The words of our mission statement are less important than how consistently we use our mission to make budgetary decisions.
The directions described in our vision statement are less important than how enthusiastically we use our vision to invite donors to give.
The specific virtues expressed in our values statement are less important than how regularly we celebrate team members when their behavior aligns with those values (and how regularly we hold folks accountable when their behavior is at odds with those stated values).
Of course, words matter. But, we tend to spend far too much time and creative energy seeking perfection with the language choices of our mission, vision, and values statements.
And we tend to spend far too little time using those statements to create meaningful outcomes.