Build a World within the World
Every growth planning journey begins with envisioning the future to identify a direction. Next, we assess the context and survey the terrain to define what growth means for us. In the second half of the growth planning process, we turn our attention to three concepts that support us to build a world within the world: VALUES & CULTURE, OUTREACH, and OPERATIONS. World building combines the inspirational and the operational aspects of our work to create or renew a supportive foundation for our project, practice, or business.
+ VALUES & CULTURE is guided introspection leading to a north star narrative of the world you’re building within your work. The values you bring into your project contribute to the culture of your project. Your project’s culture is the manifestation of these values over time; it’s the intangible force that defines the internal atmosphere of your project, practice, or business. We all have the opportunity to use our work to model and build a world we want to live in, a world within the world. The way we enact our work builds a world. Building a world leads to fulfillment and sustainability: Rather than striving and struggling to keep up with received ideas of success or trying to figure out how to proceed with our work by looking from the outside into what others who appear to be successful appear to be doing, we are guided by our own values to develop a culture that creates a world in which we want to live and in which we may thrive.
+ OUTREACH explores your community(ies) and the way(s) you communicate with them. It’s the part of your parallel practice that touches on the entire spectrum of relationships you engage in as part of your project, practice, or business, from relational to transactional and everything in between. Authentic, values-aligned outreach emerges from focusing on your own output; your own values and culture; and your own goals. Outreach is a creative practice unto itself that helps you connect with community(ies) and communicate the culture of the world you’re building.
+ OPERATIONS are the procedures and systems you’ll use to bring your growth plan to life. Your VALUES & CULTURE are your guiding lights for designing and/or refining your OPERATIONS with the appropriate nuance to keep your project aligned with your values and to build and communicate your culture through everything you do. While the overall growth plan you’re working on is the map of the world you’re building, your operations are the specific procedures and systems that answer the questions: How do we do what we do every day? And, how will we do what we need to do to grow? In growth planning, we use VALUES & CULTURE as guiding lights for designing and/or refining your OPERATIONS as a way to assure that we enact our work—and build our world with the world—with clarity and integrity.
Build your world in the 5th cohort of the annual Continuous Project Growth Planning Workshop. The workshop begins on September 4, and registration is now open through September 3.
Email me with questions or to register. I look forward to talking with you!
