In the early days of Gild Collective, as we were going through the Brandery accelerator and learning through trial and error (lots and lots of error) how to start and run a business, we shared a lot about what was going on behind the scenes. What was working, what wasn’t, and many of the changes we made along the way.
A lot of those early posts got lost when I accidentally deleted our entire blog, including backups, and we had to rebuild post-by-post. See what I mean about errors?
Maybe along with losing those posts we also left behind the transparency of the changes we continue to make and why we’re making them. So, I thought I would share some of the work we’ve been doing in the first half of 2019 to focus the goals of Gild Collective, the type of work we are doing, and the impact we want to have with our clients.
Refreshing the Foundation
A few months ago, we started working with Stacy Kessler, a consultant who helps entrepreneurs find clarity in their business strategy, and one of the first things we tackled together was the mission statement of Gild Collective. While we’ve always had a mission statement, vision statement and core values as part of our businesses’ strategy map, we had fallen into a pattern of making small tweaks to it along the way versus sitting down and really assessing whether it still fit.
Rough whiteboarding of our mission statement
Through our time with Stacy, she pushed us to start from scratch, really thinking about what gives us energy, what drains us, what big changes we want to make for our clients, and what that means to us on a deeper level. After a lot of whiteboarding, deep discussion and tweaking, we developed four elements to drive Gild Collective in its fifth year (!)—our vision, mission, purpose and core values.
Vision
(what we’re striving toward)
Workplaces without gender barriers.
Purpose
(why it matters)
Women are free to make intentional choices that are truly best for their life and career.
Core Values
(how we want to do the work, both internally and externally)
Respect
Equity
Empathy
Responsibility
Collaborative Problem Solving
Mission
(how we make it all happen)
Gild Collective changes individual views and behaviors to shift workplace cultures and break down gender barriers.
Now that we have this intentionally refreshed foundation to build from, we’ve hit the ground running on how to fulfill our mission with renewed energy and focus. It’s amazing what a difference a few guiding statements can make! We’d love your thoughts and feedback on our behind-the-scenes work.
In the coming months, we’ll be sharing a new offering built on our mission to truly change views and behaviors to combat bias. We know that many organizations have already begun interrupting bias in their business systems through inclusive practices in recruiting, promotion, parental leave, and flexible work policies—but they may still be looking for ways to drive individual buy-in, especially among mid-level managers. If this sounds like you, get in touch so we can talk about piloting this new program with you.