Mission vs Purpose

What is the difference between an organization’s mission and its common purpose?

People frequently ask the Disney Institute team this important question. To answer it, we must define “mission.” Most organizations think of a mission as a way to align everyone in the organization to the same focus. It describes what business the company is in now and what business it plans to be in in the future. The common purpose goes beyond the mission, acting as the unifying principle that drives everything the organization does. To understand what that means at Disney Institute, I’ll provide some historical context.