3 ms·

I am a little sad that there was no homage to autonomy, mastery, and purpose. I've found that to be the most accurate and simple framework for intrinsic motivat

I am a little sad that there was no homage to autonomy, mastery, and purpose. I've found that to be the most accurate and simple framework for intrinsic motivation. I think purpose is the clear problem. How does working make you feel? Pick your company and I think what might have started out as a venerable goal, expressed in a mission statement has long been forgotten: Google: Organize the world's information and make it universally accessible Facebook: Give people the capacity to form communities and bring the globe closer together Amazon: Amazon's mission is to be Earth's most customer-centric company Microsoft: Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more When faced with the choice between mission and money, which companies are choosing their mission? None of them. Because all of corporate America has one mission statement that decisions are made in regards to: Increase shareholder value by optimizing for next quarters profits. That is the problem. Mission statements are a punchline for cynical employees.

JohnFen 3y ago
Mission statements have been little more than marketing tools for at least my entire career.
- hayst4ck 3y ago
  I think enshittification is literally the moment when a company goes from their mission statement to the standard American MBA enforced, short term oriented "next quarters profits" mission. I think you might find early googlers or other early employees at other companies actually felt like they were enacting those missions, and now it is obvious at almost any of those companies that nobody, especially the leadership, cares about those missions. I think it is middle managements core purpose to push back in defense of the mission, and articles like the one here are examples of cynical middle management who have given up on their core responsibility. I think employee disillusionment can be measured by the difference between actual empirical priorities and the stated mission. I think this disillusionment is also a direct measure of short term thinking vs long term thinking. I think employee disillusionment is directly proportional to short term thinking. I think the most valid criticism of almost every company is how much they are sacrificing their stated mission for profits. I think pondering the difference between mission statement and actual action shows that mission statements really do matter.

JohnFen 3y ago

Mission statements have been little more than marketing tools for at least my entire career.

hayst4ck 3y ago
I think enshittification is literally the moment when a company goes from their mission statement to the standard American MBA enforced, short term oriented "next quarters profits" mission. I think you might find early googlers or other early employees at other companies actually felt like they were enacting those missions, and now it is obvious at almost any of those companies that nobody, especially the leadership, cares about those missions. I think it is middle managements core purpose to push back in defense of the mission, and articles like the one here are examples of cynical middle management who have given up on their core responsibility. I think employee disillusionment can be measured by the difference between actual empirical priorities and the stated mission. I think this disillusionment is also a direct measure of short term thinking vs long term thinking. I think employee disillusionment is directly proportional to short term thinking. I think the most valid criticism of almost every company is how much they are sacrificing their stated mission for profits. I think pondering the difference between mission statement and actual action shows that mission statements really do matter.