A cohesive vision for the future is central to any thriving company; it’s the road map by which you and your team steer the business to success. But a set of lofty goals isn’t quite enough to motivate and unify an organization. It’s important to have an overarching aim for the coming years, but you also need to provide some guidance on how your business should conduct itself today . You need core values that encourage a certain spirit for your team and hold them to a high standard of excellence. To build a set of core values that’s unique and valuable to your business, you must first decide whose input you want during the process. This should be a panel of the key players in your business and employees skilled at providing new and powerful ideas. Ensure that each of the members of your think tank embodies the qualities you want to see throughout your organization. Next, get everyone in a room to start brainstorming. Set a date for a meeting and encourage everyone to come prepared with a list of values they feel are the most important for your business. Ask your think tank which values are central to them as individuals and expand that to include values that are vital to your entire company. After you’ve got a healthy list of good ideas, combine and define them. Look for commonalities. It’s likely that many of them will orbit just a few key principles. After a bit of pruning and rewording, these principles become your core values. Once you’ve got your set of 5–10 main ideas, outline 3 KEYS TO MAKING CORE VALUES COUNT ESTABLISH THE GUIDING HEART OF YOUR BUSINESS
exactly what each of them means in a few sentences or a paragraph. You may want a skilled writer on board during this step to nail down a set of clear and compelling definitions. The process may be difficult, but once you’re done, you and your team will have a set of powerful, unifying core values. These will state your company’s purpose and drive your team to excellence. Core values may seem like a small consideration in the midst of day-to-day operations, but they can make an enormous difference.
‘THE ORIGINS OF HAPPINESS’ CHANGING OUR IDEAS OF SUCCESS
What is happiness? How can we encourage well-being in others? These are the sorts of questions that have kept philosophers busy since the dawn of human history. In “The Origins of Happiness,” a team of the world’s leading social scientists tackles these age-old mysteries. Their groundbreaking findings may change the workplace and public policy.
charm, and wisdom in spades. With their down-to-earth prose, the authors dissect complex arguments and strip long-held beliefs to their core assumptions. The result is a methodical yet enjoyable exploration of what it means to live well in today’s world. While it’s designed to help policymakers quantify and boost the satisfaction of their citizens, there is something for everyone in “Origins.” The chapters on success and happiness in children are of particular interest to parents and educators, for example. Business owners and managers should be especially interested in the book’s data-driven reimagining of wealth and happiness. The paycheck is no longer the universal incentive for employees we once thought it was. One has only to look to Silicon Valley to know that some of the most successful companies on the planet have prioritized the well-being of their employees. The quirky perks and benefits offered by Google and Amazon make much more sense from a business standpoint after reading “Origins.” This is one of those rare works that captures the prevailing winds of the business world and puts them into easy-to-understand terms backed by hard data. Far more than vague platitudes about money not buying happiness, “Origins” will change the way you think about everyone’s well- being — including your own.
Listed as one of the top five books Business Insider was excited about for the year 2018, “Origins” does not disappoint. If you want to better understand your own happiness or the happiness of others, you’ll find the book to be an enlightening page turner. Even though it’s based on years of research and filled with graphs and data to support the authors’ arguments, it doesn’t read like a heady scientific report. On the contrary, this fairly short book is surprisingly accessible. Between the charts and equations, you’ll find “Origins” has wit,
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