Insights

A lens into Spinnakerfest 2019

Written by Shawn Sweeney | Dec 19, 2019 1:38:46 PM

Organizational growth requires great intention and attention. It requires leaders who not only understand where they’re going, but how they’re going to get there. And luckily for Spinnaker, it favors organizations who set their stakes early and embody the analyst mindset of continual reevaluation and course correction.

Earlier this month at our inaugural Spinnakerfest - which is part all-hands meeting, part professional development, and part team-building – I spoke about one of our key growth initiatives from 2019.  I shared an anecdote about the process we went through to establish our company values, and the impact of having answers to core organizational questions, a song sheet from which we all sing from.

As I reflected now on that process, and the impact for current and prospective employees, I’m grateful to be going through it as a 44-person team, as opposed to white-knuckling through a similar effort with 100 or even 200 employees spread across the US.  I can only imagine the dollars spent, and the tchotchkes purchased, to push a message that could potentially feel like an afterthought, an inauthentic rah-rah.  I can say with great certainty, our Elements of Clarity (what we refer to as our company values) is not an afterthought – it’s a north star for how we behave and what we believe.  It’s a mirror of our employees and a guideline for the type of people we want to join in our crusade to change the expectations of what organizations expect from a consultant.

We spent that time – establishing our messaging and in the planning of Spinnakerfest - with the intent, of catapulting our organization into being bigger, both in size and our capacity to deliver a consistently superior product.  We are daring to be better, to do more and we’re chomping at the bit for what’s to come in 2020.

Here’s a small peek into the spark we ignited at Spinnakerfest 2019.  Thanks to our clients and supporters for helping us get to this point, and cheers to each of you for daring to do more in 2020.