‘The speech’ was not a final, completed work.
It was a thought-stream that had been coalescing in Dan’s mind for months. Dan had revised and improved it several times already. Cherise, Dan’s perceptive wife, had heard various sections and versions as they stacked the dishwasher, waited to collect the kids from soccer matches and on their rare, uninterrupted dinner dates.
Cherise was the one who’d confirmed the focal noun.
Mia was Dan’s office reviewer for a two-thirds rendition on the day when George announced a restructure. Dan suspected he wasn’t the only one sharing ‘the speech’, or something less constructive, on that day.
So, it wasn’t quite the unrehearsed discourse it was later portrayed to be. But in time it attained an almost mythical status due to its timeliness, passion, and clarity.
‘Calvin?’ Dan interrupted, ‘Can I add a thought before you do that?’ With the meeting bogged down, Dan’s polite request was a welcome change of tone.
‘Sure,’ replied Calvin, with a hint of relief.
‘Well, if we’re struggling to be clear on the approach, I can’t help thinking it’s because we’re not clear about why we exist.’
A surprising combination of three events occurred in the very short gap between this comment and the next. Firstly, neither Mia nor Tony seized on the opportunity to restate their case, as if nobody heard them the first four times. Secondly, every member of the team pondered the comment and considered it astute. And thirdly, Dan didn’t stop there.
Continuing with a slight shrug, Dan proffered, “Some people here think we’re about bringing people in and delivering programs. Way too many of us really aren’t certain why we exist. But if we think about the things we’re most proud of, and the people we’ve served the best, I think our purpose becomes clear and who we should promote ourselves to also becomes clear.
I’ve said before that Jim and Kate Mardonis are the clearest examples to me of why we exist. Great people – cutest kids ever – but struggling to makes ends meet despite their well-paid jobs. They were putting themselves under so much pressure to achieve, to acquire things and have amazing experiences. They came to us because they were close to being crushed by the weight of it all, and now they’re free of all that.
That’s why we exist – so people become free.
We sell...freedom.”
Calvin’s bottom jaw was now a distance below the rest of his head. Mia was gently nodding. Vince was grinning from ear to ear. Tony was still speechless. And Arvi had even stopped browsing social media.
We sell freedom.
Dan was right. Precious few of his colleagues understood it, and certainly nobody had ever stated it before. Even founder George – there was no evidence that it was his motivation thirty years earlier. And even if it had been true then, it was not mentioned anymore and conspicuous by its absence, it was apparently unnecessary in current times.
Besides that, freedom only appeared in one of the key directions in the corporate Statement of Defining Purpose. What a document that was, and a rigorously debated and defended one at that.
But Dan was about to realise that his three words were an unequal match in the Great Battle of the Mission Statements.
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