Purpose

- We believe there should be a clear PURPOSE in everything we do.

At Adaptabi we consider the Purpose a very important value in our culture. So the natural question to be asked is “WHAT?”. What gets us up in the morning, what gets us together here?
That’s the first thing we asked ourselves when we reinvented us as Adaptabi. We not only discovered what keeps us together, but also how important it is to keep on asking the question.

First step was to identify our personal values and the Ikigai model was very useful in guiding us. Ikigai is composed of 2 Japanese words, Iki meaning life and Kai meaning result or worth, so together — “the reason for being / coming to work”, lying at the intersection of the following queries:

• What you LOVE
• What you are GOOD AT
• What you can be PAID FOR
• What the WORLD NEEDS

I remember a story in which a journalist asked people in a village in Japan what do they do when they retire and they didn’t understand the question because they don’t have a word for retirement. Once he explained the term, they said that if they would retire, what would their Ikigai be?

Second, we needed to find our shared goal and vision, because the purpose of a system is not determined by the purposes of composing parts, but rather by the complex interaction between those parts.
The result of this step was our Vision & Mission which are elements of high importance at Adaptabi where we empower people and allow high levels of autonomy. This is why there always needs to be a Purpose in what people do and more importantly, why it must be CLEAR.

Our entire Culture is based on Purpose, and the system that supports it relies on Trust generating Autonomy, Passion generating Motivation, Professionalism based on skills and transparency sustaining Communication.
But things don’t end up with the Vision & Mission, that’s actually just the beginning. There are interim Objectives and temporary Goals aligned with the main Vision and all that to give us the right sense of direction.

From the practices point of view here are a few things we do or try:

• We encourage everyone asking questions (Why, What)
• We won’t start working until things are CLEAR!
• We have our Vision & Mission listed in every room
• We try to make our Objectives SMART / Agile
• We are working on adopting OKR’s

To put it simply, Purpose is the reason for which something exists and we at Adaptabi exist to deliver high quality, innovative software that will help business succeed while enjoying ourselves.
Do you find that a bit Complicated? Us too, but as long as is not Complex is fine, to end up with a Complex Adaptive Systems joke.