The Mission Primer: Four Steps to an Effective Mission Statement

The Mission Primer: Four Steps to an Effective Mission Statement includes a "Facilitator Training Packet" CD, and is a concise guidebook that teaches you how to develop, evaluate, and manage an effective mission statement for your organization. It is intended for any group of people who are organized for any purpose. No matter what type or size of organization you belong to "The Mission Primer" will show you how to develop an effective mission statement for your organization. It works for industrial concerns, non-profits, schools, hospitals, churches, charities, or government agencies, from small three-person sections, to large departments, to giant-multinationals.

The book outlines a simple four-step method for developing effective mission statements. Our unique method is structured, quantifiable, and has a distinct beginning and end. We have used it successfully with dozens of corporate, university, and non-profit clients. The method is based on a set of six laws --- what we call Gast's laws --- that describe the culture of a successful organization. The central idea is that a mission statement describes how the organization intends to comply with Gast's laws.

Although we are sometimes met with initial skepticism from our clients, it never lasts long. Apparently, Gast's laws are based on fundamental and enduring properties of human beings, and thus they resonate strongly with the people who are exposed to them. Gast's laws provide a direction and clarity that make the process of writing a mission statement focused, time-limited, and rewarding. If you are leading or participating in an effort to develop or evaluate a mission statement for your organization, then you can benefit from the ideas in this book.

Included with this book is a Facilitator Training Packet CD dated September 2002.

RICHARD D. O'HALLARON is a former Affiliate Professor at the Medical College of VA, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. He has also served on the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a Life Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, as well as a Life Fellow in the American Academy of Healthcare Administrators.

Richard received his BS and MHA from St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 1958 he has published over 30 articles in local, national and international publications focusing on a range of subjects such as ethics, marketing, quality improvement and organizational mission. He has served on local, national and international boards, and has been recognized for a number of innovative achievements. He spent 30 years as a senior healthcare executive, serving as an assistant, associate, CEO, regional vice president, and system vice president of development, before retiring in 1988. Since retiring he has taught business management and strategic planning at MCV. He also runs a consulting business called Mission Incorporated, which focuses on helping organizations articulate their mission and values, as well as managing these issues. Richard has lectured throughout the U.S., the Far East, and Great Britain, with a particular interest in and recognized as an expert on the subject of organizational mission and values. Richard and his wife Phyllis have seven children.DAVID O'HALLARON is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.

While at Carnegie Mellon, David has lead groups that developed the iWarp parallel computer system with Intel and the Fx parallelizing compiler. He currently leads a group that is using parallel computer systems to model the ground motion of the LA basin during strong earthquakes. In 1997, his first Ph.D. student won the CMU School of Computer Science Distinguished Dissertation Award. In 1998 he was awarded the Alan Newell Award for Research Excellence by the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science for his work with the Quake project. David has published over 40 research articles, edited volumes for Springer-Verlag and IOSPress, and co-authored a 1998 book about the iWarp project for MIT Press. His most recent book is "Computer Systems: From a Programmer's Perspective," published by Prentice Hall (August 2002). David, his wife Helen, and four sons live in Pittsburgh, PA.