Across the world, interest in mission-driven government and mission-driven organisations is growing. Reformers are seeking ways to steward public and private efforts behind ambitious, long-term goals, from preventing obesity to giving every child the best start in life.
Mission-oriented management can also work within existing systems; there are real alternatives to top-down monitoring and control to manage mission-driven public servants dedicated to the work of their teams and agencies.
Missions can transform the way organisations work and lead to substantial social impact. But the transition to mission driven working must be handled with care. Change too rapidly or exclusively through top down diktat and organisations run the risk of “mission washing” - talking the talk without walking the walk.
Working in collaboration with Nesta, Georgetown University's Better Government Lab has developed this maturity framework to help public sector leaders, workers and others follow through on mission-driven approaches. With this guidance, those adopting mission methods will be able to distinguish meaningful change from empty rhetoric, making the tricky work of missions clearer and easier.
What’s in the framework?
- The framework is intended to help organisations assess whether they are genuinely mission-driven or simply mission-washing.
- It identifies two complementary but distinct types of mission: organisational missions and grand missions.
- Organisational missions are cases in which an organisation is led with a highly developed sense of purpose, inspiring and empowering staff to contribute to that purpose, such as transforming the quality of care for patients in a hospital.
- Grand missions are a special class of missions that pertain to problems of extraordinary complexity, often spanning a whole society or economy, such as decarbonising energy generation in a national economy.
- For organisational missions, the framework describes well-evidenced management practices that can inspire and motivate people to contribute.
- For grand missions, the framework describes an additional and particular set of approaches that are capable of addressing the kinds of information and coordination problems that arise when trying to drive change across a system.
- The mission-aligned management practices of organisational missions are necessary but not sufficient for grand missions, where both inspiration and a set of specialised techniques are required.
- Rather than policing adherence to a fixed model, the framework intended to promote self-evaluation and continuous improvement.
Our recommendations
Those wishing to work in a mission-driven way should use our framework to assess current practices, identify areas for improvement and prioritise their efforts.
