Monday to Friday, when the clock strikes nine, I here some voices around me… come for the ritual. Long time, since I actually worshipped God in the morning… but this isn’t about God and idol-worshipping..!!
A few weeks ago, in one of our internal meetings, we decided that we would follow a ritual. A practice to recite the company’s vision, mission, values & culture, To speak out loud the company’s ten commandments and ten imperatives.
The first thought that struck my mind was… “Oh great, I’d not have to cram these sentences now and would be able to learn them easily in this manner.”
Of course this thought had a reason… Till date, I have no idea about the vision and the mission of the company where I did my summer training. I don’t even remember the number of values they had. No wonder they took some steps to make us learn those… like putting them on posters all around the office, pinning a paper at each desk… but who would have cared to have a look at those.
Once when my colleague was asked about the company’s values, I quietly glanced at the poster in front of me, so that I can speak them out, in case the next turn was mine. Poor chap could not glance at the poster and received a round of verbal bash.
Even during the corporate presentations during my days at management school, I was really bugged when these slides appeared on the screen. My mind used to shout… “I need to complete my assignments and projects. Why don’t these guys quickly move on to the relevant part of the presentation?”
Well, this being my views about corporate vision and mission, the announcement about the morning ritual at Milagrow was a relief. I thought, “This time definitely I’ll be able to learn these.”
Then, the next day onwards, the practice began. In the presence of just half the total number of employees, the ritual was initiated. This being the first day, we opened the corporate presentation on my laptop and read out the slides.
I probably didn’t give much attention to the meaning of each and every word because all I was doing was reading the slides loud.
The next three days, I was out in Mumbai for a client meeting and could not participate in the ritual. On the fifth day, the same practice of reading out the slides repeated. Finally & thankfully, the essence of the practice was checked on the sixth day. When asked as to how many remembered any of the vision, mission, values, culture, etc. not even a single hand was raised. No doubts, the practice had become meaningless.
So, for the next morning, all of us were then told that each and everything should be learnt by-heart and known to every individual. Finally, I learnt them before the next dawn.
Next morning, we all met again. As expected, everyone had learnt everything. But it still didn’t change my views about these things. They were still some English statements, which companies put on papers to show that they work with a strategy.
The practice has now continued for another 2 weeks. I don’t know how, but things have changed entirely in the last 14 days.
Now, every morning when I hear the vision, mission, values and culture, and speak them in my heart, my mind tells me, “Now you know what you are working for..!! What are you expected to do..?? Did you do something which is not aligned to the corporate values..??” A strange change, but probably the essence of the ritual was to achieve the same. When I sit back and think, what brought this change in just 14 days, I feel it was a mix of too many factors.
Firstly, and probably the most important one, the corporate values are aligned to my personal values. It’s just that in the last 25 years of my life, I never cared to list them and think how I am following them in my daily routine. Only when they were repeated daily, I realized that actually this is what I do in professional as well as personal life. However, now since these are listed down precisely, the chances on missing out on any of these in daily life becomes negligible.
Secondly, now whenever I am stuck somewhere in my work and am confused as to what should I do, these act as a handbook. Just a quick reference to the values and the culture, and somehow I get to see the way forward. For example, earlier I used to just finish of the tasks that were given to me. All I used to check was whether my job is done or not. But now, when I speak out daily that “Entrepreneurial thinking is a way of life,” my attitude has changed. Now I no longer check if my job is done, but I foresee that is my work productive? Have I been able to achieve something in the day?
Then during the reciting of the Ten Commandments and the ten imperatives, my mind keeps on checking whether I did it or not. Is there anything that has been left out? In fact a couple of times, during the ritual itself, I signalled my colleague that we have missed out on that point and we need to finish that right after this. Certainly, he was also thinking the same and I could observe a similar reaction from his side too.
It feels great to realize that with a simple practice, I have found a structure in my way of working. And the best thing that I feel is that I and my colleagues have some common things now - the reason for which we are working and our attitude towards our work.
I realize that this ritual would have significance if the employees believe in reaching out to its essence, but for some ignorant species like what I was, it was an eye & mind-opener. This was one of my first corporate learning, which taught me the significance and use of the vision, mission, values and culture of a company.
With me writing so much about it and you wondering what actually has got a change in me, let me simply pen down what I work for at my office.
Vision: We are Venture Catalysts. We Nurture Ideas and Enable Growth Seeking Enterprises to attain Ethical, Sustainable and Profitable Growth
Mission: Become ‘The Destination’ for Micro, Small and Medium Businesses. To partner with aspiring enterprises as a Venture Catalyst and build ‘best in class’ managerial and organizational capabilities in them. We shall a) Nurture Shared Values, b) Develop Relevant Knowledge & Competence and c) Create and Sustain Entrepreneurial Culture
Values: a) Commitment – Own everything we do
b) Ethics – Integrity, Honesty and Transparency in what we do
c) Respect – All Stake Holders
d) Trust – Believe in People
Culture:
* Entrepreneurial thinking is a way of life
* Belief in Youth
* Equal Opportunities to all
* Thirst for Knowledge
* Respect and Recognition for Expertise
* Accessible & Straight forward
* Collaborative approach
* Making things happen
* Passionate and Professional at the same time
Ten Commandments:
1. Have I cleaned my workplace today?
2. Have I updated my schedule on the shared calendar?(All client related, external facing and time bound, time consuming tasks must be on it)
3. Did I reconfirm all my appointments for today?
4. Have I prepared myself for my meetings today?
5. How will I delight my customers today?
6. Have I helped my internal customers today?
7. Did I make a call to my family/friends today?
8. Did I create/capture new knowledge for myself today? Did I blog today?
9. Did I reply to all my emails today?
10. Did I make my HML for tomorrow? (Do the biggest impact and external facing things first)
Ten Imperatives:
1. Follow the company templates on external and internal communication
2. All external communication which commits the company to doing a thing must be checked by a peer or superior
3. Record notes of all external meetings and important internal decisions must be made in written and circulated to all concerned within 24 hours
4. Minutes of Client meetings must go out in 24 hours after approval from superiors
5. Weekly Client reports are a must before weekend
6. Monthly Client reports must be printed before the 5th of next month
7. Company nomenclature and numbering system must be followed for all files and folders
8. Google groups must be hosted on every important initiative
9. Open source project management and IT tools must be learnt and followed
10. Always log on to 'Milagrow Chat' unless in meetings
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