The Corporate Rebels Handbook Series: Purpose and Values

Every company needs a purpose, and every company needs explicit values to use as the foundation on which to operate. Without these two components, you’re either going to lose yourself and chase all different directions, lose control of your company culture, or both. (Actually, it will be both, eventually. Bet on it.)

That’s why our Corporate Rebels handbook outlines each of these core components. We want to remain focused on our primary purpose, of course, but we also want to maintain a company culture that not only ensures we stay focused on our mission but also fosters (and maintains) a culture of respect, accountability, and drive so we can continue to pursue our purpose and continue to love what we do.

Purpose

As you all know by now, our purpose is to make work more fun. It’s the reason why we started Corporate Rebels, and it’s the reason why the company does what it does.

Okay, but why?

Simple: It’s a waste of time to do work that you’re not passionate about. It’s a waste of your life. Monday to Friday shouldn’t be a long wait for the weekend to begin. Work shouldn’t be this dreadful for so many people around the globe. After all, it’s where we spend the majority of our time. It’s how we make money. It’s a part of who we are.

Where did we get the idea that work is something to be loathed or at least a place that has very few good days? There are many answers to this, but the main reason always tends to be the companies themselves—they are often the ones that create this cynical work culture and mindset. And everyone has slowly gotten used to it over the last century or so.

Here’s what we believe: Work can be a place for passion, growth, and meaning. A place where you can develop your skills and talents and contribute to something you truly believe in.

That’s not an easy thing to achieve. But it’s something worth exploring, understanding, and developing. And that’s what we are doing.

Values

Our values guide how we do things at Corporate Rebels. They support us in making decisions. They help us to avoid an abundance of rules and policies. They guide how we organize our company.

These values are what we like to see from ourselves and our coworkers:

We trust each other

We are all responsible, sensible adults who love to contribute to Corporate Rebels. We don’t need top-down control or childish rules and policies to dictate how we work. Instead, we always make our decisions based on trust—from where and when we work to how we do our work and communicate with each other. Without trust, things can go south quickly.

Later in the blog series, you'll see how the way we work is very strongly based on a very high level of trust. Subscribe to the newsletter to receive more details on the Corporate Rebels way of working.

We honor our commitments

If we commit to something, we follow through. We do as we promise. This is vitally important to any company, and especially to a company organized the way we are.

No, this is not an easy thing to do, and there are always things that get in the way of honoring 100% of our commitments. That’s true anywhere. But honoring our commitments is something we strive for and hold each other accountable to do.

We take initiative

We love to take initiative! If we see an opportunity, we step up and take the lead. If things don’t go how we’d like them to, we take the initiative to fix them. We would hate for this to be a place where people complain and do nothing about it.

Simple, Effective, and Permanent

And there you have it. A company’s purpose and values do not have to be some long, flowery, poetic-yet-ambiguous statement that offers nothing in the end. Our purpose and values are simple, to the point, and intentionally obvious.

However, the key is maintaining and upholding them, regardless of what comes our way. That’s what has gotten us this far, and that’s what will keep us going into the future as we continue our mission of radically changing workplaces for the better of everyone.

In the next few posts you'll learn in more detail how we put our values into practice.

For now, this is it! See you in the next post: What to Expect (and What Not to Expect)

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