Rethinking mission and purpose

So a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to fly out East to spend a few days with my son. 4 separate plane rides, a lot of time to think and read, plenty of people-watching to fill the gaps. The flights home were exceptional considering I had a head cold and the cabin pressure did a number on my hearing for a week, but that is a story for another time…

Between my 2 flights home, during a 3 hour layover in the ‘lesser’ terminal at Toronto’s Pearson airport (it’s a small terminal with not a whole lot of amenities for those of us who get to wait), I watched the cleaning services at work. I did not mean to watch them, but when I got stopped on my way into the bathroom right before my last flight, I made note of what was happening. The cleaning cart was actually pulled into the doorway, right in front of me and a few others hurriedly making a pit stop before we boarded. The staff member smiled broadly and took over the space. So, I quickly made my way to almost the other end of the terminal to do what needed to be done before they closed the door on the flight. Don’t worry, I made my flight with some time to spare.

Why did this moment stand out to me? Well, that bathroom was located in a spot where there were only gates getting ready for boarding. No restaurants, no Hudson News, just gates. And it seemed like most of those gates were preparing for boarding which meant there were a lot of people getting everything together. And for many people that meant using the bathroom so they wouldn’t be waiting in line on the plane in an hour.

It kept going through my head: Why would you choose NOW to clean the bathroom???

It reminded me of a statement I sometimes bring up in training and development in places where we have varied levels of authority and responsibility:

We may have the same mission, but our individual purposes will look different.

This was first made plain to me about 20 years ago when our staff were going through a discussion on the mission of our church. Everyone around the conference room table was supposed to share what they thought the phrase was, and it moment became more and more awkward as we rounded the horn. Ministry staff, those with the gift of gab and always using the terminology the lead was asking about, we gave a line and hoped it was adequate. The administrative staff? They came up with something but really just looked like they wanted to go home. Then the cleaning staff…awkward silence filled the space along with an embarrassed look, until we all hoped we could just go home. The lead leaned into her non-response and asked, “Just go ahead and share what you think it might be!”

I don’t think he wanted to hear what was really on her mind.

In that moment it was clarified for me: This woman loved what we did as a church and felt she fulfilled a purpose being there, but she did not have the overall mission in mind for everyone. And the next thought came to mind immediately after: She didn’t have to.

A few years later while discussing vision and mission with a camp director I honed the idea for his department leaders just a bit further. Each one of them had an idea of the overall dream of the organisation, but they also separately had a vision and passion for their smaller area of expertise. They had to, otherwise it would not be specialised. It was, and always is, important that each person involved with the organisation desired success for the entire entity, but their focus had to be on their part, not the whole.

In the past I asked people who volunteered or worked with me to know the general mission verbatim and do everything from and for this phrase. That has changed significantly.

I use the term ‘mission’ much less; I now ask groups about their ‘essence’. Who are you? Does everyone here understand what it means to be ‘us’? Essence is literally who you are. Know who you are, do things from that space. Out of understanding the essence of our work together the hope is we will better apply the purpose of what we do.

Understanding your essence can say so much about what you do, and how you do it. Sometimes we just need an interruption to a bathroom break to bring things to light!