C-PHASE PART ONE // 07-10-2020

When I asked Carlijn what she would like to get out of our collaboration, she said a stronger Brand Identity. Carlijn knows very well what she wants and what she does not want, she knows what she stands for and knows where she wants to go with her brand. However, her values, ideals, and goals are all over the place. Instead of focussing on the A-phase, it is more interesting to look at the C-phase: create or adjust a concept based on shared values to structure her thoughts.

On Wednesday, October 7, I held a session with Carlijn to map out the vision and concept of the organization. Creating a vision or concept requires an open mind, trust in your own intuition, a moral compass, and lots of freewheeling and testing. This phase is not only based on being creative; you also need to bring the vision and concept back to reality. Are they based on the Golden Nuggets of the organization? How do they distinguish from possible competitors? In this phase, there is a sound balance between using creative powers in combination with rational / structuring powers (Library Guides, n.d.).

Pyramid of vision, mission, values and strategy

Various models have been developed to be able to recognize and analyze the DNA of a company both from the inside out, but also from the outside in. The first model I chose to use during the session with Carlijn is the pyramid of vision, mission, values​​, and strategy; a model that shows a broad representation of what a DNA consists of and can be recognized. This model was created by Robert Kaplan & David Norton (2008). This model assumes that the basis of an organization consists of 3 aspects.

First the mission. Why does the Impact Expedition exist? What are you going for? By having this clear, you can better communicate what the organization stands for, for the organization itself but also to the outside world. Second, come the vision and core values. What does the organization stand for? How does the organization view the world? Which values ​​are important for the organization? Who or what do you want to be? By answering these questions, you discover what is important to the organization, but also what standards and values ​​the organization applies. Finally, the strategy. What goals does the organization set? Which approach do you use? What are you going to do? It is important that the strategy arises from the mission, vision, and values. The strategy shows what is being done in the longer term.

I asked Carlijn to write down everything that came to mind, without thinking about it for too long. The quantity was central; she did not have to make choices about which phrases and words were more important than others. During this assignment I wanted her to write down everything that was in her head; precisely because she indicated that all her thoughts are not yet structured. It is essential for an organization to have your mission, vision, and strategy clear. Not only to the outside world, so what you want to convey, but also internally so that you remain true to your own norms and values. This is the basis on which all elements of business operations must be aligned. This model is a good start to dive deeper into the DNA of an organization (Kaplan & Norton, 2008).

The Vision of Core Ideology

No self-respecting organization can exist without a vision and mission. vision and mission are usually born in the heads and seldom sufficiently sagged to the heart and stomach. And that is exactly where the content of the vision and mission should be: in people's heads and hearts and bellies. Collins and Porras created a framework for developing a foundation that really helps the organization to become a visionary organization. In essence, it is about understanding the difference between what should never change and what can and should always be changed. They distinguish two main elements: the core ideology and the foreseen future.

The core ideology consists of two elements: core values, the guiding principles, and foundations; a set of essential and immutable basic principles. And the core mission, the most fundamental basis of the existence of the organization; the target audience, the output, and the soul of the organization, so the fundamental difference the organization wants to make compared to other organizations. I asked Carlijn to write down all values ​​that are important to her. What are the values ​​you would like to transfer to others? What are the values ​​you would like to be associated with? Which values ​​will still be important values ​​for you in a hundred years? After she wrote down all the values, I asked Carlijn: If these values ​​put you in a negative position towards your competitors, would you remove some of the values on the board? Carllijn chose to keep all the values she wrote down, but there were a number of values ​​that she supported more. She put a dot behind these values. The core mission is the organization's reason to exist. The core mission describes the soul of the organization, but will never be fulfilled; the core mission can last for hundreds of years. After giving some examples of core missions of other organizations, I asked Carlijn to write down the core mission of the Impact Expedition. Then I asked her "Why is this important?". After she wrote the answer down, I asked her again: ‘’Why is this important?’’. In this way, she came deeper to the core of her true core mission.

The foreseen future also consists of two elements: challenging core goal and the daring dreamed reality. The challenging core goal, in contrast to the core mission, CAN be achieved. Think of quantitative, qualitative, role model, or internal transformative goals. It must be a ‘demanding’ goal; it must take the organization about ten to thirty years to achieve it. A challenging core goal may not be fully achieved, but 70% of this goal should be possible to achieve. In order to have a truly inspiring effect, it is necessary to create a compelling description of the challenging core goal. Here's where the daring dreamed reality comes in. The daring dreamed reality is the realization of the challenging core goal; the development of the most successful and desirable future (Collins and Porras, 1994).

I told Carlijn not to overthink and analyze whether her formulated foreseen future is the right one. I did ask her to check whether her formulated core ideology and foreseen future, was the ideology and future she felt good at. I ask her essential questions like: Do you feel satisfied with the things you have written down? After this assignment it was time for a break, to let everything sink in. 

                                                          

Corporate Identity

A Corporate Identity is nothing more than your brand core very clearly articulated and interpreted. It contains your deepest motives (brand vision) and the way in which you work on your ideals (brand character, translated into core values). Simply put: who you are and what you stand for, so that you can subsequently build on that in everything you do. A good corporate identity provides the right energy and can be understood by everyone.

To help to identify, image, and reveal the desired corporate identity of the Impact Expedition, I used the Spiderweb Method from Bernstein (1986). Later on, this tool was extensively described by Van Riel (1997). The advantages of this method is the simplicity and effectiveness. I asked Carlijn to pick the eight most important words or (short) phrases from the previous assignments and write them down at the end of the lines. The lines were all connected to the 'Impact Expedition' in the middle. I asked Carlijn to rate the words. If she thought the word really suited the identity of the organization, she had to put a dot close to the center. If she thought the word suited less to the identity of the organization, she had to put a dot a little further away. In the end, she was supposed to connect all the dots, to see which words best suited the Identity of the Impact Expedition.

The Spiderweb Method offers an appealing, simple, and attractive view of what is thought about a brand or organization. The session started with a broad assignment where Carlijn could write down whatever she came up with. The second assignment made her think a little more about what she wrote down. In the third assignment, she had to structure everything she had written down, in order to get to the core of her identity and at the same time the identity of the organization. We started diverging in order to converge further and further. After this session, a positive step towards the brand identity has definitely been made!

Next steps

As you can see in the last image, there is a cross through the name 'The Impact Expedition'. This is because Carlijn is not sure whether she wants to keep the name; The Impact Expedition is actually a sub-brand of a whole. In addition to The Impact Expedition, Carlijn wants to offer other services. She does not know yet what the name should be. Interesting to elaborate on that next time, because the name of the organization also belongs to the brand identity.

Furthermore, I noticed in both the first and the second meeting with Carlijn, that she does not know exactly how to describe her target audience. In the past meetings, we have used millennials as the overarching target audience. A clear target audience can also be useful for your brand identity, so this is also interesting to elaborate on.

References

BUAS Library Guides. (n.d.). Imagineering. Retrieved 8 October 2020, from https://buas.libguides.com/c.php?g=395754&p=2689399

Collins, J. C., & Porras, J. I. (1994). Built to Last. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2008). The Execution Premium. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Reed Business Education.

Van Riel, C. B. M. and Balmer, J.M. T. (1997). Corporate identity: the concept, its measurements and management. European Journal of Marketing.