Gathering employee stories on purpose and values

CASE STUDY

Insight & Analysis

Gathering employee stories on purpose and values

We worked with the National Space Centre to source a wide range of insights into the organisation's purpose and values.

The client was looking for an external team to lead organisation-wide discussions. Sessions were to revolve around storytelling and workshops to draw out a set of shared values and feed into a smaller team’s creations of value statements, company ethos and potential review of the mission statement. The idea was to:

Explore the depth and breadth of work carried out at the Centre
Provoke vibrant discussions around the context of the work and the meaning employees attach to it
Gather insights, experiences and ideas that would help the organisation align around a common purpose

We developed a bespoke workshop format and worksheet to enable participants to analyse a recent project using a storytelling structure, drawing out rich detail about some of the Centre’s most important work over the past few years. We used the classic Hero's Journey storytelling structure to form the basis of the approach.

This approach also enabled participants to look back at their work and its results, thus providing a valuable opportunity for reflection and learning. Finally it helped participants see what this work meant to them and others, in terms of personal achievement and impact on stakeholders.

The workshops themselves were effective for:

Breaking down silos between departments, promoting sharing and appreciation of key projects and best practice
Enabling participants to analyse their own work and reflect on successes, failures and impact - both to themselves and to stakeholders
Helping participants identify and justify the value of their work
Providing valuable public speaking practice and feedback

The nine workshops were attended by 100 people in total, each of whom analysed their work through a specially-designed worksheet and presented their stories to other participants.

The 100 stories created and shared are all written up in a central resource online, and can thus be analysed at length by the National Space Centre. The results of an online survey carried out prior to the workshop are also available.

In terms of the organisation’s mission and values, the project revealed an opportunity to better define the range of activities carried out and the variety of impact areas.

In terms of values espoused and embodied by participants, there were a number of highly inspiring themes that are worth capturing and comparing with the “mission” element.

Client testimonial

"You asked the right questions throughout the whole process, and our team found you very easy to work with. Your input was impartial, insightful and extremely valuable."

Kersti Fourcin

Communications and Marketing Manager

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