Mission statements are everywhere. They adorn corporate websites, annual reports, and office walls. Yet too often, they are lifeless. Employees see the words but do not feel them. A mission statement without lived culture is like a script without actors: it exists on paper but not in reality.
Edgar Schein warned that “the only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture.” Lou Gerstner, in reflecting on IBM’s turnaround, concluded: “Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game — it is the game.” The lesson is clear: mission without culture is rhetoric; culture without mission is drift. Only when the two align does an organisation come alive.
A decision from an individual or an organization can have an impact on the environment.
And vice versa, a change in the environment can have an impact on the individual and on the organization.
Consider WeWork, which proclaimed its mission was to “elevate the world’s consciousness.” The words were lofty, but the culture was reckless and indulgent. The contradiction was unsustainable, and collapse followed. Wells Fargo’s values statement promised ethics and trust, yet its incentive structures bred fraud. When words and deeds diverge, disillusion sets in.
By contrast, Microsoft under Satya Nadella offers a different story. Nadella shifted the company from a culture of know-it-alls to learn-it-alls, embedding a growth mindset throughout. Airbnb’s mission to “create a world where anyone can belong anywhere” is reinforced in rituals, design, and customer experience. These are not slogans but movements that shape behaviour.
Frederic Laloux adds depth with his concept of “evolutionary purpose.” For him, organisations are living entities that evolve in response to their environment. A true mission, then, is not static text but a living purpose. Leaders who recognise this see their role not as guardians of a fixed statement but as stewards of a movement that adapts and grows.
Howard Gardner, in his work on leadership, described leaders as “storytellers.” They weave narratives that help people make sense of complexity and connect individual effort to collective purpose. A mission statement is just words; a movement is a story people live into.
To transform mission into movement, leaders must embody the values they declare. They must design systems that reward behaviours consistent with purpose. They must repeat the story until it becomes second nature. Culture eats strategy for breakfast, as Drucker famously said — but culture is fed by mission, when it is lived.
Movements inspire. Statements decorate. The leaders who understand this distinction build organisations that endure.