Values boil down to ‘how we do things round here’, thanks Cascade for sharing!
Value 1: Learn everyday
Why?
We’re a small but growing organisation. The strongest trait that our organisation needs to achieve success is self-motivated people. Arguably the two most important drivers of this are a) a passion for what you do and b) the ability to genuinely enjoy your work and embrace it as a positive aspect of your life. In the long term, the only thing that can consistently deliver both a) and b) are a process of continued challenge and learning. Why do we enjoy games (sports, video games, board games, you name it…)? – We enjoy them because they’re challenging, and as we learn and improve, we apply that knowledge to move continuously forward – our reward is progress – and that progress gives a sense of pleasure. We applied exactly the same principle in devising our first Organisational Value.
How do we bring it to life?
We encourage and fully allow people to discover and work with the tools and technologies they want to learn. We empower them to implement the processes or techniques they wish to try, and research new ways of doing things. We allow them to change their minds and we never rebuke ‘failure’.
Value 2: Improve continuously
Why?
The market we are in with our strategy software Cascade, is a competitive one. Our strength will never be as a defensive entity who protects our intellectual property or throws large amounts of money on broad funnel-based marketing campaigns. Instead, we need to continuously improve and enhance our products and our service – moving them both forward quite literally on a daily basis. We need this same mentality in each and every one of our people.
How do we bring it to life?
We’ve installed a culture of self-reflection, and each associate is invited to reflect upon their own and each other’s work constructively. There is always something we can improve, whether it’s a concept or a product feature. No-one shies away from honesty, and the only way to take a bolder and sometimes disruptive position as a team, is to express ourselves by being ourselves. If someone has a view on how something can be done better – they are encouraged to express it at the earliest possible moment, without waiting to have devised a fully formed solution. This is in stark contrast to the culture in many large corporates, where inadvertently, people have come to the conclusion that they should only voice a concern, when they have a robust and fully developed alternative in mind. Individual egos are replaced by a collective effort.
Value 3: Stay connected
Why?
This is our broadest Value and the one which we encourage each individual to interpret in a different and highly personal way. For some it’s about being connected to our customers – for others, it’s more societal or even environmental. All these stakeholders are important to the success of our business. By allowing people to interpret this Value in their own way, it engenders more passion when it comes to fighting for the best outcomes for any particular stakeholder. We need to fight fiercely for the needs and wants of each of our stakeholders and we’ve found no better way to do this, than by making things personal.
How do we bring it to life?
We create synergies between functional teams as much as we can – even when those teams deal with ultimately very different stakeholders. There is no such thing as IT that only does IT, or marketing that only does marketing. Everyone talks to each other and presents their ideas and work. We ask everybody their own opinion about business strategies and decisions, and we forward sales or support emails to all associates – not just those responding on the front line. Transparency is great for motivation and giving a sense of the bigger picture.
One step further is incorporating these values into core compentencies, main positive of this is that it engages employees: core competencies define success at the organizational and individual level using a common language. See ‘examples of our work’ for reference material!