So, okay, I will submit myself to your critical judgement… COPT’s new Mission (Core Purpose) Statement is five words: “Creating Environments That Inspire Success”.

We like that while it suggests the hard assets of real estate development (creating environments) but also points to any “environment”… like the one I am creating now by sending to you a response, all the subtle messages that flow not just from the written words in emails, but also the hallway conversations, the phone calls, and any interaction, where we can aspire to leave a positive foorprint… Too corny?

The intent was to capture our business as a relationship verses transaction based company. The open undefined quality of it (we may not always be just a real estate compnay), yet the moment to moment aspiration to do the best we can at how we treat one another. What do you think?

My objections would be twofold: 1) You don’t talk about what you do clearly enough, and 2) “inspire” may be too weak. These objections stem from the purpose of a mission statement: to define clearly for all involved what their job is, and to let them make day-to-day decisions in a clear context.

1) “Creating environments” is a bit vague… how about “creating workplaces”? I know you say you won’t always be a RE company, but the mission doesn’t have to last forever, it just has to be good today and for the reasonably visible future. Today you are Corporate Office Properties. You create offices. Today, I’m betting you want someone in the org who says “let’s build a low-income housing unit” to know right off the bat that that’s not part of the core mission of the company. So I think you should be a little crisper.

2) Does “inspire success” allow people to make a decision on a daily basis? If I have a decision to make, can I look at this and say “yep it fits” or “nope, back to the drawing board”. I can probably make a lot of things fit “inspire success”. It’s just a little beyond “allow our clients to succeed”. How would you NOT allow them to succeed? I would prefer a word just a bit more proactive. Perhaps “promote”, “lead to”, even “result in”. But mostly I’m just quibbling. “Inspire” is better than many choices.

Assuming you go with this mission, which is really fine, the next step is for the leaders to use it. I encourage you and your peers to actually use it in daily decision making:

“Hey, should we change this carpet?”
“Hmmm, will changing it make the place more inspirational? Will it help them to succeed?”
“I think so, so let’s do it”.

Constant reinforcing and active daily reference will get everyone in the company on the same page, reinforce your choice of mission, and (most importantly) get them to make these decisions on their own. That’s the whole goal of the mission statement.