Once a brand has defined its purpose, sustained activations that integrate purpose across the entire organization is a must. Many times, even simple, low-lift efforts can connect employees to the purpose on a more emotional level. This not only increases team understanding of the purpose but also their desire to share and act upon it.
Here are three successful internal tactics brands can use to capitalize on their purpose:
1. Show employees how purpose plays into their everyday role
Reverb is an online marketplace for music gear with the purpose of providing the inspiration needed to make music. Most of its employees are musicians. They are encouraged to curate content and engage customers through their own unique passions and music preferences. Its experts create Handpicked Collections. Additionally, they hold bimonthly meetings where any employee can give a TED-style talk on any topic. This promotes collaboration toward that shared purpose. By being provided ways to activate purpose in their daily functions, Reverb employees are invested in the purpose.
Similarly, hidden behind the bamboo name tag of every associate of Umpqua Bank is the phrase “I am a relentless better-maker.” This for-associates-eyes-only statement reminds employees of their purpose. It inspires them to act upon it as they serve customers. In addition, associates are given notebooks with tips on being better-makers. Associates are poised to have purpose top-of-mind as they seek to better the lives of their community through every interaction.
2. Grow company culture around your purpose
‘Ohana’ is the Hawaiian concept that families are “bound together” and “responsible for one another.” Salesforce uses the word to connect its employees and community to its purpose of “improving the state of the world”, its mission of “empowering people to blaze their own trails” and its core values.
There’s an entire Ohana Floor in San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower reserved for community events. There are nationwide Ohana meetups as well as an online platform to build leadership skills. Employees use the hashtag #SalesforceOhana across all social media platforms. They spread stories of changing “companies, careers, and communities” for the better. By infusing company culture with purpose, Salesforce has grown an organic, thriving community that it can consistently point to.
3. Create powerful traditions & rituals
#OptOutside is now recognized as a national movement of more than 700 organizations to close stores and pay employees on Black Friday. It is important to remember, however, that it began as a chance for REI employees to live its purpose of “inspiring, educating, and outfitting…a lifetime of outdoor adventure stewardship.” Employees were encouraged to spend the day in the outdoors. If you introduce a tradition or ritual for employees that is powerfully aligned with your purpose, our activation may take on a life of its own.
Overall, tactics to integrate and activate purpose throughout an organization cannot only increase awareness and engagement, they can also be a powerful unlock for employee roles, company culture and culture conversations that drive growth and impact.
To get started on defining your company purpose and devising activations, consider enrolling in a We First Works course.
]]>Here are excerpts from the Q&A that we hope will help you with your personal goals:
Q: Where do I start in defining my personal purpose? It feels overwhelming.
A: I’ll speak to WeFirstWorks.com now as a quick way to answer your question and then I’ll come back to the larger question. We First Works is an online platform that has two courses on it: a course on how to define your personal purpose and a course on your company purpose. It’s a step-by-step action plan where you walk out with a purpose statement and a way to activate against it. So, that’s a great place to start.
Now coming back to your larger question. The first thing to acknowledge is that it’s not simple. It’s not easy. It’s something intangible, illusive, and instinctive. The most powerful thing you can do at first is to give yourself permission to be okay with a messy process. You want to let it emerge rather than stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood appear on your forehead.
Then, I would secondly put myself in a state where it’s conducive to getting those answers. Take time, go for a walk, set aside time to reflect. Spend some time where you’re asking yourself important questions without a lot of distraction. What are you the only of? When you’re at your best, what are you doing? What’s your enemy? What legacy do you want to lead with every day?
Q: Does purpose have to mean you’re doing good? Can’t you just do something functional?
A: That’s an interesting question. There’s a distinction between purpose as utility -- a function -- and purpose as an aspiration or intended impact. What we’re talking about here is the legacy that you’re going to lead. A purpose -- which is why you exist. It should be meaningful to your head, to your heart, and to your hands. It should be an active verb that inspires and makes you want to do something, rather than purely functional. The world will be a little better off because you’re living your truth.
Q: The company I work for isn’t necessarily a purposeful company, yet so much of my life and welfare is derived from there. How do I bring some of my purpose into a work environment that might not support it?
A: Many times when we go into companies they might have an internal champion that wants it to be purposeful. There might be a key stakeholder that want the company to build a culture of purpose or have a positive impact. But invariably, there’s a challenge. There’s leadership who hasn’t bought in or a CFO who doesn’t understand why it’s more than a nice-to-have, etc.
You need to lead with a conversation that they want to have. What do I mean by that? If you go in there and say, “You need to be purposeful. It’s the right thing to do”, companies, more often than not, will say, “Yep, that sounds great. We can’t afford it right now but we believe in the same things.” And then nothing will happen.
Instead, you need to align the impact you want to have with the business goals of the company, because I deeply believe that profit and purpose are two sides of the same coin. I believe that because today we have a heightened awareness of the compounding global crises we face like climate change, younger demographics like Millennials & Gen-Z, employees & customers who want brands to do good, and connected technologies like social media that keep everyone very well-informed.
So, you can go in and make the business case. Align around shared values and work toward a common goal. If you can say, “We’re trying to reach this market and this market cares about this thing, and we as a company stand for x, y and z. We can do these sorts of activations that reach those people and they’d be engaged with our brand, products and services to achieve a common goal”.
The second thing you can do is unlock their competitive instincts. Show what their competitors are doing. In every industry, you’ve got leaders being more purposeful whether they’re doing it to mitigate risk, build their reputation, win the talent they need to grow, etc. Finally, there’s so much research and data now to support all this work: Ernst & Young, Edelman, & Gallup are all great sources to look at. In short, don’t lead with your need -- what you want to get them to do -- back out of what they want to achieve. And it’s not about being duplicitous -- the very way you drive growth and profit today is by being purposeful and showing up in a way that is meaningful to those stakeholders.
Q: It’s easy for big companies to have a purpose, but why is it important when you’re just trying to get your first product out?
I was told 67% of new jobs in America come from small businesses. So, all the founders and social entrepreneurs out there who are starting their own business -- they’re doing extraordinary work. For many people, you’re working from your kitchen table. Getting your MVP, your first product out the door, raising money from your friends and family, or maybe a series A of funding - all can be extremely demanding.
But, here’s what we discovered. Pretty soon over time, if you’ve got a product-only focus, you’ll say one thing about one product, one thing about the next, one thing on one channel, one thing on another channel -- and overtime, you end up broadcasting schizophrenia to people. That then begs the question: how do I connect the dots?
It’s far more effective to define your purpose in the first place, let that inform your business from the outset, and position your products as social proof of that purpose. And if you’re a small company, solopreneur or founder -- your personal purpose is effectively the company purpose. You are shaping it 100%.
Q: Can two people have the same purpose?
Yes, they can in a sense -- in the abstract. But I don’t think any two people are alike. I’ve met countless folks working in the purpose space who are fantastic and so good at what they do. But the way they manifest it is unique to their journey, their skillset, their team, their marketplace, their goals, their aspirations, etc. So, I think two people could have the same purpose, but if you interrogated it a bit further, you’d probably find that they frame different language and, ultimately, it’d be different. They may be trying to impact the same category, cause, issue -- but the way it will show up when the rubber hits the road will be slightly different.
Everyone who enrolls in a We First Works course has access to virtual office hours with Simon and We First Strategy Lead Stacy Anderson where they have the opportunity to ask questions like these in a personal one-one-one about their own purpose path. Visit our site for more information or e-mail us at wfw@wefirstbranding.com.
]]>More than 2,000 Certified B Corporations across 130 industries and 50 countries are redefining what success in business looks like. Small and midsize businesses are just as integral to this movement. We First recently completed its own transition to Certified B Corporation. While the comprehensive process may seem daunting at first, we found the assessment can be a roadmap to understanding one’s impact, implementing best practices and transforming your company in service of its entire stakeholder community. Here are some tips on getting started:
Define and Understand Your Impact Model
While it’s always helpful to be striving for higher standards in general, B Corps also have business models that are specifically designed to create positive impact through their products, services, or customers as well as through its ownership or operational structure. At We First, we like to say to “be a mission with a company rather than a company with a mission”. If you have a well-defined purpose, you should be able to identify where the bulk of your company’s impact efforts come from.
For example, We First is committed to empowering businesses to do well by doing good. Our impact comes primarily through the products and services we offer to purpose-driven enterprises that increases their operational success. Stumptown Coffee Roaster’s comes from its fair/direct trade that improves livelihoods in their value chain as well as its products that preserves, conserves, or restores environmental resources. Yours might come from increased economic opportunity for underserved groups or providing access to basic needs for individuals without prior access. If you feel you do not have any such impact model, you may want to consider defining and activating your company’s purpose.
Research Other Certified B Corporations
The Certified B Corporation Directory is a great way to find businesses in your industry and/or locale of a similar size that have already achieved B Corp status. Most of these companies will have impact reports or dedicated areas of their website that will give you an idea of not only where their impact comes from, but also what they’re doing operationally to go even farther in being a force for good. These companies can be a vision board of where you want to go or how you’ll want to communicate your own efforts in order to grow the B Corp movement.
Address Your Legal Status First
B Corps must eventually update their articles of incorporation to include a legal requirement to consider the impact of their decisions on all their stakeholders. 33 states and the District of Columbia offer a benefit corporation structure that mirrors the process. Making this legal commitment before you complete your assessment level sets your organization about what will be expected and raises your overall assessment score. Use the Legal Requirement tool to figure out what amendment changes are required in your locale.
Take Stock of What You’re Already Doing
Many individuals in an organization are already working toward meeting higher standards by themselves or have policies in place that advance positive impact. For example, We First offered paid time off for employees to perform volunteer work and more than a third of its significant suppliers are owned by women or individuals from underrepresented populations. Both of these practices attributed to a higher assessment score.
Ensure these practices are codified into an employee handbook, impact report or policy sheet, and map out the progress you’ve made. This not only helps B Lab verify your efforts, it also ensures that the practices are sustained and woven into the culture of your company. Furthermore, you will be able to benchmark your efforts and determine how you can improve in the future.
If You’re Not Doing Something You Can, Start
Working through the B Corp assessment can help you identify areas where your company can easily improve in ways you maybe haven’t thought off. For example, while We First was tracking its electricity usage to make sure it was low -- we have now set an average target amount to track and maintain, which will result in a higher score the next time we are assessed as well as an improved footprint.
Formally Ask Your Community For Feedback
Serving your entire stakeholder community is an essential component of being a B Corp. So, it makes sense to solicit the feedback of not only your employees and customers, but of partners, suppliers, local community leaders and members, and beyond. While many companies will gladly accept feedback when offered or informally reach out to customers to gauge responses -- a broad, formalized, data-driven and routine process will increase your assessment score while giving you a better picture of issues rising to the top that need to be addressed. Distribute employee and partner satisfaction surveys, create an online forum where anyone can inquire about a business practice or product, and hold town halls or webinars with your entire community to discuss your impact. Be as transparent about the results as possible so that you can collaborate with your community to improve.
The process of becoming a B Corp is an opportunity for your team to double down on past and future commitments you’ve made to joining a global force for good in the world while continuing and establishing best practices to track, maintain, and improve on your commitment overtime to increase performance, transparency, and accountability.
Visit https://bcorporation.net/ for more information on how to become a Certified B Corporation. ]]>When it comes to defining and activating your personal purpose to improve your work and home life, here are several important considerations:
Remember what purpose is and what it isn’t.
Finding that reason for being can increase well-being, productivity and fulfillment. According to a University of Florida study, purpose and meaning in one’s life has been connected to happiness, life satisfaction, and even improvement on the cellular level with better immune response profiles.
On that same token, the Harvard Business Review has found that employees with a sense of purpose are almost twice as satisfied as their peers and are three times more likely to stay at their job. More importantly, these organizations are more ingenious as they’re 84% more likely to transform themselves. The Imperative US Purpose Study reports that purpose-oriented employees are 65% more fulfilled.
When defining your own purpose, look to purposeful leaders for inspiration.Why do you as individuals show up everyday? How does that inform your company purpose or your work? Looking at the purpose statement of leaders who have found fulfillment in their own lives is a useful way to see how purpose can come to life depending on your own personality or where you are in your journey. Here are some examples:
"To serve as a leader, live a balanced life, and apply ethical principles to make a significant difference." - Denise Morrison, Former CEO of Campbell Soup
After defining your purpose, you can be very clear-eyed about why you’re doing what you do. It speaks to what you will invest your time in and guides you when making decisions about what to do next. In this way, you live your legacy on a daily basis instead of deferring it to a later time -- which increases your everyday fulfillment and impact on the world.
A key question here is: what is one action you can take tomorrow to start living that legacy?
We found that while learners came to the courses with varying objectives from getting clarity about what purpose means, to learning how to weave it into a chosen profession, to articulating a very clear purpose statement for a social venture -- all learners were motivated to increase performance by identifying a north star that could guide their pursuits.
Similarly, whether you’re a new or seasoned social solopreneur, a C-suite executive at an established brand, part of a disruptive startup or simply looking for self-improvement, defining and activating your personal or company purpose will be integral to driving growth and impact.
Here are some insights from our learners that could help shape your own purpose journey:
Many learners found that it was instructive to digest the purpose statements and stories of leading brands and purposeful leaders like Jacqui Burge of Desk Yogi, Rick Ridgeway of Patagonia, Lynda Weinman of Lynda.com, Lanre Idewu of FIT4LA and Jordan Glassberg of TOMS. Not only are their experiences compelling, but they demonstrate the practical ways purpose can unlock real value in your own life and for others. Research the path of the leaders you respect and see if you can chart how their guiding reason for being in the world informed their actions.
Some learners found particular value talking to We First Founder & CEO, Simon Mainwaring, and Lead Strategist, Stacy Anderson, during the We First Works virtual office hours about previous paths and future goals while workshopping purpose statements.
Conversations like these are particularly helpful because it is difficult to read the label from inside the jar. In other words, oftentimes friends, family, co-workers or mentors will have a better grasp on the unique talents, values and passions you may bring to bear in any endeavor. Don’t be afraid to run drafts of your purpose statement by neutral observers as they could provide valuable insights to your strengths and blind spots.
Several learners responded well to We First Work’s modular approach that encouraged them to chart their purpose journey from before they even began the course, to crafting sequential action plans to bring their purpose to life after it had been defined.
Looking at where you’ve come from is an acknowledgment that your purpose does not arise out of thin air. Many times, you’ve been working around or toward something that has yet to be articulated in the right way. Chart your own journey of previous personal and professional milestones before thinking about what you have been working toward and where to go next.
Likewise, it is one thing to define your purpose, but it is another to put it into practice by scheduling incremental, achievable goals that are aligned with your intentions. Once you define a purpose, brainstorm ways you could act on it in the short term, midterm and long term.
For access to the same content, tools these learners took advantage of and to explore these strategies with virtual online instruction, consider enrolling in our We First Works personal or company purpose course. Feel free to contact us at wfw@wefirstbranding.com if you have any questions.]]>When setting resolutions or goals for yourself, do they ever seem scattered or are you ever unsure if they are the right goals? With your personal purpose in place, you have the fundamental lens through which to pressure check any and all goals you set - each goal should support, enable or reflect your purpose. Defining your personal purpose statement now gives the foundation from which to then establish your most important resolutions.
While gaining clarity on your sense of meaning in life may seem like a sole endeavor on personal happiness, practicing and living your purpose is actually proven to increase a sense of fulfillment at work. The concept of finding meaning at work is not new. However, to get to that place you must first understand what gives your life meaning - your purpose. In today’s hyperconnected and increasingly fast-paced work environments, it is critical to pause and reflect on if you are indeed living and working how you need to be in order to achieve positive self-realization.
When we are living in our truth, the weight of the world feels more positive, the actions we take are more consistent and the results we create are optimally better. Having a clear definition of your personal purpose affords you a lens through which to make decisions - what to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to - on a daily basis. Your purpose gives you a roadmap for how to live your most fulfilling version of life (by being in alignment with this personal statement) and in turn, how to create the best version of life for yourself and ultimately those around you.
Start today. Before you dive into resolution setting, take a step back and reflect on why you are here, and what you are meant to do - your purpose in this world. For some guidance on how to get there, visit WeFirstWorks.com for a step-by-step, guided course in how to define your personal purpose and to create an actionable plan that will unlock this value in your life.]]>SIMON MAINWARING: What we’re going to focus on today is the human brand and it’s really important for a number of critical reasons:
How do you become a brand that all stakeholders want to build because of their emotional connection to your company, its products and its services? And as we think about this topic, we need to consider human storytelling, which is about mobilizing the emotion of the brand and the passion of the brand. How do you do that?
The real power of social technology out there is not so much the ability of you to broadcast about yourself to others, but rather for you to reach somebody and inspire them to share it with their peer group, their colleagues, or their network. So, it’s not one to many, it’s one to one to many. On the strength of that, you’ve really got to empower a lot of people who aren’t professional marketers -- customers & consumers -- to really understand your brand and share it with others. So how do you do that?
The fundamental need of any brand today if you want to drive growth is a simple, consistent, and scalable message. The only way to break through this is to inspire every stakeholder in your brand community to work with you so that everybody becomes an extension of your marketing department.
For more insights watch the webinar in full. If you want to unlock the value and growth described above for your business, visit WeFirstWorks.com to access courses that will show you step-by-step how to define your company purpose. It will not only ensure you are relevant to today’s marketplace but it will ensure every department of your company add value to drive business growth. Click here for all the course information.]]>VF, a global house of brands such as Timberland and Vans, recently established its company-wide brand purpose in a way that positions it to be a global force for good that transforms the fashion industry, improves millions of lives and advances how business serves humanity. With its purposeful vision defined, VF needed to announce, integrate and activate it across its portfolio in a way that would inspire commitment and motivate action within and beyond global leadership. In close collaboration with the VF team, We First spearheaded VF’s global brand purpose rollout and employee integration plan commencing with a multi-day intensive series of training, panel discussions and interactive sessions to bring VF’s purpose to life in meaningful ways across its entire portfolio of 24 leading brands.
Key steps to integrate your purpose internally include:
Plan - Establish purpose metrics and the basis for ROI, while appointing purpose ambassadors and/or purpose project teams and creating a dedicated visual identity for purpose, if appropriate.
Prepare - Develop key materials for and plan work sessions for an initial launch of your brand purpose internally. Here, your key focus is to involve employees as early on in the process as possible to ensure buy-in, adoption and advocacy for your purpose.
Promote - Tease your brand purpose with employees, getting everyone excited by the concept of what purpose is and what it can do for your business. Showcase employees’ existing efforts that demonstrate the company’s purpose in practice to reward behavior and indicate the practicality of activating purpose.
Launch - A singular communication touchpoint and/or rally event to share the purpose, get into breakout groups to ideate how purpose can come to life, and design experiences for employees to ‘live’ and ‘own’ the purpose.
Once you have progressed through the above steps, you must leverage a range of tactics to fully activate purpose in ways that are peculiar to your brand and organizational structure. Looking for where to start? The following is a list of top tactics that prove effective for internal integration efforts:
The Result? Once purpose has been successfully integrated in and adopted by your employees, the most prominent benefits range from efficiency and productivity through to winning out on the talent wars. Specifically, benefits of creating a culture of purpose within your company include:
To learn more on the benefits of integrating purpose within your internal culture and company, click here.
To find out why and where to start, visit WeFirstWorks.com for a step-by-step, guided course in how to define your company purpose and to create an actionable purpose plan that will unlock this value to your business.
]]>Simon Mainwaring: The topic today is how to turn your brand into a high-growth movement. Why is that important? There’s a big shift underway from growing your business by building brand awareness to really seeing your brand as a movement and allowing that movement to scale your business. That’s a reaction to the reality that we are living in this era of movements whether it’s #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter or March for Our Lives.
All these movements in the cultural landscape are now being effectively mapped across to the business landscape. That has huge implications for brands. It has given brands an opportunity to stand up for what their values are. At the same time, it has put those brands at risk that aren’t clear about what they stand for. As such, brands are being increasingly defined by their values and their products are being positioned as social proof of their values.
As a result, you’re seeing many leading brands getting ahead of this opportunity and articulating their movement and what they stand for. They’ve distilled their messaging down to a singular conversation they’re leading and their movement is being driven by that conversation. For example, Patagonia is focused on ‘Responsible Economy.’ Tesla,’Sustainable Transportation.’ Unilever, ‘Sustainable Living.’ Airbnb, ‘Universal Belonging.” And, in the fashion category, Everlane is leading a movement focused on ‘Radical Transparency.’
This is backed up by data: Edelman’s Earned Brand study demonstrates that among belief-driven buyers, and that’s loosely qualified as younger, affluent people that are about 30 percent of the global population, 50% of belief-driven buyers would buy or boycott a brand based on a position on a social or political issue. Not a business issue. Not a brand issue. And not a product or supply chain issue, but a social or political issue. Also, 65% of belief-driven buyers will not buy a brand if they stayed silent. And 67% percent of belief-driven buyers have bought a brand for the first time based on their position on a controversial issue.
If you sit down at any one of your planning, strategy, or marketing meetings, whether you’re a solopreneur or whether you got 10,000 employees all around the world, and you say, “We’re in the business of movement making,” as opposed to “How do we build our brand,” you can readily imagine the shift in ideas you come up with. So with the ambition of becoming a movement maker in mind, what are three fundamental steps to getting there:
Every brand has to get very clear about what its purpose is. That’s because if you want your brand to become a movement, your purpose is like a slingshot. That purpose defines the movement, and that movement defines the actions you take -- whether it’s activism, advocacy, communications or advertising. And those actions build your business.
To be clear, your purpose is your why. Your reason for being. Why you exist. It should be a motivation for people to roll up their sleeves and do something, to think in a different way, and to make that emotional connection. In that way, it’ll be motivating to all stakeholders. So, Airbnb is not in the accommodation business. They’re in the “belonging” business. Disney’s in the “imagination” business and Southwest is in the “freedom” business, when you distill their purpose statements to their essence.
Finally, your purpose should affect all aspects of your business, from your product development, to your supply chain, to your culture, to your research and development, and, yes, community engagement and all your CSR initiatives. That when you unlock the full power of purpose to drive a movement that will build your business.
The second step in helping your company become a high-growth movement is to co-create a brand community. Many smaller brands try to do all their marketing themselves, when it’s far more effective to leverage the power of purpose to engage their whole community to build their business. Brands need to ask themselves: how can we mobilize everyone in your community to be an extension of your marketing department? Everyone from your employees, to leadership, to partners, to customers, to consumers, to the media? How can everyone create that brand movement that builds the business and its impact? And to achieve that, there are three key strategies: Co-authorship, Co-creation and Collaboration. By doing so, the very nature of your outreach is going to inspire people to work with you in a way that is going to get them engaged and inspire them to share what you’re doing. And if you allow people to play a co-creative role in their content, they’re much more likely to share it with others. So, don’t think about doing it on your own. Think about how you can do it with a competitor. Think about how you can do it with a nonprofit partner. Think about how the public and private sector can work together. If this becomes your mindset, it will absolutely transform the type of ideas you come up with, the type of engagement you seek, the content you put out there, and the way people respond to that content. Take this collaborative, co-creative mindset, and suddenly, everyone will be working to build your business with you.
The third step is to ask yourself, “Well, what movement will you lead?” To start, look at your category and what the key issues are. Look at your brand. What issues are affected in the manufacturing and distribution of your products? Ask yourself, as founders, as solopreneurs, what do you care about? And triangulate all these different issues to articulate for yourself what movement can be unique to your brand, that you’re fully qualified to lead and speak to.
Once you do that, you can go to market with confidence that you will create fresh content. You will create content that people want to share. You’ll be activating values in a way that people will want to align around those values, and that will invest your products with those values so they become social proof of what you care about. People will want to buy your products and to see you succeed.
Today, many brands out there are demonstrating what they stand for, and if you don’t compete in those terms, you’re inviting irrelevance. So, leverage your purpose to drive profit in a virtuous cycle of doing good so that you can do well, and then inspire brand champions to co-create your brand community.
I share all this in the context of a new platform we just launched, We First Works. If you are a solopreneur, a startup, an entrepreneur, a small or high-growth company and want to take your company to the next level, visit WeFirstWorks.com. The two courses will empower you to define your personal and company purpose, and that is what the leading brands are doing today to scale their growth and impact. So visit WeFirstWorks.com now and here’s to your success.
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To enable this alignment, We First holds extensive training workshops that help leadership teams and department heads discover and take ownership of and share their brand purpose. This training ensures that barriers to embracing the work are overcome, that new thinking and behaviors will be shaped around the purpose and that a purposeful culture within the company can be organically nurtured.
A helpful way to carry this progress forward for the long-term is to empower management within an organization to become advocates for their brand purpose as well as shining the spotlight on those who bring that purpose to life through their own work.
Once a company’s culture grounded in purpose begins to take form, We First also holds educational workshops and webinars to bring purpose to life for all employees of a company, locally, regionally and globally, so as to fully activate its potential. This allows employees to be able to rally behind a brand’s purpose not only when they know how to express it themselves but when they understand the best practices both inside and outside their own industry that enables them to create a movement around their purpose that maximizes impact and drives business growth.
We First has held these training workshops for brands like Virgin Hotels, that was looking for an internal culture refresh around its purpose as well as Timberland, that had to define its purpose in alignment with a parent company as well as activate it in demonstrable ways across several regions, departments and market needs. However, the same process and concepts apply for individuals, solo-preneurs, entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses looking to unlock human and/or profit growth through clarity around their personal or business purpose. We First Works is We First’s online training platform that seeks to make these insights available and accessible beyond those participating in in-person workshops or for larger brands commissioning training for their many employees at scale.
The Personal Purpose course helps individuals, leaders and self-starters find more fulfillment in life by walking through a step-by-step process to craft a purpose statement and creating an action plan that allows them to jumpstart and activate that statement through concrete steps and milestones. The Business Purpose course closely resembles We First’s in-person training workshops. After assessing challenges around purpose, the course walks a company through aligning on, building upon and scaling that purpose to create lasting and ongoing profit and impact.
Each course includes best practices and instruction from leading purposeful entrepreneurs and brand builders. In addition, access to live office hours gives individuals a chance to video conference with We First Founder/CEO Simon Mainwaring and Lead Strategist Stacy Anderson to receive feedback or overcome pain points on one’s progress through the course.
Whether you’re just starting your purpose journey or are looking to augment and refine an ongoing pursuit, We First Works is a great affordable option to explore the knowledge We First has gathered and shared as well as execute on strategies and action plans We First has developed through its work with leading brands and entrepreneurs. Feel free to contact wfw@wefirstbranding.com if you have any questions about the available courses!
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Perhaps most compelling about our experience with Jeff was his mantra: No One Wins Alone. While defining one’s company or personal purpose can oftentimes feel like an isolated exercise, similar to the perceived notion of an athlete’s achievement as a solo exercise, both are very much grounded in the support, encouragement and positive enablement of those in your close personal and professional circle.
As a step towards living one’s purpose in an intentional and ambitious way, Jeff’s approach to setting goals was an incredibly insightful practice that involved a series of revisions and iterations. We did this exercise amongst the We First team, and it was quite a significant shift to write a goal, revisit it and push it further.
Jeff clearly articulates the types of ‘champion’ goals that drive greatest return by pushing us well outside of our comfort zones and, in turn, require more rigor, process, planning and support from others to achieve them. They are the start rather than the end; a shift in your life and behavior -- the outset through which identifying the behaviours, activities and support system you need is essential. What’s more is getting comfortable with the level of risk that comes with setting greater goals. With ambitious champion goals, as Jeff describes, the reward is greater as is the risk, though achieving them will push you leaps and bounds in your chosen field, as well as in living out your greatest expression of your purpose.
After the completion of your We First Works courseware, whether personal or professional, having a look through Jeff’s thinking and approach to goal setting practices is a great complement to our school of thought.
To get started, visit WeFirstWorks.com for a step-by-step, guided course in how to define your personal or company purpose and to create an actionable purpose plan that will unlock this value in your life and the trajectory of your brand.
]]>Gaining clarity on who you are and why you exist as a brand is the first step towards sharing and activating your brand’s value proposition. By defining your purpose in advance of training employees to speak on your brand’s behalf, you not only ensure consistency and clarity of messaging, but empower employees to bring a sense of personalization to their work in ways that still align to the core essence of your brand.
Here are the top reasons why defining your brand purpose at the outset is critical to business success:
Where to start? Here are 3 steps to take before training employees on understanding, activating and sharing your brand’s core value proposition:
Establishing clarity of purpose will create consistency across how your brand shows up in the world in meaningful ways -- resulting in compelling and dynamic engagement opportunities with employees, customers, consumers and the world at-large. To get started right away, visit WeFirstWorks.com for a step-by-step, guided course in how to define your company purpose and to create an actionable purpose plan that will unlock this value to your business.
]]>How does purpose show up tactically for a brand? How does it translate across different functional areas? How does it drive innovation and, in turn, profit?
Aside from providing immense clarity and focus, defining your brand’s purpose unlocks incredible value across all aspects of your business - from product/service design through to marketing and employee engagement. Let’s look at 5 best practices of companies putting purpose into practice in innovative, compelling ways across key functional areas.
Puma marries sustainable innovation with product performance through its Bio-Tech Sneakers incorporating ‘fatigue warning.’ As a collaboration with MIT Labs, this shoe contains material that learns a user’s specific heat patterns and opens up ventilation based on those user-specific inputs.
Global marketing powerhouse H&M has a long-standing relationship with eco and sustainability messaging. Its recent installment, ‘Close the Loop’ Campaign, brings forward a new concept and conversation within the apparel industry to consumers in an effort to not only engage but educate and inform. H&M cleverly leverages their own brand marketing as a call to action for greater change amongst both industry and end-consumers alike, continuously establishing itself as a thought leader.
Widely successful fashion upstart Everlane continues to challenge industry traditions by breaking through the clutter with an innovative conversation based on transparency. From pop-up shops that share 100% Human Stories to interactive POS displays that visually and verbally communicate the ethics of its supply chain, Everlane brings a much needed fresh perspective and voice through purpose to their retail touchpoints.
Consumers today expect brands to delight, surprise and engage them in unexpected ways that create new meaning in their lives. LL Bean’s Outdoor Coworking Space directly taps into these new expectations, also tapping into the stark reality that Americans currently spend 95 percent of time indoors. LL Bean’s innovative engagement tactic is both practical and meaningful -- re-emphasizing its relevance to and understanding of its consumers today.
Renowned innovation leader Adidas brings its innovative practices throughout the entire organization including employee engagement. The ADIDAS GROUP INNOVATION ACADEMY (aGIA) is an online learning platform containing eight modules with employees who complete the courseware responsible for forming one big idea for the brand. Following submission of ideas, the top 9 are selected for a formalized, live competition to select one winner - and the winning idea receives funding. Not only is this an educational opportunity for training employees on thinking innovatively, but empowering them by showing that their ideas do matter.
Beyond defining and establishing clarity of purpose, leveraging it as a platform for innovation across all aspects of your company will unlock tremendous value. To find out why and where to start, visit WeFirstWorks.com for a step-by-step, guided course in how to define your company purpose and to create an actionable purpose plan that will unlock this value to your business.
Organizations that prioritize their values and purpose internally and externally are proven to experience significantly more growth than those that do not (Source: HBR Business Case for Purpose). The reason is that purpose drives the values of a company; values define how stakeholders relate to each other and, in turn, relationships determine employee productivity, consumer sales and social impact of the brand.
Specifically, here are 3 ways that defining your company purpose can help your employees help grow your business:
According to Edelman’s Trust Barometer Report, consumers trust employees over CEOs, spokespeople or marketing. By investing in your employees and equipping them to become advocates, you can unlock latent consumer storytelling and engagement potential. Starbucks leads the way by empowering its partners to share updates, content and stories via social media.
According to Herman Miller, purpose is one of six fundamental human needs that motivate us at work. And famously, Peter Drucker notes how “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, compounding the need for organizations to truly invest in employee purpose for profitable success. Benevity, a Canadian B-Corp, recently launched its Missions platform, providing opportunities for employees to participate across environmental and social initiatives in line with their personal beliefs and values.
With all eyes on the rising workforce comprised of millennial and Gen-Z generations, brands are clamouring to understand how to attract quality talent in an increasingly competitive marketplace. As a recent Cone Communications Study outlines, 75% of millennials consider a company’s social and environmental commitments before deciding where to work, and what’s more, 64% of millennials won’t take a job if a potential employer doesn’t have strong corporate responsibility practices.
How do you bring purpose to life for employees? Here are five places to start:
It’s no longer enough to have a siloed CSR department, but rather embed purpose throughout your company by engaging and empowering employees to participate in and scale your impact. Doing so will pay dividends from improved employee productivity, fulfillment, talent attraction and bottom-line profit.
]]>As described in an Inc. article this summer, the rationale for setting a personal purpose is 4-fold: It integrates who you are; Provides focus; Simplifies any decision-making processes; and, Holds you accountable for your decisions and actions.
Looking for inspiration? See these personal statements by 5 famous CEO’s and it will become evident that your personal purpose is not only intended to serve you as an individual. Ultimately, your personal purpose will benefit those around you - from your friends and family, to your co-workers and professional allies, to even those in your community and extended world.
Even more tangibly, the Review of General Psychology published a paper in 2017 that details three tangible benefits of having a sense of purpose - Reduced Stress, Improved Coping, and Health-promoting Behaviors.
Looking at each of these benefits in-turn demonstrates the benefits of understanding and living your purpose on you and others around you:
In a world where many of us are trying to identify and define our path in life, articulating and understanding your personal purpose is ‘ground zero’ to set the foundation for a life of intention. What’s more, creating a tangible action plan for bringing your purpose to life is critical for ensuring you do just that - so your purpose becomes more than purely words on a page.
We First Works not only guides you step-by-step in the development of your personal purpose statement, but crafting an actionable plan for how that will come to life on a daily basis in meaningful, tangible ways. It’s your fast track to clarity, success, and the fulfillment you deserve in life.
Visit https://wefirstworks.com/ and find out more.
]]>So, let’s explore these benefits a little deeper:
Well-Being
Studies show that understanding and regularly practicing your purpose leads to happiness and life satisfaction. Purpose even increases health at the cellular level. A Universal of Florida study reports that individuals with purpose cultivate better immune response profiles.
Productivity
We all feel better when we are making progress and moving forward, rather than stagnant or stationary. Researchers link grasping and living your purpose with 1.7x higher levels of occupational satisfaction. Employees and partners are 3x more likely to be loyal to those with a sense of purpose (source: EY.com).
Fulfillment
Unlocking and living your purpose on a daily basis has been proven to give individuals 64% more fulfillment at work (Source: Imperative). Fulfillment through your own professional career creates an added level that bridges your personal and professional needs.
Defining your purpose, though, can be difficult, because it’s hard to read the label from inside the jar. It's hard to define yourself from outside yourself. So, let’s look at where to start.
Where to start?
Here are three questions to assess your clarity of purpose:
And for inspiration, below are a couple purpose statement examples from noted leaders:
"To serve as a leader, live a balanced life, and apply ethical principles to make a significant difference."
- Denise Morrison
"To have fun in [my] journey through life and learn from [my] mistakes."
- Richard Branson
So, if you’re starting a company and leading a team, give yourself the gift of the benefits of purpose.
]]>More than ever, we are time poor today. There never seems enough time to get everything done and a good day is increasingly defined by simply getting through your emails. Not to mention that a work life balance is harder than ever to achieve and you still need to find time to stay fit and healthy. So who on earth has time to sit down and define their personal purpose? Or more to the point, why should you?
Of all the emotional drivers that define our thoughts and lives, the search for what you’re truly meant to do is one of the strongest. Sometimes it takes the form of dissatisfaction with your job, or envy of what others are doing. Other times, it’s just a restlessness or unease that you haven’t quite landed the job or career that lives at the intersection of your dreams and skills.
Defining your purpose answers this question. It allows you to find alignment between who you are and what you do on a daily basis. It saves you all the energy otherwise wasted on wondering or questioning what you should be doing, and that energy can instead be funneled into helping your realize those dreams that much sooner. As such, finding your personal purpose is vital to your happiness, health and well-being as it allows negative feelings to disappear and replaces them with the joy of answering your calling.
Defining your purpose also allows you to leverage your gifts and strengths to be that much more successful at what you do. Many of us struggle with a work life balance, but when you find your purpose work transforms into living your truth in a powerful and productive way. We all know those people who just seem to have founding their unique role in life and it’s something all of us deserve. So whether you’re an intern or CEO, a solopreneur or global change maker, finding your purpose is the fastest through-line to success.
Beyond the personal and professional rewards, finding your purpose has an even higher level of return. At some point in life, many of us reflect on why we are here and what role we played in the world. When you define your personal purpose it allows you to find meaning in your life and, especially as you approach your later years, significance in the unique contribution your gifts and commitment have made. And in the meantime you’ll be a better partner, friend and colleague in life because you are happier doing what you do.
We all invest so much time in various forms of education and professional discovery, but perhaps the most overlooked and powerful access to happiness and fulfillment in life is defining your personal purpose. We First has been fortunate enough to do this work hundreds of leading entrepreneurs and executives all looking to find their unique path. We First Works is our new online courseware that shares our methodology and insights with you and we’re excited to announce that the first course is: Defining Your Personal Purpose. Guided by the We First team and the insights of top entrepreneurs and business leaders, we’ll take you through a step-by-step process that empowers you to walk away with a clear purpose statement that can inform your personal and professional decisions. We know it will unlock enormous value across all aspects of your life and wish you nothing but success and fulfillment. You can find out all the details about the course here and we look forward to hearing about the joy it brings to your life.
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We First Works is launching at the end of this month and one of the most important questions you can ask is, “What will be the return on investment for taking these courses?” Let me speak directly on the course titled: ‘Defining Your Company Purpose’.
In our experience, entrepreneurs, young companies, and even large organizations struggle to define their purpose because they are either too close to the business or too busy to make it a priority. Additionally, defining your purpose is a specific skill that few companies have in-house. At We First, we’ve been fortunate enough to do this work with many of the leading purposeful brands and over the last seven years have developed a methodology that has been road tested in the marketplace, time and time again. This course takes you through that methodology in a step-by-step process and here’s the value it unlocks for your business.
This We First Works ‘Defining Your Company Purpose’ course walks you through the We First methodology that has been crafted in our work with some of today’s most successful purpose brands. It’s all laid out in an easy to follow format that allows you to arrive at a simple and singular purpose statement that can unlock all the value described above. For a small investment you get world class guidance in how to become the successful and impactful brand that you deserve to be. Be in the know and sign up to be alerted of the launch at the end of the month. Here’s to your success!
]]>In the run up to launch of We First Works – our digital training platform – let’s take a look at five key ways investing in purpose unlocks value for your business and your life.
Identifying and bringing your brand purpose life is proven to be directly tied to increasing your bottom line. Purpose and profits are complementary -- not competing -- interests that are necessary for your business’ revenue growth. Shifting focus from purely profit-driven to purpose-driven leads to greater profit margins by increasing brand equity in addition to creating opportunities to increase purchase prices. Companies that are purpose-driven see consistent success even with higher purchase prices, with consumers willing to pay more for products that are driven by social and environmental impact. For example, as of December 2017, Toyota reached more than 10 million hybrid vehicle sales, though the non-hybrid models have lower purchase prices.
Today’s highly competitive job market means that employers are increasingly facing the war for talent, making employee acquisition and retention more challenging than ever. When looking for and evaluating jobs, brand purpose plays a vital role in an employee’s, or potential employee’s, evaluation of a company. Purpose has been identified as the number one motivator for employees and also proven to decrease turnover by 50%. Companies such as Starbucks, TOMS, and The Honest Company have found that screening for candidates who are purpose-driven and integrating the company’s purpose into the lives of employees everyday helps foster a healthy and productive work environment.
Social and environmental challenges uncovered through purpose-driven exploration create new opportunities for product innovation. Today’s consumers are attracted to meaningful products, and delivering products with impact is a direct route to increase purchase and strengthen brand identity. Establishing brand purpose and using it as a guide in the creation of new products and services encourages new ideas to emerge. Nike’s Flyknit shoe is a perfect example of an innovative product that directly mirrors with Nike’s mission of “bringing inspiration and innovation to every athlete,” as well as overarching sustainability vision of ‘doubling the business with half the impact’.
Purpose-driven products and business operation increase the achievability of meaningful and lasting engagement with consumers. Research form Gallup shows that “fully-engaged” customers represent 23% more revenue than average. Establishing and projecting your purpose helps brands connect with like-minded individuals who will remain brand-loyal for years. Patagonia, for example, deeply connects with its customers through its “purpose-driven environmental ways.”, activating and mobilizing consumers with and on behalf of its advocacy efforts.
Companies today operate in an era where environmental, social, and culture change present new challenges and opportunities. To remain competitive, it is essential that companies, brands and individuals stand something -- for if you do not stand for something, you stand for nothing, which only further contributes to the problem. According to the Edelman 2017 Earned Brand Study, 65% of belief-driven buyers refuse to buy a brand that stayed silent on an issue it was obliged to address, and 67% bought a brand for the first time because of its position on a controversial issues. Consumers around the world are buying based on shared beliefs. Being vocal about issues is essential not only to bring about change, but to remain relevant and competitive in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Dove emerged as a cultural leader through their Real Beauty Campaign, which led discourse around the world about redefining the standards of feminine beauty in modern culture.
With the launch of We First Works next month, we’ll cover each of these topics and more to truly understand how to unlock the value of purpose in your life and for your brand or business.
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Our New Training Platform for Defining and Activating Purpose
Have you recently taken a step back from your company to understand its broader purpose and role in the world? Have you found yourself seeking fulfillment or redefining what fulfillment means and looks like in life? Today, companies and individuals are increasingly seeking higher order meaning or purpose in daily actions, decisions and long-term trajectory.
Why now? We live in a new era of cultural movements. Issues that weren’t issues before now put companies at risk, while also present new opportunities. The landscape of socioeconomic movements, from gender equality to gun control, is more fervent now than ever before and individuals and brands alike need to understand their voice in this context. In an era of hyper environmental, social and cultural change, key stakeholders and consumers need to know what you stand for – and what you’re doing to contribute to a better world.
If you don’t stand for something, you risk looking like you stand for nothing – and not part of the solution, but of the problem. Today, individuals and brands need to be advocates more than ever before. To be vocal about issues that create a better world and bring our purpose to life. As traditional business and marketing transform into movement-making and advocacy, purpose and impact take on a whole new importance.
To engage in and lead a movement in your life, inside and outside your company and/or in culture at-large that will scale your business and impact, you must start with a clear definition of purpose.
If you have asked these questions and seeking ways to spark a movement in your life or for your business, if you are looking for greater clarity of intention and action, or looking to realign your future, We First’s upcoming courses on Defining and Activating Purpose are the ideal place to start.
Course 1: Defining and Activating Your Personal Purpose
This course will help you produce a reflective, actionable, concrete strategy towards implementing a more purposeful approach to your life. You’ll move through a set of four key milestones at your own pace covering such topics as:
Course 2: Defining and Activating Your Company Purpose
This course will walk you through producing an actionable, concrete strategy with supporting tactics for creating a more purposeful and purpose-driven brand. You’ll move through four key milestones at your own pace across such topics as:
The benefits received from each course?
On a personal level, gaining clarity of purpose and meaning in your life is connected to happiness, life satisfaction and health and well-being. This clarity translates to your work life, positively influencing fulfillment at work, guiding how you select where to work, and humanizing your overall experience of work. Your personal purpose is why you exist, uniquely you, and expression of your essence. Your personal purpose is not your job, what you do or how you do it.
On a business level, achieving clarity of brand purpose is directly correlated to driving innovation, attracting and retaining talent, and building brand value. What a brand stands for is increasingly important to internal and external stakeholders alike. Your company purpose is why you exist, strategic, and a company-wide strategic direction for all functional areas. Your company purpose is not tactical, what you offer, purely philanthropic or CSR-oriented, or an isolated marketing strategy.
Defining your purpose is difficult because it’s hard to read the label from inside the jar.
Through these two We First Works courses, you’ll progress through a series of interactive exercises and content ranging from concept videos, peer story videos, readings, live office hours and offline activities. Not only will you have access to We First’s proprietary thinking and methodologies, you will also hear and learn from seasoned purpose business leaders across a diversity of industries.
Sign-up now to be the first to know when We First Works launches!
]]>We live in extraordinary times. Culture is being shaped by popular movements fueled by social media and smart phones. Marketing is increasingly taking the form of advocacy and activism. Employees, consumers and citizens are leading movements to defend the values they care about and to champion changes they want to see in their lifetimes. Together, they are revolutionizing how we see the role of business in society. That’s why I am so excited to share this announcement.
Over the last 6 years, We First has had the privilege of working with dozens of leading founders, entrepreneurs, business leaders and companies that are committed to building a better world. TOMS, Virgin Unite, Sony Pictures Entertainment, SAP, Clif Bar, VF and so many others – together we have tackled a myriad of challenges in creating powerful synergies between growing a business and doing good. This has taken the form of consulting, live workshops and speeches all of which gave us a unique perspective on the marketplace today that we couldn’t share at scale. Until now.
This May, We First is launching ‘We First Works,’ an online training platform that opens up our expertise and puts it directly in your hands. Our first course, ‘Defining Your Personal Purpose’, is fundamental to finding well-being, happiness, and fulfillment in life, as well as launching and building a successful company. The second course, ‘Defining your Company Purpose’, is essential to winning the talent wars, increasing productivity, and inspiring everyone in your brand community – suppliers, partners, employees, customers, consumers – to build your business with you. Taken together, these courses ensure you can align your personal and company purpose to unlock value across all aspects of your business and life.
These two courses are the beginning of a full curriculum designed to give you the skills to scale your business and impact no matter where you are in the world. They are also an accessible and affordable way to keep up with how to be successful when the marketplace is changing so quickly. On a personal note, they are a critical piece of our commitment to help create a ‘We First’ world by inspiring the power of business to be used to improves the lives of everyone and the planet we all share.
If you’re passionate about leveraging the power of purpose to build your business and make a difference, subscribe to our newsletter and be first to receive information about the launch of ‘We First Works’. If you’d like to know more about We First, visit our site here. Purpose is the new market driver that ensures your company and products are relevant and meaningful today and in the future to the people that will build your business, and the more your business grows, the greater impact you can have.
We’re so excited to partner with you to support your success and help make a We First world more possible.
Best,
Simon Mainwaring
Founder and CEO, We First
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