11 Jan Life’s Short… for F**ks sake do what makes you happy!
Our vision, mission and values were a few lines of text pulled together to complete the HR manual… I knew how important they were to framing the context of what we do and how we do it, but as a start up with a few grand visions, I just didn’t have the clarity to pin point it.
2.5 years on, the business has grown and those few dot points no longer align with our strategic direction, nor do they give clarity to our growing team on WHY we are here.
This lack of clarity in our vision and values manifested itself in communication breakdowns, mis-alignment between team members and general frustration with the outcomes we all worked so hard to deliver. We quickly realised that we needed to spend some time to regroup and collectively create a new road map that we all could own.
What came out of this session was a wealth of powerful words that communicated why we were here and how we felt about what we did. Words like;
essence, daring, passionate, dynamic, unique, diversity, holistic, bold, collaborative, inimitable, value, people focused
These words captured how we felt about ourselves and the role that we play in working with our clients.
Whilst we went on to distill these down into our own perfectly articulated statements, these words are the keys to unlocking the core of every business. These words are gold to your design team as they provide a glimpse into the soul of your organisation and what it means to the people who are your business. The grander plan and perfectly articulated vision & values statements go some way to communicating this, however these words spoken with passion and intensity get swept up into a bigger statement and can loose some of their context.
What each of your employees attach to these words will vary subject to their personal life experiences and backgrounds, but what they bring together as a whole is what your organisation thrives on.
Engaging with your design team to facilitate an exploration of what your vision and values means to your people can unlock a deeper passion that can be leveraged into the design of your space. Your vision and values are not statements that should be locked away in a cupboard on a strategic plan, but lived and breathed every day, reminding your people of WHY they are here. They should be embedded in every decision, every conversation and every physical element of your space.
The way each department interacts, communicates, works & plays together, can be influenced by the space.
If the space isn’t aligning with the core of your business objectives, what message is it communicating to your people?
If your business is about youth, community, social interaction, and having fun, yet the space you occupy is rigid, arranged into neat little rows of boxes with little colour and nowhere for your team to come together, do you think its going to be conducive to your employees delivering on your business objectives? Unlikely. However when you understand the passion that drives your business and you can capture it in a few powerful words that create strong visual cues, the outcome can be very different.
What words would your employees use to describe your business? Does your space tell that story?
PS. one of our values is “Life’s short – For F**ks sake do what makes you happy!”. Why… because when you’re happy you’re performing at your best. If you’re not, then its not good for business.
Want more info on developing your mission, vision and values? Check out this post from our Guest Blogger Dave at Talent Managers.