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A colorful signpost in Freetown Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark. Photo by William D. Pawlucy.

By William D. Pawlucy, CAE, MPA, IOM

This article is based on the author’s original photograph taken in Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen, Denmark.

I was walking through Freetown Christiania in the Christianshavn neighborhood of Copenhagen when a wooden signpost caught my attention.

It pointed in seemingly every direction.

The signs were colorful, whimsical, and optimistic. Some offered advice in English and Danish. “Never Give Up.” “Be Happy.” “Have a Lovely Day.” “Peace on Earth.” “Live Love Laugh.” “Make Love Not War.” Other signs carried Danish phrases, including “Glad Gris,” or “Happy Pig,” and “Spis Drik Og Vær Glad,” meaning “Eat, Drink and Be Merry.”

It was cheerful, quirky, and perfectly at home there. I stopped and took a photograph.

I have been in board meetings that look exactly like this.

Everyone is pointing somewhere. Everyone has an idea. Most of the ideas are well intentioned. Some may even be excellent ideas. But when an organization tries to follow too many directions at the same time, it can lose sight of where it originally intended to go.

That is how mission creep often begins.

The Good Idea

Mission creep rarely arrives wearing a warning label. It usually starts with an innocent question.

“Have we ever tried this?”

Or someone says, “I have a good idea.”

The problem is not that every new idea is bad.

The problem is adding programs, initiatives, services, events, or commitments without asking how they advance the mission, fit the strategic plan, serve members and the community, and match available resources.

Eventually, the organization is pointing in many directions and calling all of them priorities.

The Signs of Drift

A strategic plan sits in a shared folder or binder, consulted during planning season and then forgotten, while board agendas fill with interesting initiatives that no one has truly prioritized. A program continues because it has always existed, and a committee forms without defined authority or measures of success.

Most mission creep begins with reasonable ideas and good intentions.

The governance failure is allowing every worthwhile idea to become a commitment without making a clear decision about priorities and tradeoffs.

“How does this idea advance our mission and fit into our strategic goals?”

If the answer is unclear, the idea can go into a parking lot for the next strategic planning cycle or until the organization has the resources to consider it responsibly.

Saying “not now” is not the same as saying “never.”

Governing Discipline

Organizations should evolve. Healthy evolution is intentional, connected to the mission, supported by strategy, and matched to capacity.

Mission creep is different. Mission creep is usually unplanned expansion driven by enthusiasm, pressure, habit, or fear of missing an opportunity.

The distinction is not whether the organization has changed. It is whether the change was governed.

Does the idea clearly fit the mission and advance strategy? And what will the organization stop, reduce, or postpone if this idea is approved?

Every new priority consumes something.

That sign in Christiania still makes me smile. Every direction seemed worth considering. But organizations are different. Leadership requires choices. The challenge is rarely finding another good direction to travel. It is having the discipline to remember which direction you already decided to go.

When the next good idea points your board in a new direction, will you ask whether it advances the mission, or will you simply add another sign to the post?

For a deeper look at mission discipline, strategic focus, and governance discipline, see The Essential Handbook for Nonprofit Leaders by William D. Pawlucy, CAE, MPA, IOM, with a foreword by Bob Harris, CAE.