Stadtsparkasse Lengerich looks to the future with a new mission statement

For Stadtsparkasse Lengerich, the time was ripe for a new mission statement in spring 2023. One reason for this was the generational change on the Management Board, but it was also important to align the bank for the challenging years ahead and to create a strong, easy-to-understand and attractive orientation for employees and applicants. Customers and business partners also needed to understand what Stadtsparkasse Lengerich stands for and why it is so important that this organisation exists and plays a very useful and important role in the business ecosystem. noventum organisational consultants moderated the process.

"What would the world miss if this organization ceased to exist tomorrow?"

The development of the mission statement focused on the aspects mission (what is the raison d'être of this organisation?), vision (what is the organisation's vision for the future?), values (what attitude and behaviour can be trusted in this organisation?) and leadership principles (how do managers, as important multipliers, ensure that the values and mission can be experienced and that the vision is attractive?).

The mission statement development process was designed to be participatory, transparent and playful. This was particularly important to the two-member young Executive Board, consisting of Timo Schulte-Reng (47 years old) and Philipp Heinisch (34 years old). To kick things off, all employees were invited to openly communicate their current perceptions and wishes regarding the mission, vision, values and leadership principles in response to challenging questions. One of our favourite questions in this context is: "What would the world be missing if this organisation no longer existed tomorrow?" The answer to this question is an important building block for a credible mission. After two hours of intensive collection of existing cultural strengths, but also of unresolved challenges, the results were reflected upon and an interdisciplinary, cross-hierarchical core team of volunteers was formed, which developed concrete formulations and important principles from the initial ideas in three iterative follow-up workshops.

Eigenland® method helps to focus measures

After three months, the situation was so mature that all colleagues at Stadtsparkasse Lengerich were again invited to find out what the core team had formulated in terms of identity-creating requirements. On the one hand, the aim was to understand the theses; on the other, everyone was invited to point out the difference between aspiration and reality and to propose concrete measures to close this gap. The tried-and-tested Business Spiel Eigenland® was used again here, in which positive theses were used to build an optimistic picture of the future along the lines of the mission statement and the obstacles still standing in the way were pointed out.

The result of the second workshop with all employees of Stadtsparkasse Lengerich was not only beautifully formulated sentences on mission, vision, values and management principles, but also a comprehensive catalogue of measures to get there. In addition, measures were also devised to effectively and emotionally communicate the mission statement.

Agile approach initiates cultural change

The catalogue of measures then went into a "backlog", which was then implemented transparently, independently, adaptively and in a focused manner - in the best sense of the most important agile principles - sprint by sprint. In this way, a piece of cultural change was also practised as part of this small mission statement project. From the Management Board's point of view, this exercise was definitely worthwhile. Timo Schulte-Renger: "We have gained clarity about the company's direction, answered many unanswered questions, created security for employees and provided guidance for managers - and had a lot of fun in the process."

What does the new mission statement of Stadtsparkasse Lengerich look like in the end? Of course, it is now an important part of the website: https://www.stadtsparkasse-lengerich.de/de/home/ihre-sparkasse/unser-leitbild.html. Many positive responses from various interest groups (applicants, employees, customers, the city of Lengerich as shareholder) have now been received.

We at noventum would like to thank you for the trust you have placed in us and are delighted that we have once again been able to help shape important cultural aspects and emphasise the relevance of corporate culture as a building block for future security. That is our mission.