Our Approach

Our work focuses on the 4 areas of mastery required to be a truly purpose-driven organization.

 
 

Character

Just like people, organizations have a character—that unique mix of beliefs, values, personality, and je ne sais quoi that makes them who they are. It all starts with knowing who you, uniquely, are as an organization.

So we help you identify, define, and codify your Purpose, Values, and the Behaviors that bring them to life.

  • Why you exist, apart from just making money. Your North Star that guides everything you do. Though you might refine these periodically as you and the world evolve, they are intended to be enduring expressions of what makes you you.

  • What you care about deeply because of your Purpose. These are the sorts of ideals that you'd rather lose money than violate. Like Purpose, Values are meant to be enduring though you may refine them from time to time.

  • Ultimately, Purpose and Values are useless unless they show up in human behavior. If you aren't living them, then they aren't your real Purpose and Values. These are the behaviors that manifest your Purpose and Values—so you show up as your authentic self. You would update these when you update Purpose and Values.

Aspiration

Once you know who you are and why you exist, you have to set an intention for what you want to achieve.

So we help you frame a bold Vision and develop the Strategy and Plan to get there.

  • An expression of where you want to be or what you want to have achieved over a specified time horizon—typically around 3-5 years. A Vision must be specific, clear, and bold and can be expressed in many different ways (e.g., degree of impact, financial, market position, or reputational metrics). A Vision will have to be updated every few years at a minimum as you achieve your goals and the world evolves.

  • The path you will take to achieve your Vision. Strategy should likely be updated every year.

  • You probably don't need us to tell you what a Plan is.

Culture

Defining your Character and Aspiration are necessary pre-requisites to being great. Now you have to live them. We believe you must do that first in your Culture in order to do it credibly in the world.

So we help you deeply understand your current Culture, design the Culture that would more completely reflect your Purpose and Values, and bring your leaders and workforce along on the journey of change.

  • Culture is how people experience the organization from the inside. It's the environment you create through all of your actions and choices—the sum total of all internal touchpoints. Culture works as a system—its elements are inextricably connected. All of them should be aligned to powerfully reinforce your Purpose and Values.

Brand

Bringing your Purpose and Values to life in your Culture allows you to authentically engage in the market and the world. When you do that, you have created a brand.

So we help you bring your Brand to life in the most powerful and compelling way—true to who you authentically are in your Culture.

  • Brand is how people experience the organization from the outside. It's the sum total of all external touchpoints as experienced by all external stakeholders. Just as with Culture, all brand touchpoints work as a system and are inextricably connected—all of them should be aligned to powerfully manifest your Purpose and Values.

So how does it work?

First, a bit about what it feels like to work with us.

When you partner with Rule No. 1, it’s not just about the “stuff” we do or the content we create. No matter how brilliant or creative the work is, success comes down to whether and how people execute it. So our work is always about people—inspiring them, enabling them to be their best, and designing the cultural conditions in which your aspirations can thrive.

We’re not the kind of people who come in and tell you what to do. That never works. We don’t think we have “the answer.” We think you do. Our role is to help you find it, refine it, and rally around it.

You’ll experience that in different ways at different times. Sometimes we’ll facilitate, sometimes we’ll provoke, sometimes we’ll take the pen and write.

Throughout the journey, you’ll experience us as collaborative partners dedicated to your success—as people and as an organization.

OK. But what’s the process and what do we get?

We don’t believe there’s such a thing as one-size-fits-all.

Every culture is different in how they learn, how they digest new ways of thinking, how they metabolize change, and how power and influence flow across the organization.

Our approach has four steps but you may already be further along in your purpose journey or you may have a particular need to accelerate part of the work. Our first step is to deeply learn about your culture so that we can design something that’s right for you—something that can create enduring change.

 

1

Immersion and Journey Design

We start by deeply immersing ourselves in your culture because no two cultures are alike. The deep conversations we’ll have will unearth truly meaningful insights and a profound appreciation for what makes your culture magical—and what isn’t working well.

Based on that work, we design a 12-36 month change journey consisting of content and experiences—customized to your unique culture—that enable your workforce to champion your Purpose, Values, and Behaviors.

The change journey will be refined throughout our engagement as we learn more together.

  • A set of culture insights—how we see your culture and where there are opportunities to change

    A change journey—with the complete high-level journey and signature experiences mapped out in greater depth

    This may include one or more workshops

2

Defining your Character and Aspiration

Next, we focus together on defining your unique character as an organization—we help you articulate your Purpose, Values, and Behaviors.

We then work with you to define your Aspiration—your Vision, Strategy, and Plans. This is how you translate Purpose and Values into business impact.

This will be done as part of an inclusive process with your team—how inclusive depends on the culture you have and the culture you want.

  • Purpose statement

    A set of Values and Behaviors

    Company and brand narrative

    A Vision statement

    A set of strategic pillars and the bold and essential moves you’ll need to make

    This will likely include several workshops

3

Assessing your Culture and Brand

Now that you’ve got the foundation in place—Character and Aspiration—it’s time to assess your Culture and Brand to see how well you’re currently living your Purpose, Values, and Behaviors across every touchpoint with internal and external audiences.

We’ll help you prioritize the actions to take immediately and over time.

  • A survey sent to a representative sample of your workforce

    Survey analysis to highlight gaps and opportunities

    A roadmap for Culture and Brand change—including immediate next steps and key moves over the next few years

4

Bringing Purpose and Values to life

To make the change stick, you’ll engage in two ways. The first is to rally your leaders and workforce as agents of change—in service of your Purpose, Values, and Behaviors. We’ll help you build belief, action, habit, and advocacy.

The second is to embed Purpose and Values into every aspect of your Culture and Brand. Based on the assessments and prioritizations completed in the previous phase, we will partner with you to design your Purpose-driven Culture and Brand.

This will involve working with your team to redesign prioritized touchpoints so they fully manifest your Purpose and Values and work together as one integrated system—telling the same story.

  • Content and experiences to bring your Purpose, Values, and Behaviors to life—inside and outside the company

    Culture and Brand redesign deliverables will vary broadly based on what you prioritized in the previous phase but all are grounded in innovation and design so you can deliver a powerful and consistent experience to all stakeholders.

    This will likely include several leadership meetings and innovation workshops

    We may also partner with your other creative agencies to ensure that what you put out into the world reflects your Purpose and Values