutions to food-production, energy production, minimization and localization. I have already seen many solutions within projects already starting around peak oil and permaculture groups. If you use geography as an underlying monitor point to all action, the earth simply becomes a dynamic surface area upon which you watch action happen. We look through a selective perspective from a geographic point. Adjacency (to ???) will become key. How we live will be dependent on what we have within our local community and how we network outside of that domain. With modern GIS systems we have the ability to geo-locate all common projects into a huge global resource. The key is to minimize the amount of details kept at each project level. Everything will connect to everything else. The only difference will be perspective. It will also fit into any kind of alternative network available now and in the future.

I tried to explain this within a concept by Bucky Fuller called Fluid Geography.
**Fluid Geography : ability to look at the surface of the planet as a flat 2-D plane upon which all actions, money, people, animals, plants, energy, ... flow over time. We can watch their fluid transformations into the next state of being.

ok, 'nuff for now,
c u
--mike