Vision, Mission, Goal

and Objectives

Toya Nath Pahadi

Assistant Professor (HE)
Mid-Western University

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 Background
• Mission statement, goals, and objectives
should not only give the necessary direction to
a program but also provide the groundwork
for the eventual program evaluation.
• If you do not know where you are going, then
any road will do—and you may end up
someplace where you do not want to be, or
you may eventually end up where you want to
be, but after wasted time and effort.
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 Background
• If you do not know where you are going, how
will you know when you have arrived?
Without a mission statement, goals, and
objectives, a program may lack direction, and
at best it will be difficult to evaluate.

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Relationship Between a Vision, Mission, Goals,
and Objectives

Ob
Mi Go
Vis jec
ssi al/
ion tiv
on s
es
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 Vision
• Your vision is your dream
• Shows picture of future
• Whatever your organization's dream is, it may
be well articulated by one or more vision
statements, which are short phrases or
sentences that convey your community's
hopes for the future. 

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 Vision

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 Vision Statement

• Vision Statement – A mental picture of what you want to

accomplish or achieve.
• A vision statement answers the questions, “What do we
want to be?” and “What will we look like in three plus
years?”
• Vision statements are often part of a strategic planning
process in which organizations define a strategy or direction
for the future.
• Items that are considered when creating a vision statement
are future products (i.e., information, ideas, goods, services,
events, and behavior), markets, customers, location, and
staffing. Most programs do not include a vision statement.
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 Advantages
Having a clear and compelling vision statement has
other advantages, such as:
• Drawing people to common work
• Giving hope for a better future
• Inspiring community members to realize their
dreams through positive, effective action
• Providing a basis for developing the other
aspects of your action planning process: your
mission, objectives, strategies, and action plans
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 Mission
• The next step of the action planning process is
to ground your vision in practical terms.
• This is where developing a mission
statement comes in.
• An organization's mission statement
describes what the group is going to do
and why it's going to do that. An example is
"Promoting care and caring at the end of life
through coalitions and advocacy."

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 Mission
• Mission statements are similar to vision
statements, in that they, too, look at the big
picture.
• However, they're more concrete, and they are
definitely more "action-oriented" than vision
statements.
• Your vision statement should inspire people to
dream; your mission statement should inspire
them to action.
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 Mission Statement
• A mission statement is a short narrative that
describes the general focus or purpose of the
program.
• The statement not only describes the current
focus of a program but also may reflect the
philosophy behind it.
• The mission statement also helps to guide
planners in the development of program goals
and objectives.
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 Mission
• Whereas a mission statement provides a
description of the current efforts of a
program, a vision statement is more of a brief
description of where the program will be in
the future; typically, in three or more years.

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 Examples
• Promoting community health and development by
connecting people, ideas and resources.
• The California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (
CALCASA) provides leadership, vision and resources to
rape crisis centers, individuals and other entities
committed to ending sexual violence.
• Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer's disease through
the advancement of research; to provide and enhance
care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk
of dementia through the promotion of brain health. 

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 Advantages
Having a clear and compelling mission statement also
has more advantages, such as:
• Converting the broad dreams of your vision into
more specific, action-oriented terms
• Explaining your goals to interested parties in a clear
and concise manner
• Enhancing your organization's image as being
competent and professional, thus reassuring funding
sources that their investment was (or would be!) a
smart choice
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 Example
• Vision: The achievement of the MDGs, with
women and children enabled to realize their
right to the highest attainable standard of
health in the years to 2015 and beyond.
• Mission: Supporting partners to align their
strategic directions and catalyze collective
action to achieve universal access to
comprehensive, high quality reproductive
maternal, newborn and child health care.
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Process of Developing Mission and Visions of the Programme

1. LEARN WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO PEOPLE IN YOUR COMMUNITY

• Conducting "public forums" or "listening sessions" with
members of the community to gather ideas, thoughts, and
opinions about how they would like to see the community
transformed.
• Holding focus groups with the people interested in addressing
the issue(s), including community leaders, people most affected
by the issues, businesses, church leaders, teachers, etc.
• Obtaining interviews with people in leadership and service
positions, including such individuals as local politicians, school
administrators, hospital and social service agency staff, about
what problems or needs they believe exist in your community.

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 Process of Developing Mission and Visions of the Programme

2. DECIDE WHAT TO ASK

Here's a list of questions you might use to focus your discussions with
community members. These questions may be used for individual
interviews, focus groups, public forums, or in any other way you choose to
gather information.
• What is your dream/vision for our community?
• What would you like to see change?
• What kind of community (or program, policy, school, neighborhood, etc.)
do we want to create?
• What do you see as the community's (or school's, neighborhood's, etc.)
major issues or problems?
• What do you see as the community's major strengths and assets?
• What do you think should be the purpose of this organization (or effort)?
• Why should these issues be addressed?
• What would success look like?
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 Process of Developing Mission and Visions
of the Programme
3. DECIDE ON THE GENERAL FOCUS OF YOUR
ORGANIZATION
4. DEVELOP YOUR VISION AND MISSION
STATEMENTS

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 Vision Statements
• What you have learned from your discussions with
community members
• What your organization has decided will be your focus
• What you learned about vision statements at the
beginning of this section
• Will it draw people to common work?
• Does it give hope for a better future?
• Will it inspire community members to realize their
dreams through positive, effective action?
• Does it provide a basis for developing the other
aspects of your action planning process?
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 Mission Statements
• Does it describe what your organization will
do and why it will do it?
• Is it concise (one sentence)?
• Is it outcome oriented?
• Is it inclusive of the goals and people who
may become involved in the organization?

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 Process of Developing Mission and Visions
of the Programme
5. OBTAIN CONSENSUS ON YOUR VISION AND MISSION
STATEMENTS
6. DECIDE HOW YOU WILL USE YOUR VISION AND MISSION
STATEMENTS:
• Add them to your letterhead or stationary
• Use them on your website
• Give away T-shirts, or bookmarks, or other small gifts with
them
• Add them to your press kit
• Use them when you give interviews
• Display them on the cover of your annual report

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 Goal
• “Goals are broad statements of direction
written in nontechnical language.”
• They are less specific than objectives and are
used to explain the general intent of a program
to those not directly involved in the program.
• “Goals set the fundamental, long-range
direction.”

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 Goal
• Goals – A goal is a general statement of what you
want to achieve.
• A goal should meet the following criteria:
1. Understandable: Is it stated simply and easy to
understand?
2. Suitable: Does it assist in implementing a strategy
of how the mission will achieve the vision?
3. Acceptable: Does it fit with the values of the
organization and its members/employees?
4. Flexible: Can it be adapted and changed as needed?

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 Goal
1. Is much more encompassing, or global
2. Is written to include all aspects or components of a
program
3. Provides overall direction for a program
4. Is more general in nature
5. Usually takes longer to complete
6. Does not have a deadline (CDC, 2003)
7. Usually is not observed, but rather must be inferred
because it includes words like evaluate, know,
improve, and understand
8. Is often not measurable in exact terms.
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 Goal
• Program goals are not difficult to write and need not
be written as complete sentences.
• They should, however, be simple and concise, and
should include two basic components: who will be
affected, and what will change as a result of the
program.
• Goals typically include verbs such as improve,
increase, promote, protect, minimize, prevent, and
reduce.
• A program need not have a set number of stated
goals. It is not uncommon for some programs to have
a single goal while others have several.
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 Objective
•  An objective turns a goal’s general statement of
what is to be accomplished into a specific,
quantifiable, time-sensitive statement of what
is going to be achieved and when it will be
achieved.
• Objectives break the goal down into smaller
parts that provide specific, measurable Actions
by which the goal can be accomplished.

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 Objective
• Objectives are more precise and represent
smaller steps than program goals—steps that, if
completed, will lead to reaching the program
goal(s).
• Objectives specify intermediate
accomplishments or benchmarks that represent
progress toward a goal.
• Objectives outline in measurable terms the
specific changes that will occur in the priority
population at a given point in time as a result of
exposure to the program.
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 Types/Levels of Objectives
• Several different levels of objectives are associated with
program planning.
• The different levels are sequenced or placed in a
hierarchical order to allow for more effective planning.
• Objectives are created at each level in order to help attain
the program goal.
• The “ objectives should also be coherent across levels, with
objectives becoming successively more refined and more
explicit, and usually multiplied from one level to the next”
• Achievement of the lower-level objectives will contribute
to the achievement of the higher-level objectives and
goals.
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 Types/Levels of Objectives

1. Process Objectives
2. Impact Objectives
Learning Objectives
Behavioral Objectives
Environmental Objectives
3. Outcome Objectives

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 Process Objectives

• The process objectives are the daily tasks,

activities, and work plans that lead to the
accomplishment of all other levels of objectives.
• They help shape or form the program and thus
focus on all program inputs (all that are needed
to carry out a program), implementation
activities (actual presentation of the program),
and stakeholder reactions

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 Process Objectives

More specifically, these objectives focus on

such things as program resources (materials,
funds, space); appropriateness of
intervention activities; priority population
exposure, attendance, participation, and
feedback; feedback from other stakeholders
such as the funding and sponsoring agencies;
and data collection techniques, to name a
few.
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 Impact Objectives
• The second level of objectives in the hierarchy is
impact objectives.
• This level of objectives comprises three different
types of objectives: learning objectives, behavioral
objectives, and environmental objectives.
• They are called impact objectives because they
describe the immediate observable effects of a
program (e.g., changes in awareness, knowledge,
attitudes, skills, behaviors, or the environment)
and they form the groundwork for impact
evaluation
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 Impact Objectives

• Learning Objectives Learning objectives are the educational or

learning tools needed in order to achieve the desired behavior
change. They are based upon the analysis of educational and
ecological assessment of the PRECEDE-PROCEED model.
• Within this category of objectives, there is another hierarchy
• This hierarchy includes four types of objectives, beginning with
the least complex and moving toward the most complex.
• Complexity is defined in terms of the time, effort, and
resources necessary to accomplish the objective.
• The learning objectives hierarchy begins with awareness
objectives and moves through knowledge, attitude, and skill
development objectives.

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 Impact Objectives
• Behavioral Objectives Behavioral objectives describe the
behaviors or actions in which the priority population will
engage that will resolve the health problem and move
you toward achieving the program goal.
• Behavioral objectives are commonly written about
adherence (e.g., regular exercise), compliance (e.g.,
taking medication as prescribed), consumption patterns
(e.g., diet), coping (e.g., stress-reduction activities),
preventive actions (e.g., brushing and flossing teeth),
self-care (e.g., first aid), and utilization (e.g., appropriate
use of the emergency room).

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 Impact Objectives
• Environmental Objectives Environmental objectives outline
the nonbehavioral causes of a health problem that are
present in the social, physical, psychological economic,
service, and/ or political environments.
• Environmental objectives are written about such things as
the state of the physical environment (e.g., clean air or
water, proximity to facilities, removal of physical barriers),
the social environment (e.g., social support, peer pressure),
the psychological environment (e.g., the emotional learning
climate), the economic environment (e.g., affordability,
incentives, disincentives), the service environment (e.g.,
access to health care, equity in health care), and/or the
political environment (e.g., health policy).
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 Outcome Objectives
• Outcome objectives are the ultimate objectives of
a program and are aimed at changes in health
status, social benefits, risk factors, or quality of
life.
• “They are outcome or future oriented”
• If these objectives are achieved, then the program
goal will be achieved.
• These objectives are commonly written in terms
of reduction of risk, physiologic indicators, signs
and symptoms, morbidity, disability, mortality, or
quality of life measures.
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 Criteria for Developing Objectives

1. Can the objective be realized during the life of

the program or within a reasonable time
thereafter?
It would be quite realistic to assume that a
certain number of people will not be smoking
one year after they have completed a smoking
cessation program

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 Criteria for Developing Objectives
2. Can the objective realistically be achieved?
It is probably realistic to assume that 30% of
any smoking cessation class will stop smoking
within one year after the program has ended,
but it is not realistic to assume that 100% of
the employees of a company will participate
in its fitness program.

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 Criteria for Developing Objectives

3. Does the program have enough resources (personnel,

money, and space) to obtain a specific objective? It
would be ideal to be able to reach all individuals in the
priority population, but generally there are not sufficient
resources to do so.
4. Are the objectives consistent with the policies and
procedures of the sponsoring agency? It may not be
realistic to expect to incorporate a no-smoking policy in
a tobacco company.
5. Do the objectives violate any of the rights of those who
are involved (participants or planners)? Right-to-know
laws make it illegal to withhold information that could
cause harm to a priority population.
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 Criteria for Developing Objectives
6. If a program is planned for a particular
ethnic/cultural population, do the objectives
reflect the relationship between the cultural
characteristics of the priority group and the
changes sought? It would not be realistic to have
an objective that eliminates the use of tobacco in
a priority population that is comprised of Native
Americans because of the ceremonial pipe use in
the Native American culture.

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 Criteria for Developing Objectives
Program objectives that meet the six criteria
noted above are referred to as SMART
objectives. SMART stands for specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic, and time
bound (CDC, 2003).

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 Elements of an Objective

For an objective to provide direction and be

useful in the evaluation process, it must be
written in such a way that it can be clearly
understood, states what is to be
accomplished, and is measurable.

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 Elements of an Objective
To ensure that an objective is indeed useful, it
should include the following elements:
1. The outcome to be achieved, or what will
change
2. The conditions under which the outcome will
be observed, or when the change will occur
3. The criterion for deciding whether the
outcome has been achieved, or how much
change
4. The priority population, or who will change
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 1. Outcome
• The first element, the outcome, is defined as the action,
behavior, or something else that will change as a result of the
program.
• In a written objective, the outcome is usually identified as the
verb of the sentence.
• Thus words such as apply, argue, build, compare, demonstrate,
evaluate, exhibit, judge, perform, reduce, spend, state, and test
would be considered outcomes.
• It should be noted that not all verbs would be considered
appropriate outcomes for an objective; the verb must refer to
something measurable and observable.
• . Words such as appreciate, know, internalize, and understand
by themselves do not refer to something measurable and
observable,
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 2. Condition

• The second element of an objective is the

condition under which the outcome will be
observed, or when it will be observed.
• “Typical” conditions found in objectives might
be “upon completion of the exercise class,” “as
a result of participation,” “by the year 2020,”
“after reading the pamphlets and brochures,”
“orally in class,” “when asked to respond by the
facilitator,” “one year after the program,” “by
May 15th,” or “during the class session.”
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 3. Criterion
• The third element of an objective is the criterion for
determining when the outcome has been achieved, or
how much change will occur.
• The purpose of this element is to provide a standard by
which the planners/evaluators can determine if an
outcome has been performed in an appropriate and/or
successful manner.
• Examples might include “to no more than 105 per
1,000,” “by 10% over the baseline,” “300 pamphlets,”
“33% of the county residents,” “75% of the motor
vehicle occupants,” “at least half of the participants,”
“according to CDC guidelines,” or “all people who
preregistered.”
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 3. Criterion
• One of the most difficult parts of creating appropriate
objects for a program is to determine what would be the
appropriate criterion for an objective.
• Should program planners expect a 10% increase over
baseline? Should they anticipate half of the employees
to participate? What should be expected?
• There is no hard-and-fast rule for determining the
criterion, but remember SMART objectives should be
realistic and based on evidence whenever possible.
• Several different criterion-(target)-setting methods have
been used in writing the objectives for the Healthy
People initiative over the past three plus decades.
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 4. Priority Population
• The last element that needs to be included in an
objective is mention of the priority population, or who
will change.
• Examples are “1,000 teachers,” “25% of employees of the
company,” and “those residing in the Muncie and Provo
areas.
• There is one exception to the priority population always
being the who of an objective.
• That exception applies to process-level objectives.
Because some of these objectives guide the work of the
program planners and/or implementers. In those cases,
the who is the staff or group entrusted with instituting
the program instead of the priority population
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• In summary, well-written objectives will
always answer the question “WHO is going to
do WHAT, WHEN, and TO WHAT EXTENT?”

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 Difference Between Goal and Objective

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 Difference Between Goal and Objective

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