Mission: Impossible?

Is it really that hard to write a good mission statement?

Fast Company's November 2009 issue has an excellent short article by Nancy Lublin about mission statements. Nancy compares real mission statements with the random garbage that is spewed by the Dilbert Automatic Mission Statement Generator and challenges the reader to spot the difference (hint: you can't...)

I think the keys to a great mission statement are threefold:
1) it's singular - a mission statement is just as important for what it doesn't say as for what it says
2) it's a rudder - it makes it clear what every individual should do when presented with multiple options
3) it's unique - it defines what you do differently from (almost) everyone else

How's yours stand up?