Finding Your Way Home

CHAPTER TWO of Building Your CASA. When Business Finds Its Way Home

What if everything you've been taught about culture and strategy is backwards?

The traditional view pits them against each other, as if you must choose. Or worse, treats them as separate initiatives running on parallel tracks, never truly meeting. But here's a perspective that might change everything: Culture isn't your company's personality - it's your strategy's shield.

Think of culture as a parent protecting its child. When your culture truly wraps around your strategy, it doesn't just support it - it nurtures it, protects it, allows it to grow boldly and safely.

This is CASA.

This is where we feel safe.

This is where we feel at home.

But first, let's confront some uncomfortable truths about traditional business thinking:

"When your business only cares about numbers, don't be surprised when you are one of them" -a Clarism

Look at most strategic plans. What's at their heart? Numbers. Revenue targets. Profit margins. Market share. These aren't evil - but when they become your end game, something insidious happens:

"When money is your end game, you'll play any game" a Clarism

And perhaps most tellingly:

"If your business only cares about making a profit, don't complain when your people only care about making a paycheck" - a Clarism

This is why so many businesses are growing but not evolving. They're getting bigger but not better. They're scaling up but not leveling up.

CASA offers a fundamentally different path:

Instead of treating growth as a linear march toward numeric targets, it embraces business as a series of natural evolutions

Rather than forcing change, it creates conditions where evolution becomes your organization's natural state

Where traditional strategies start with numbers, CASA strategy is born from mission - who your organization needs to become to stay relevant and meaningful

Listen to Elizabeth Humphries' experience: "The Culture and Strategy Alignment was an eye-opening experience... it ignited me to dig into finding out what my values are and my 'why'." This isn't just another feel-good moment. This is about fundamental transformation.

The contrast is stark:

Traditional Approach:

• Numbers drive decisions
• Growth is forced
• Change is resisted
• Culture and strategy compete
• Money is the end game

CASA Approach:

• Purpose, values, vision, and Mission drives decisions
• Evolution is natural
• Change is embraced
• Culture shields strategy
• Money becomes an objective, not the purpose

One leader, James, captured this transformation perfectly:

"Before, we experienced drift in certain aspects of the business. Now, having the clarity and alignment of our purpose, values, vision, and mission, provides us the right lenses to enable decisions and empowered growth."

The result?

Their business grew by 25% year on year. Not because they chased numbers, but because they created something more fundamental - a true alignment between who they are and who they're becoming.

When you build a CASA, you're creating a home where:

• Evolution is natural, not forced
• Growth spurts are supported, not stressed
• Strategy flows from mission, not just metrics
• Culture protects and nurtures your strategic intent
• Purpose powers profit, not the other way around

This isn't about adding another initiative to your already full plate. It's about fundamentally reshaping how culture and strategy work together to create an organization that doesn't just grow - it evolves.

If you want people to feel like they belong, then you need to build you CASA...

But that's a story for tomorrow...

Chapter Three: Building Your CASA.

Dave Clare, CEO & Founder Circle Leadership

It's time to lead different.

Together we can...

#EvolveTheWorldOfWork

If you missed want to read Chapter One, You can find it here:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/prophetforpurpose_activity-7264437823536078849-yDIz?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop