The Outcome Mapping manual provides a brief explanation of 'Mission' as applied in step 2 of the Intentional Design stage.  At the time of writing, no elaborate, new facilitation processes for developing a Mission statement was considered necessary.  OM uses the concept of mission, the way many organizations do.  In conventional usage, mission refers to what activities are carried out and why.  With OM we try to be thorough and specific about what kind of 'business' the intervention is involved in.  We do this by providing an overview of the following:

• the actions or activities to be engaged in
• the outputs or services to be produced
• the collaborators who will engage with these processes adn products
• the purpose and time period of the intervention

A mission statement can be more or less detailed depending on its use and intended audience.  In OM terms, a mission statement gives advance notice about 'boundary' and 'strategic' partners and about Strategy Maps, as it can include summary information about the kinds of partners, outcomes and strategies it intends to work with.  It may also include the principles and values underlying the intervention and refer to the Organizational Practices it intends to build in to maintain learning and relevance.  

There are natural constraints and determinants of the mission boundaries.  These include the professional and organizational characteristics and histories of the people involved.  Credibility, experience, competencies, relationships, funding agreements, mandates, social, economic, technological and geographical factors - all of these shape and limit the mission of an intervention.

The mission statement can be a powerful communication tool; when developed in a participatory way, it can help manage expectations (what the intervention does, what others need to be responsible for, the different 'bites of the apple' of a 'shared apple').  In this way, the mission provides a bride between the vision and the planning process.  Because the vision is intentionally broad and idealistic, there needs to be a piece which then narrow it down and sets some boundaries. 

Some examples of how people have innovated on the mission statement include: 

• develop the mission statement at the end of the other Intentional Design steps, and especially after Boundary Partners and any other important actors (i.e. allies or strategic partners) have been identified, as well as Strategy Maps and Organizational Practices.  Those three pieces make up your mission: who you work with, what you do to influence and support your Boundary Partners (what your niche and expertise are), and how you will remain healthy as an organization. 
• it can sometimes provide a helpful visual to put the mission statement at the very end of an Intentional Design visual or graphic, so that participants / audiences are clear that it is related to the intervention / implementation team and not part of the Boundary Partners' actions.