core promise: a simple driver of healthy, resilient, high-performance

Core Promise™ A Simple Driver of Healthy, Resilient, High-

Performance

Be part of the solution for radically better

use of organizational resources

© The BestWork® People 2012

Design is an essential organizational discipline

With increasing competition for relevance to key audiences, and increasing pressure from relentless change as well as diminishing resources,

The ability to design superior value with minimal investment – quickly – has become mission-critical for reliable performance

These pages invite you to a new approach to organizational achievement: applying the power of new design thinking to Strategic Planning and Organizational Design


START BY CONSIDERING EVERY PLAYER IN YOUR

ECOSYSTEM A STAKEHOLDER


Who assesses the value of your business?

Customers


Strategic Allies

Regulators

Volunteers

Investors

Online Communities

Municipalities

Employees

Suppliers

Referral Sources

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Generating benefit for all of those Stakeholders

is the game to be won

Take a fresh look at your value exchange with each one

What do you promise? What do they promise? What’s explicit and what’s implied?


What do they count on you for ?


What do you want them to count on you for?

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What if – instead of multiple diffuse exchanges –you could focus your resources

on one compelling promise to all of your Stakeholders?


And design your entire business around it


What is Core Promise?

An enterprise is a network of commitments: nothing more, nothing less

Commitments are social acts: promises among parties to deliver certain tangibles and intangibles Core Promise is a social contract – the heart of a resilient enterprise:

Articulating who you are committed to, and how you will serve themFueling a business model that powers strong Stakeholder relationships, and provides a solid foundation for planning


A Core Promise galvanizes Stakeholders

The impact of a promise is innate: it’s a powerful social act.

Because human beings have evolved through the advantage of cooperating, our brains are organized to keep us focused on the merits of potential interactions with others.

A clear Core Promise fuels the social connection at the heart of every exchange, naturally energizing the organization


Examples of Core Promises

(They’re proprietary; they can serve a division or an entire enterprise. Those below are intentionally obscured)

We ensure that every Bank transaction is safe for all parties

We serve communities with good merchandise at fair prices to both customers and suppliers, favorable work environments, and minimal environmental impact

We provide personal, convenient, affordable, environmentally sound transportation

We illuminate and assign the costs – financial and environmental – of every printed document

We strengthen communities by growing women entrepreneurs, who in turn educate their children and expand the middle class


How is Core Promise different from Mission?

A mission is statement of intent, eg

“To help people with disabilities find the opportunity to work”“To deliver the best mousetrap”

A Core Promise focuses commitment for value to all Stakeholders, eg “We provide affordable, skilled workers, strengthening the viability of families, communities, and enterprises” “We ensure that families, businesses, and institutions are safe from vermin”

A Core Promise greatly improves both organizational cohesion and responsiveness to changes in Stakeholder concerns


How does Core Promise fit with Values, Vision and Purpose?

Core Promise is the embodiment of your organizational Values

It operationalizes your Purpose

And serves as a beacon when change appears to challenge your Vision

For example, how would you serve your Stakeholders in the event of an epidemic or emergency? Your Vision might shift; your Core Promise would remain foundational.


Examples of results driven by Core Promise

A major bank won regulators' approval, relieving limits to growth by acquisition

Management teams in Fortune 100, midsize, small business, and non-profit

boards stepped into alignment to drive growth and reduce costs Divisions of matrixed Fortune 500 moved beyond gridlock to develop profitable

strategies and products, and exceed revenue goals year after year

Resistant managers in Fortune 100 and small business embraced cultural change, driving new practices and developing new competences, widening the gap facing competitors

Suppliers and distributors adopted new performance standards, boosting profitability all around


A Core Promise changes your story

About who you are

About what you deliver

About opportunities

for value exchanges in your ecosystem


IF CORE PROMISE IS SO POWERFUL,

WHY ARE SO FEW EXECUTIVES EMPLOYING

IT?


Core Promise requires new abilities and practices

Stepping outside your own

business and observing the ecosystem of which your Stakeholders are a part – systematically, repeatedly – and visible to your entire workforce

Identifying the culture and competencies that will enable your people to do their best work fulfilling the promise



No matter what your current priorities

Change is not going to slow down; Stakeholders’ concerns will continue to shift

Designing metrics, strategies, and actions from Core Promise drives focus, reduces ambiguity about what to let go, and builds trust

As the world re-morphs, you can respond quickly to new requirements, while maintaining integrity and deepening important relationships

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Amplify enterprise strength, resilience and integrity

Operating from a clear Core Promise builds trust by clarifying what to rely on you for

Designing metrics and strategies that drive performance against it streamlines resources and inspires best work, yielding competitive advantage

A clear Core Promise gets you ready to boost your identity

Though it may seem like a slow way to start, it will reduce the time required for planning by a factor of 5 – 10


Our enterprises beg for radical improvement in the way resources are

deployed

Organizations have a huge role in creating a world we can safely pass to our grandchildren. But people working long hours, multi-tasking, answering emails at 2 am, cannot do their best work, much less innovate. The brain does not generate new thinking when stressed

If your people are working more than 42 hours a week, your model is part of the problem

These pages offer a new way of leveraging design thinking to forge far more effective and efficient – thriving – enterprises

I hope you’ll use them to become a bigger part of the solution.


HOW TO IMPLEMENT THE BENEFITS

OF CORE PROMISE


Implementation Steps

One Identify your StakeholdersTwo Articulate your Core

Promise Three Define your Metrics Four Design your Strategies


STEP ONE:

IDENTIFY YOUR STAKEHOLDERS


Who are your Stakeholders?

Customers


Strategic Allies

Regulators

Volunteers

Investors

Online Communities

Municipalities

EmployeesSuppliers

Referral Sources

List all of them – those central to your business model and those more peripheral – and what you do for them

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Consider mapping your Ecosystem


Revealing which Stakeholders are central, how they all relate to each other, and how you add value

25

STEP TWO:

ARTICULATE YOUR CORE PROMISE


Ask a sample of Stakeholderswhat they rely on you for

Listen

Let them illuminate how you serve various parties

Learn from their views and the language they use


Articulate what everyone can count on you for – no matter what

Core Promise shifts organizational focus

From “What we do” to “Who we serve”, naturally inspiring Stakeholders and generating their best work

With Core Promise in place, you’re ready to begin planning and design


Core Promise provides a strong, resilient foundation for planning and design


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STEP THREE:

DEFINE YOUR METRICS

Identify key performance indicators

(Yes, do this before developing strategies)


Re-define enterprise performance


How are you performing against Core Promise in the four key Balanced Scorecard areas?

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Note where value is generated and where it’s realized


Source: Balanced Scorecard Institute

Financial Results Outcome

StakeholderAssessments

Outcome

Operations:Internal Process

Driver

Organizational Capacity

Driver

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Establishing metrics in all four areas provides the benefit of both leading and

lagging indicators

While every enterprise

seeks the outcomesat the ‘top’,

Value is driven byorganizational capacity and operations at the‘bottom’


Financial Results

Stakeholder Experience

Operations: Internal Process

Organizational Capacity

Two outcomes: lagging

Two drivers: leading

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Examples of leading and lagging metrics

LeadingOperations– Returns due to product flaws – Employees involving their

families in Wellness programs

Organization– Managers taking full

vacations, not checking email

– Employees generating desired brand experience within six weeks of on-boarding

LaggingFinance– Revenue from new

strategic partnerships– Net cost/savings from

Green and Wellness initiatives

Stakeholder Experience – Online communities

actively tracking results of new products

– Website customer support required


STEP FOUR:

INVENT STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE TARGETED

METRICSRemember where value is driven

and where it’s realized


Four questions for designing strategies


Ensure that each Strategy has a clear line

of sight to Stakeholder value


Consider how your Core Promise can increase the value of Stakeholders to

each other

Core Promise serves as a context and a currency, driving consistency of experience

Providing another view for getting critical relationships right And increasing the value of the entire ecosystem


STRATEGY MAPS CAN BE CRAFTED TO ADDRESS

CURRENT THEMES & PRIORITIES


This one was designed to foster corporate wellness


Dashboard for a young not-for-profit: ready for action


Domain Metrics Strategies

Finance

• Total revenue (in-kind included)

• Operating reserves

• Track value of in-kind donations

StakeholderAssessments

• How often are reports shared • Percentage of students who

become mentors

• Provide quarterly reports of each student’s progress

• Provide video clips with permission to donors to share

Operations

• Number of students who succeed in building community jobs

• Time required to recruit and orient

• Build partnerships with tech companies for collaborative and training software

• After piloting content and process, create electronic learning process

OrganizationalCapacity

• Number of skilled volunteers• Number of students funded

• Focus Culture on value of every exchange with Stakeholders

• Provide training to staff and volunteers re creating rich exchanges

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Build a healthy, resilient, high performing enterprise

Core Promise is a transparent social contract, building trust among Stakeholders

It’s a context for putting people at their best: generating value and strengthening relationships

It’s a call to action in your organization and your ecosystem

I invite you to become a bigger part of the solution.


With gratitude for the thinkers, teachers, and researchers who illuminated the path

Marsha Shenk is one of the pioneers of Business Anthropology. Her models have empowered business leaders for more than three decades.

Synthesizing insights from Neuroscience, Linguistics, Somatics, and business, her work simplifies the complex cultural, biological, and historical forces that determine the success of modern enterprises.

www.BestWork.biz http://twitter.com/marshashenk


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