As our organization grew, I realized that while I had a clear vision in my mind of why JNR Networks existed, I wasn’t effectively communicating that vision to our team and clients. When we embarked on the journey to define our traditional business “Mission, Vision, and Values,” we encountered challenges. Some of these challenges stemmed from a lack of clarity, while others arose from our struggle to fit our ideas into the conventional structure. We wanted something that felt right, had the impact we desired, and truly embodied our essence.

Initially, I envisioned writing a “Manifesto” that would tell the story of our business, what we stand for, and how our Mission, Vision, and Values tie everything together. In a somewhat desperate attempt to overcome our struggle, I decided to start writing the Manifesto, hoping that we could reverse-engineer it into writing our Mission, Vision, and Values.

As I began the Manifesto, I realized that I needed to begin with a statement that defined our “Why.” As the “Why” statement developed, I noticed that it lacked the definition of values that would be foundational to decisions we made in the process of delivering on our vision. We sketched out various values and distilled them down to three core elements: integrity, impact, and growth. When I tried to add statements to define each core value in the traditional way, the result felt flat and disconnected. So, I reverted to writing a narrative about the values, which provided the content and connection I was looking for.

Through this journey, we found that our “Why” and “Values” narratives delivered exactly what we wanted in both definition and impact. When we tried to reverse these into more traditional structures of Mission, Vision, and Values, we couldn’t achieve the same feel. As a result, we decided to stay with the two statements, our “Why” and our “Values” statements, that you can view by clicking HERE.

In the IT industry, where rapid changes and high demands are the norm, having a clear sense of purpose is crucial. It provides direction and motivation, enabling us to navigate challenges and seize opportunities with confidence. As we continue to grow and evolve, our “Why” remains at the core of everything we do, driving us to innovate and deliver exceptional value to our clients.

If you already have a clear definition of what you and your organization are about, great, stick with that and execute! If you don’t have anything, this is a critical step. If you are like us and you are struggling to either create the definition or connect with the definition you currently have, I encourage you to try this model.

If my journey is of any help to you, that is awesome! Let me know how it helps you and if you would ever like to chat as you walk through building this definition…either personally or in your organization. You can reach me by filling out our Contact Us Form.