“A leadership challenge is how to enable imperfect people to work together well in motivating and effective teams to achieve the organization's goals.”
We invited staff across the whole organization to contribute to a one-day workshop exploring brand and culture, what it means to live the brand in practice. A total of 70 staff turned up and, in small groups, we invited them simply to think back to a day when they felt really proud to work for World vision, to discuss what made the greatest difference and then to depict their stories creatively to the wider group.
There was considerable energy in the room as people shared their stories excitedly then played them back to the group using drama, pictures, role play, music and words. The same themes emerged over and over again:
When we work together, when we are truthful and authentic, when we feel inspired and motivated, when we know we have made a tangible difference for good.
We noticed these themes were interdependent. It is a balance of all areas that results in high levels of engagement and performance. For instance, if we focus on relationship (“partners”) without a corresponding emphasis on honesty (“truth”), conversations can feel superficial. If we focus on being honest (“truth”) without a corresponding emphasis on relationship (“partners”), conversations can be insensitive. If we focus on inspiring people (“passion”) without a focus on achieving results (“impact”), we can be ineffective(Figure 2)
We use this conceptual framework for guiding leadership, communications etc. For instance, if I need to address a difficult performance issue, I remind myself to treat the person with respect and invite honest feedback as well as give it("partners"+ "truth”); I try to frame the conversation in such a way that leads to the person feeling positively motivated to change and thereby achieve the desired results (“passion”+ “impact”). When we approach corporate all staff meetings, we remind leaders and other contributors to work collaboratively, be authentic, act creatively and emphasize outcomes.
We refer to this underlying cultural principle as the "spirit of the brand". We use it in induction to express what we aspire to be more like, more of the time. As part of our talent conversations with leaders during recruitment and succession etc, we use this framework to articulate the kind of organization we aspire to be, the kind of people we are looking for, the
Figure 2 Conceptual framework
Truth Partners Passion Impact