Invitation
Its time to prepare for the new fiscal year — while the external environment is still choppy, the business is still struggling and employees are still anxious — the future is bright. Really.
You have been selected by Sam to be part of a small team that will work with her to come up with a fresh articulation of our Purpose and Values.
Slide Away
This is a sanitized transcript of their first meeting. It is loosely based on real events but is in no way meant to be fully accurate. Any resemblance to former colleagues, active or otherwise, is purely coincidental.
Sam: Thank you for attending the call today. This is the first meeting of this crack team and I’d like to start with the brief. Our President has requested us to refresh our company purpose and core values for the new normal environment we are in. I couldn’t be more excited that we’re going to be working on this together
Reserach from our HR lead has found that the world’s best companies use a temple diagram — the idea is that we represent the company’s thinking as the facade of a temple, with our values as the columns that support our purpose. This feels like an effective way of describing what we stand for. Our product will be a one slide presentation.
The list of values is being finalised but the provisional set is Inclusive, Innovative and Inspiring. 3 I’s .. Aye? Yes, John?
John: Can a temple be stable with only 3 pillars? Chairs and tables typically have 4 legs for stability for a reason, isn’t it?
Sam: It’s a great question. I see lots of hands going up on the screen. Angel, you first.
Angel: The Greeks definitely had more than 3 columns in their temples: 16 was more common, I think. I also wanted to ask whether we were planning to use particular column types — if Innovative is one of our values then I think we should push the envelope on our design choices.
Lelwyn: I wonder if we are being a little too Euro-focused in our thinking here. I mean, modeling the temple from Greek history doesn’t feel very inclusive to me. Do Indian temples have pillars?
Sam: Super-insightful, Lelwyn. Lots of clapping emojis in the chat. Maybe we should combine designs from different cultures? That would be super-original, too. Maya, you’re next.
Maya: Can I be candid? I think I’m in this group because none of you can do PowerPoint. I am literally going to draw some rectangles for the pillars. We can’t have feathers or fantasies. And there’s a limit to how many pillars fit on a single slide.
Sam: Thanks Maya. Candor is hard but it’s integral to who we are as a company. Lots of thank-you emojis in the chat for that intervention. Let’s just go with three plain columns for now. Ron, is that your old hand or have you got a new point to make?
Ron: I get what Maya is saying but I worry that we are settling for a really boring temple, not at all inspiring. As I understand it, the purpose is on the pediment?
Sam: Im-pediment?
Ron: Pediment is the triangular bit above the columns. But we could have an architrave, which — I’m getting there, Sam — is a horizontal strip on top of the columns and below the pediment. We could put our mission there, just below our purpose.
John: I like Ron’s suggestion but do we have a mission? And does mission come above or below purpose?
Sam: We don’t have a mission, but I will take that idea back to the President. And purpose is definitely higher than mission. Purpose is the why & mission is the what. Values are the how.
Lelwyn: I have another question. What are the columns resting on?
Angel: Yes, I wondered about that too — the foundation? But what is it in our firm?
Ron: Capabilities? Like our people, our brands, that kind of thing?
Angel: Just putting this out there but maybe our values are the foundation and the pillars are the capabilities?
Sam: Lots of thumbs up for that idea. Maya, what do you—oh, I see that she has just left the call, so we may need to leave it there for now. Super-inspiring, everyone.