The Mission Statement: The Starting Point for Organizations, Individuals, and Fitness Goals
Why is a clear mission statement and intent crucial for police departments in the 21st century?
“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” - General George Patton
Whenever an order comes down in the military there are often several pages of information to sift through when you start finally planning at your level. No mater how complicated, dangerous, or daunting the task the most important component is the mission statement. Floating in the overwhelming sea of words a paragraph will almost blink like a neon sign, stating a clear and concise message describing what you are doing and why. Here is where you learn your commanders intent. For individuals in professions requiring split-second decision making during rapidly evolving situations; why do we need to focus on the intent?
I was talking to my friend who is still in law enforcement. God bless him. Really God bless all of you who are good police and stayed in this profession or are planning to join. You may have a rough go for at least the next 5-10 years. Remember, even if you don’t feel it you are supported by large segment of the public.
Back to the friend. He told me one day he tried to look up his departments mission statement. That comment is already fascinating. If you’re hired and trained by an organization shouldn’t that statement be something any officer could effortlessly recite?
After he completed his search he found something that in my opinion is as much perplexing as it is destructive. He located three different mission statements, written in three different places, in three different ways. The city he worked for had one mission, the recruiting website for the department had another, and written in a more permanent place was a third.
Could you imagine if on June 6, 1944 the D-Day invasion had three different overarching missions? You can almost paraphrase the largest land invasion in world history into a rambling statement: Create a foothold on the European continent to logistically support follow on operations to destroy the Nazi regime.
What if it included during the invasion the soldiers were to rebuild the french economy and infrastructure? I mean while you’re here you might as well set up humanitarian aid for the local populace. Just ignore those antiaircraft rounds while you’re floating down in the dark after exiting an aircraft full of bullet holes. Nope...one thing at a time. What is important right now?
Operation Overlord’s purpose was setting the foundation to support and reinforce the troops required to take back Europe. Now as that mission was passed down to lower echelons, they figured out what they needed to do for their part. Commanders weighed what key terrain to seize, who they were fighting, equipment available, etc. Those plans were passed down to even lower echelons. What those heroes did was terrifying and remarkable.
Inevitably Murphy gets a vote. Medal of Honor recipient Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr famously stated during D-Day, “we’ll start the war from right here!” He said this when he realized due to various reasons their landing party was well off of their insertion point on Utah Beach.
Funny to read that display of resiliency now. Considering he was probably eating indirect fire and rounds from 30mm machine guns. All while trying to lead and direct men through the chaos.
What allowed General Roosevelt to make decisions after the plan inevitably went to hell? His commanders intent. He at least knew what the end goal was, allowing adaption to the situation and could work towards that purpose. He didn’t have to ask his boss. He didn’t have to second guess. He wasn’t scared he’d be punished if he made the right call based off the totality of the circumstances at the time. He made a decision. General Patton summed this up in one of his many phenomenal quotes, “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” To be able to do that requires one to be confident in their commanders intent. If you have three different mission statements, intents, or visions (for you corporate types); how do you navigate that?
How is my friend supposed to confidently police his community when he can’t even definitively state the department’s goals? If you’re a supervisor, how are they supposed to lead the people below them? What is the higher level leader to do? Lack of a clear mission statement is not only confusing it is demoralizing. What are you all even working towards every day if you don’t have anything to work towards?
What typically ends up happening is organizational fracture. Instead of leveraging peoples talents and appropriately tasking them everyone does their own thing. The proactive types go off and try and get guns and wanted people off the streets. The lazier officers let the radio tell them where to go. The first line supervisors who are there to just make it to retirement are hoping they don’t have to make any big decisions. Besides ensuring officers are operating within the legal system, department policy, and ethics; what’s after that? How is a supervisor supposed to lead if they don’t know if they are creating a foothold, repairing the infrastructure, or giving humanitarian aid?
How often do we do this when we follow a strength program? I know I have followed one before without clearly outlining my goals. Two weeks in and we go from making decent progress to reading one article about sculpting the glutes and we throw out half the program.
This is that long term mindset I keep trying to outline for first responders, military, or anyone. Others call this goal setting. I would also call it a mission statement.
You are your own commander, so what is your mission statement? What is your intent? Write down the overarching mission. I want to get a little stronger and run a little farther. Awesome. Now work backwards and create the sub-steps to get there. That will shape your decision making when Murphy gets a vote. When you get three hours of sleep because your shift went long and you had to take the kids to school, should you do your planned heavy deadlift workout that you were looking forward to? Will that help you achieve your mission? Is that anywhere within the scope of your intent? Maybe today you go for a walk and foam roll. Or just try to get a nap.
If you are following from the previous articles, I outlined a template for “phase 1” for the day to day training of a police officer. Next article will be phase II. What is the long term plan for these programs? What is the mission and it’s intent? Notice how the program progresses from the first phase. We don’t throw everything out, we up the volume/intensity just a smidge, and we go a little farther to set us up for the next phase. Stay within the framework of your intent and you might just shock yourself and complete your mission.
Any questions please feel free to reach out: info@longtermtraining.com.