Hi Everyone,
I’ve been talking with my daughter about a charity she wants to start. She is going to call it Boxes of Hope, essentially boxes full of items that would benefit children in need. Toys, treats, and books. She is eleven years old, and I was a bit surprised and delighted by her ambition. You know I am a proud father, like everyone. She asked me for help getting an organization started and for some lessons learned.
So I said to her, you have to start with the why before you worry about the what.
I explained that the first act of our company, before we had a name and a clear business plan, was to write down our values. It was important to me to define what the values of the company would be as the basis for why we existed, rather than the other way around. As a reminder, our values are:
If you care about your employees and you care about your clients, you’ll have a company worth caring about.
We hire for character before we hire for capability.
We believe in the marketplace of ideas.
We hire interesting people who are interested in change.
We look for smart and happy people.
They are the guideposts. The ambition of the company. The decision to focus on customer experience management, and subsequently to recognize that we could make millions of people a little happier every day, was the natural evolution of the business.
Start with the why before you worry about the what applies to much more than the formation of a company or a charity. Think about the work you do for our clients. Ask yourself why. Why are we doing this work?
We have a bunch of new projects kicking off. Has each team sat down and come to a conclusion about the why for each one? I am quite certain that project plans, schedules, and resourcing are all in full swing. Those are the what and the how. Not the why.
Take some time as a team and discuss the why. Write it down. Make sure everyone on your team understands it. It is the north star for all of our client engagements.
Let’s go be great,
Brad