Developing an Organizational Mission Statement in Youth Sport: Utilizing Mad Libs as a Novel, Shared Leadership Approach

Abstract Sport organizations often utilize mission statements as “road maps” to guide the design and delivery of sport to youth. In the present work, we utilized a novel technique and sought out the perspectives of multiple stakeholders to craft a mission statement for an elite youth volleyball club on the east coast of the United States. Prior to the competitive season, a subset of club administrators (n = 3) head coaches (n = 6), parents (n = 10), and athletes (n = 11) participated in Mad Libs, a phrasal word game in which individuals are asked to fill in missing words in a prescribed, written story template. Key mission-relevant words were left blank, and beneath each blank was a prompt such as “noun (what the club should provide)”, “verb (what the club should do)”, or “adjective (kind of partnerships the club should build).” Participants completed stories individually, and responses were synthesized using content analysis. We then crafted a three-sentence mission statement and shared it with club stakeholders at a preseason meeting. The mission statement was adopted by the club and guides the direction of the club and its members. Importantly, our work highlights a novel technique, informed by a range of stakeholder perceptions and experiences, that can be used to craft an organizational mission statement in elite youth sport.