{"id":11118,"date":"2007-04-05T12:56:16","date_gmt":"2007-04-05T19:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/04\/05\/the-mission-2.html"},"modified":"2007-04-05T12:56:16","modified_gmt":"2007-04-05T19:56:16","slug":"the_mission_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/04\/05\/the_mission_2.html","title":{"rendered":"The Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So the local IT group is trying to build a Mission Statement (which sits atop the corporate departmental mission and the corporation&#8217;s mission). &nbsp;And, like a good Dilbert cartoon, they started with brainstorming all sorts of buzz words and are desperately trying to string all of them together with a bucket of prepositions and conjunctions. &nbsp;And, to be fair, that&#8217;s how most mission statements come about, and why most of them are uniformly <em>awful<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, the Dilbert Test (a\/k\/a the Horselaugh Test) is a good way to approach any proposed Mission Statement: &nbsp;if you can&#8217;t say it with a straight face, or without coming off sounding like a stereotype in a Dilbert cartoon, it&#8217;s probably way too buzzwordy or florid.<\/p>\n<p>My advice:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Simple language.<\/li>\n<li> Active verbs.<\/li>\n<li> Straightforward conjugations and declensions &#8212; stay away from lots of &#8220;-ing&#8221;s and &#8220;-ity&#8221;s.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li> Center on a few concepts, not everything you could possibly do.<\/li>\n<li> Come up with a touchstone that you can judge any request or opportunity against to see if it fits.<\/li>\n<li> Run it through a langauge checker. &nbsp;If it reads as over 4th grade, simplify it further.<\/li>\n<li> Imagine it engraved in marble. &nbsp;Can&#8217;t? &nbsp;Then it&#8217;s not a mission, it&#8217;s a sales brochure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The KISS factor applies, too. &nbsp;Creating a bullet mission item <em>&#8220;by manifesting an attitude and atmosphere of positivity&#8221;<\/em> or something like that isn&#8217;t going to inspire, or help, or endear you to the local operation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Nuff said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So the local IT group is trying to build a Mission Statement (which sits atop the corporate departmental mission and the corporation&#8217;s mission). &nbsp;And, like a good Dilbert cartoon, they&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-job-jollies","category-writing-and-language"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":160925,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2026\/01\/13\/rip-scott-adams.html","url_meta":{"origin":11118,"position":0},"title":"RIP, Scott Adams","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Jan-26 11:10am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's remarkable how big Dilbert's creator was in my work environment. Until he wasn't.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comics &amp; Comic Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comics &amp; Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"dilbert from 2005-12-10","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dilbert2005121017524.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dilbert2005121017524.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dilbert2005121017524.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14545,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/04\/15\/life-imitates-dilbert.html","url_meta":{"origin":11118,"position":1},"title":"Life imitates Dilbert","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 15-Apr-09 8:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"After the recent discussion of Symantec software and problems therein, I found today's entry on my Dilbert calendar particularly amusing. I think I've had phone conversations with both sets of parents inspired by these sorts of messages ...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Computer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/imagesdilbert-security-software.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3826,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/03\/24\/art_reflects_li.html","url_meta":{"origin":11118,"position":2},"title":"Art reflects life","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 24-Mar-03 10:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"Especially on the pages of Dilbert....","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Job Jollies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3620,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/16\/please_god_tell.html","url_meta":{"origin":11118,"position":3},"title":"Please, God, tell it&#8217;s a punch line","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 16-Oct-02 6:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This sort of thing should be a joke. Really. A blonde joke, maybe. An ethnic joke. Even a Dilbert joke. Too bad it's a government joke. And it's true. The...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics &amp; Law&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics &amp; Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22306,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/22\/my-work-life.html","url_meta":{"origin":11118,"position":4},"title":"My Work Life","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 22-Aug-11 3:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And Margie's, for that matter. (via a coworker and the Dilbert page)","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Job Jollies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/dl110821.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/dl110821.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/dl110821.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":38231,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/11\/woot-finished-a-big-analytica.html","url_meta":{"origin":11118,"position":5},"title":"Woot! Finished a big analytica&#8230;","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Jul-13 11:05am","format":false,"excerpt":"Woot! Finished a big analytical presentation; got kudos from boss and peers. I credit the Dilbert cartoons I included.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~Tweets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}