The contenders' personal styles and entire beings have come to stand in for unresolved tensions concerning mission, values, and vision. Each has collected a little camp of supporters, and every issue that comes up is ammunition in their competition. The time to articulate mission, values, and vision is now - at the outset of an organization's life, if possible, and at the first opportunity if the organization is already underway. Articulating values provides everyone with guiding lights, ways of choosing among competing priorities and guidelines about how people will work together. For example, a media-literacy group may envision a nation where every child knows how to talk back to television.
Vision is the most powerful motivator in an organization.
If it's vivid and meaningful enough, people can do astounding things to bring it to realization. But if it's lacking, no amount of resources will be able to get people off their butts. Most people can relate to a personal vision, their personal values, their mission in life. But when two or more people agree to work together, the difficulties of arriving at such articulations multiply. When you want to bring new people in, you must give them ways to participate in the vision of the organization.