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

2 © The BestWork® People 2012

START BY CONSIDERING
EVERY PLAYER IN YOUR
ECOSYSTEM
A STAKEHOLDER

3

Who assesses the value of your business?

Customers Volunteers

Municipalities Regulators

Online Communities Referral Sources

Investors
Strategic Allies
Suppliers
Employees


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?


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
them
Fueling 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

IF CORE PROMISE IS SO
POWERFUL,

WHY ARE SO FEW
EXECUTIVES EMPLOYING IT?

15

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


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

20

Implementation Steps

One Identify your Stakeholders
Two Articulate your Core Promise
Three Define your Metrics
Four Design your Strategies


STEP ONE:

IDENTIFY YOUR
STAKEHOLDERS

22

Who are your Stakeholders?

Customers Volunteers

Municipalities Regulators

Online Communities Referral Sources

Strategic Allies Investors

Suppliers
Employees

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


Consider mapping your Ecosystem

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


STEP TWO:

ARTICULATE YOUR
CORE PROMISE

25

Ask a sample of Stakeholders
what 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


STEP THREE:

DEFINE YOUR METRICS

Identify key performance indicators
(Yes, do this before developing strategies)

29

Re-define enterprise performance

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


Note where value is generated
and where it’s realized

Financial Results Outcome

Stakeholder
Outcome
Assessments

Operations:
Driver
Internal Process

Organizational
Driver
Capacity

Source: Balanced Scorecard Institute


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

Financial Results
While every enterprise Two outcomes:
lagging
seeks the outcomes
at the ‘top’, Stakeholder Experience

Value is driven by
Operations: Internal
organizational Process
capacity and Two drivers:
leading
operations at the
‘bottom’ Organizational Capacity


Examples of leading and lagging metrics

Leading Lagging
Operations Finance
– Returns due to product flaws – Revenue from new strategic
– Employees involving their partnerships
families in Wellness programs – Net cost/savings from Green
and Wellness initiatives
Organization
– Managers taking full Stakeholder Experience
vacations, not checking email – Online communities actively
– Employees generating desired tracking results of new
brand experience within six products
weeks of on-boarding – Website customer support
required


STEP FOUR:

INVENT STRATEGIES TO
ACHIEVE TARGETED METRICS
Remember where value is driven
and where it’s realized

34

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

38

This one was designed to foster
corporate wellness


Dashboard for a young not-for-profit:
ready for action
Domain Metrics Strategies
• Total revenue (in-kind • Track value of in-kind donations
Finance included)
• Operating reserves
• How often are reports shared • Provide quarterly reports of each
Stakeholder • Percentage of students who student’s progress
Assessments become mentors • Provide video clips with permission
to donors to share
• Number of students who • Build partnerships with tech
succeed in building community companies for collaborative and
Operations jobs training software
• Time required to recruit and • After piloting content and process,
orient create electronic learning process
• Focus Culture on value of every
Organizational • Number of skilled volunteers exchange with Stakeholders
Capacity • Number of students funded • Provide training to staff and
volunteers re creating rich
exchanges


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

42

Core Promise: A Simple Driver of Healthy, Resilient, High-Performance

Core Promise: A Simple Driver of Healthy, Resilient, High-Performance

More Related Content

What's hot (19)

Similar to Core Promise: A Simple Driver of Healthy, Resilient, High-Performance (20)

More from marsha shenk (7)

Recently uploaded (20)

Core Promise: A Simple Driver of Healthy, Resilient, High-Performance