Story Driven: You don't need to compete when you know who you are

by Bernadette Jiwa

‘To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.’

Your purpose is why you do what you do today and every day. Your vision is your aspiration for the future—the contribution you or your work will make.

The company name is an acronym for ‘Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge’—which I didn’t know until I began my research for this book.

…if we are selling “a reduction in the cost of communication” or “zero effort knowledge management” or “making better decisions, faster” or “all your team communication, instantly searchable, available wherever you go” or “75% less email” or some other valuable result of adopting Slack, we will find many more buyers.

By only planning to achieve near-term goals, we’re in danger of going down blind alleys in an attempt to be competitive or getting distracted and doing things that don’t serve us in the long run. It can be more helpful to use our vision as a jumping-off point for our strategy and work backwards, creating the plan that will get us there. The vision informs the strategy.

This four-point strategy was created by working backwards from his sustainable-energy vision. Musk believed that an electric car without compromises was critical to expediting ‘the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy’.

Business building is not necessarily linear, but it is a progression. Important first and next steps on any business- or career-building journey are born from understanding what we are working towards.

‘To make things that make everyday life a little bit nicer’.

Design products ‘that are beautiful to look at but also a pleasure to use’.

VISION Aspiration for the future We want to be an asset to our creative community, providing meaningful employment to the people who are part of our team and the best experience our clients have ever had.

Openness Collaboration Community Neutrality Respect Improvements over rules

VISION Aspiration for the future ‘Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.’

Focus on knowledge as a service and build infrastructure that supports this goal.

Build strong, diverse communities that encourage access to free knowledge.

‘We are family. A family company united in our love of movement, music and the pursuit of healthy living for ourselves and our planet.’

‘We push hard to always do our best work; everyone around us here is in the relentless pursuit of improvement.’

PURPOSE Reason to exist ‘To remind people of the love that exists in their lives’.

VISION Aspiration for the future ‘Enable the gift of human connection’.

‘When he told me that it meant “Through adversity to the stars,” I thought the idea of battling one’s way to the stars at all costs was the most inspiring thing I’d ever heard.’

PURPOSE Reason to exist ‘Changing business for good’.

VISION Aspiration for the future ‘The end of business as usual’. ‘Business has the power to drive change. The time is right for a radically different approach to business—one that puts people and planet at the core of how business is done.’

We must, however, always bear in mind that freedom implies responsibility, meaning that we must demand much of ourselves.

PURPOSE Reason to exist ‘To create a better everyday life for the many people’.

‘To create the little things that have a big impact on people’s days’.

‘Create a portfolio of better products that solve everyday problems.’

VISION Aspiration for the future To use business to change the world.

Shift our communities towards empathy and the new economy.

The common thread was always that he was there to help people succeed by bringing more of themselves to work. He created a culture where people felt empowered.

‘The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision.’ —Neil Gaiman

Change doesn’t only happen with the stroke of the pen of people in positions of power. It happens one person at a time when we have the courage to look each other in the eye and act with empathy and intention.

History, heritage and hindsight are powerful teachers. But we’re in too much of a hurry to reach higher ground to learn from them.

We can learn a lot about ourselves, the world and our place in it by connecting the dots looking backwards. Instead, we worry about perfecting today’s dot or agonise about positioning tomorrow’s. We forget to look back at where we’ve been, to see how far we’ve come and to understand what that journey has to teach us. We spend our time looking at the dots when we should be searching for the connections between them.

we are all on a journey to metamorphosis. Going through openings. Taking things in, filling ourselves up. Becoming who we were meant to be. One day at a time. And just as the work of the caterpillar was to grow, that’s our work too—to have a stronger sense of identity as we progress on our journey.

Trained to recognise threats in our midst and opportunities when they present themselves. But there was very little instruction about how to become wise to ourselves. We were encouraged to find out what we were good at, but not to figure out what we stood for and how we came to stand for it. We learned the value of making good choices, but not to understand why we felt they were the right ones. We became good at telling people what they wanted to hear and stifled what we wanted to say.

What would happen if we spent as much time reflecting— wondering about and working on the inside, nurturing the things that make us who we are?

A great company doesn’t just thrive because it’s profitable; it’s profitable because it helps people to thrive. Great companies leave the world better than they found it—which is why those of us responsible for creating and building businesses must be as clear about the way we get to our destination as we are about what that destination is.