What matters more than money and other sick day questions

A really quick shot from me today - as I am neck deep in some kind of horrible flu/cold/whatever diseases are floating around the redeye home from Las Vegas on Saturday nights. It is gross. And no fun.

When you are feeling sick and kind of not very productive it is a natural to let the mind wander a little bit - to start questioning what you're doing and second-guess the decisions you've made. For me today the main question I'm asking is 'Who can I convince to come over and make me some chicken soup?'

Organizations too should ask themselves questions, at least that is the premise in an interesting piece on the Fast Company Co.Design site titled 'Forget the Mission Statement. What's Your Mission Question?'. The piece advocates that organizations shouldn't try to craft lofty mission statements that are often vague, shallow, and instantly forgettable, but rather should think more deeply about their cause, purpose, and reason for their existence by answering or at least contemplating several key questions.

Here are the key questions that FastCo recommends organizations should examine when seeking to better understand their mission:

1. Why are we here in the first place?

2. What does the world need that we are uniquely able to provide?

3. What are we willing to sacrifice?

4. What matters more than money?

5. Are we all on this mission together? 

I think you'll agree they are probably valid not just for organizations or corporations to evaluate - even individuals could benefit from a little self-examination as well. What do you think - should organizations take a 'sick day' from time to time and think about these big questions?

Hopefully you won't wait until you are as sick as I am to take the time to think about them as well.

(and please send me some soup)

(and if you do ask yourself these questions and decide you need to find more 'meaning' in your work, check out a site called ReWork, they have a new and interesting approach that might help.