The Mammoth on the Wall
I sat down to write a short piece that talks about Inverta and our ‘guiding principles’.
What drives us? Why do we do what we do? What are our guiding principles?
Every avenue I explored came down to a single underlying principle, at least for me: The basic human need to contribute. As human beings, we have a primal need to contribute to the greater good and a common goal. I mean this in a very practical way. Taking down that Woolly mammoth and putting food on the cave table was a team effort. It’s how our species survived and continues to survive. I believe this still drives us today.
When our contribution is meaningful and appreciated we feel good. When we’re not contributing, or our contribution is not understood or appreciated, we feel bad. Simple, right?
Nope.
Today we live in a world where there are a lot of moving pieces. And our contribution to a team, an organization, or society as a whole can easily get lost. We sometimes feel like we’re putting in and putting in and we’re not getting any satisfaction out of it. In fact, it’s the opposite. It’s frustrating and exhausting. Often we’re left feeling empty.
Why?
I think it’s a few of things. First: In order for us to feel like we’re making a contribution we need to know that our contribution is understood and accepted. A little recognition closes the loop.
In order for that to happen we need to understand the common goal at the highest possible level. What are we all trying to do here? Are we going after a Woolly mammoth today? Does the business have a revenue goal that we need to contribute to? Do we have a new customer acquisition target that we have to help meet?
Usually this is an easy question to answer. But we need to write it down and put it where everyone can see it. Ever notice there are a lot of Woolly mammoths in cave paintings?
Second, and a little bit harder, everyone needs to understand what their part is in contributing to the common goal. What is marketing’s role? What is my team responsible for? How are we going to contribute? Are we holding the spears, or throwing the ropes? This takes planning.
And third, we need to see how we’re doing against that plan. We need to be able to measure our progress, and our contribution in a way that makes sense to the common goal.
At Inverta we want our team members to feel that they are contributing to our common goal in a meaningful way. Our common goal happens to be helping you, our clients, understand and contribute to your goals.
That collaboration with you is what drives us. Every report, email blast, persona definition, nurture campaign, and strategic account plan that we help you with is driven by our need to contribute to you, by helping you better understand, measure, and demonstrate your contribution to your business.
Maybe you’ll get a “thanks” from your business and maybe you won’t. We can’t guarantee that. But over time you will be able to see your contribution and talk about it in a meaningful way.
And you’ll always get a “thanks” from us.
It’s what drives us.
