PIVOT! When your plans mistakenly start dragging your mission down the stairs

Mission well and truly crept out

Charity strategist and co-founder of Better Strategic Consultancy Ltd, Siobhan Meaker, explores the erosive damage of mission creep and how to pivot purposefully.

You know the scene. Ross screaming “PIVOT” while trying to heave an enormous sofa round a corner it was never built for.

That’s what mission creep in a charity can feel like.

You start with clarity. Purpose. A beautiful vision.  Then someone says, “Can we just…”  Or a funder dangles a nice juicy pot. Or a well-meaning Board member suggests a shiny new direction. Or you try to solve everything for everyone - because you care.

Before you know it, the sofa - your charity’s mission -  is jammed halfway down a stairwell. You’re shouting “PIVOT” - but no one’s quite sure which direction you’re meant to go. The team’s shoulders ache. The walls are getting a bit bashed up. And now no one really remembers why you even bought the sofa in the first place.

Let’s talk about mission creep - how to spot it, how to realign, and how to pivot with purpose (and ideally, without the sitcom-level stress).

So… what is mission creep?

Mission creep isn’t always loud or obvious. It’s not some villain in a boardroom twirling a moustache and saying “Today, we derail our strategy!”  It’s more like a slow drift. A side project here, a grant application there, a service added for “just this one client.”

And it’s understandable. You want to do good. Help more. Say yes - and maybe if we’re being honest with ourselves, to do more of the things that we want to do, rather than what is always necessarily needed.

But when too many off-mission “yeses” pile up, suddenly your organisation is spread too thin, your team’s unsure what matters most, and your strategic plan feels more like a nostalgic pamphlet than a real guide.

How to spot the signs

Here are a few gentle red flags that mission creep might be lurking in your stairwell:

• You’re delivering services that weren’t in your strategy, and you can’t quite remember why

• Your internal communications can’t tell a united story - it’s getting harder to make decisions and people have started to retreat into their departments

• Your team is exhausted and unclear on what’s most important 

• Your impact reporting reads more like a buffet menu than a focused story of change 

• You’re saying yes to funding that doesn’t quite fit… because it’s funding 

• You’ve started to justify things with “it sort of links to our mission” 

• Your organisation’s ‘why’ has become fuzzy, even internally
  

And the most telling sign?  You’ve lost some of that joy.  The clarity, the energy, the collective sense of “this is what we’re here for.”

How to realign (without declaring total war on everything)

You don’t need to throw the whole sofa out. People still love comfy things to sit on. You just need to pause, breathe, and get a clearer view of the floorplan.

1. Revisit your core purpose - Strip things back to basics. Why do you exist? Who are you here to serve and what have they told you they want? What kind of change are you here to create?

2. Map what you’re actually doing - Get it all down on paper. Every project, service, campaign. Then ask: does this serve our mission, or did it sneak in through the side door?

3. Look for patterns, not blame - Mission creep usually comes from good intentions. Focus on what’s happening and why, not who said yes to what.

4. Involve your team - They often know where the stretch points are - and where the joy has gone. Give them space to reflect, share, and shape what comes next.

5. Make space for courageous decisions - Now this might mean saying no or stopping something. This can feel really hard in practice, so you’ll want make space to communicate the why of this no, and consider the impact of this decision alongside other plans.

What pivoting with purpose looks like

Pivoting with purpose doesn’t mean chucking out your plans and starting over.

It means:

• Moving toward your mission, not just away from what’s hard 

• Letting your purpose and values, not your inbox, drive your decisions 

• Placing culture and clarity at the heart of your work so that you know any potentially difficult decisions are considered from a place of integrity

• Creating space to do less - but doing it better

Sometimes that pivot is tiny. A tweak in how you talk about your work. A decision not to expand a service. A boundary lovingly held and transparent to all.

Sometimes it’s bigger. A bold reset. A shift in direction. A lovingly ruthless “no more sofas.” But the result? More energy, more focus, more impact.  And a team that feels aligned, not exhausted.

Let’s make space for better

If you’re looking at your strategy and thinking, “This isn’t quite us anymore,” you’re not alone and you’re not failing. You might just be trying to carry too many sofas up too many stairs.

At Better, we help purpose-led organisations reconnect with what matters most and find clarity in the chaos. If you’re planning a strategic review, a fresh appeal, or just need a thinking partner who’ll ask the right questions (and laugh at your Ross reference), we’ve got space for a few more brilliant clients this autumn. We'd love to hear from you.