During my MBA studies at the WU Executive Academy, I was asked to project myself into the near or distant future by imagining my lifetime achievement award. Here it is.
Here's the speech that I imagine giving in front of the employees of my fictional company right after I received my lifetime achievement award for the world's best place to work.
Acceptance Speech
Friends, you cannot imagine how privileged I feel to have the honor of working with you. Even after being married for more than twenty years, my wife still doesn’t understand why I don’t hate Mondays. It drives her nuts! Today, I do have great news: We all got medalled!
We received the award for the world's best place to work.
- The world's best place to work is a workplace that helps people to grow personally and professionally through continuous training, education, mentoring, and coaching. It's a place that empowers people to speak up and encourages healthy debates. It's a place where risk-takers and conservatives combine their power. It's a workplace where people with integrity treat each other with respect. It's a place free of psychopaths, narcissists, and Machiavellians. It's a place where people take responsibility for their actions and are accountable for the results of their actions. It's a diverse and inclusive place with a colorful mix of people of different races, genders, ages, educational as well as cultural backgrounds that amplify their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. It's a place of equal opportunities and free of harassment. The best place to work is free of blaming and shaming and full of continuous, constructive feedback. It's a place where people trust each other and relate to each other's situations. It's a place of fun, discipline, determination, and dedication. It's a place of driven and reliable people who lead by example by walking their talking. It's a place of healthy competition. It's a place where abusive, tyrannical, and destructive leadership has no place. It's a place where ethical and moral values are on top of the daily agenda. It's a workplace that provides direction and fuels inspiration through a compelling vision. The best place to work is a workplace where people are evaluated and rewarded in a fair and transparent way. It's a workplace that constantly strives to make the world a better place by actively tackling grand societal challenges. It's a place where people embrace change. It's a place of creativity, loyalty, diligence, honesty, and collaboration. It's a place with a good mix of innovators, brokers, producers, directors, coordinators, facilitators, and mentors. It's a place where business, people, and the environment meet.
This list could go on and on. You get the point.
- This award doesn't reflect the achievement of one single person, it reflects the result of the combined effort of each of you to create a company we all would love to work for. You know, there's the saying "Individuals win games, teams win championships". You are turning this abstract quote into a concrete reality every single day. Thank you!
- Our dream always has been and still is to provide workplaces that help people to grow, since great people make great cultures and great cultures make great companies that eventually achieve superior business results. This award acknowledges your relentless commitment over the last two decades. It makes this dream come true. Thank you!
- This achievement honors our hard-earned healthy and diverse culture which is nothing less than the by-product of your continuous desire to create working environments that act like playgrounds where we all feel inspired, trusted, empowered, valued, encouraged, challenged, and happy. You are the ones who make this happen. Thank you!
Times like these are always a great opportunity to reflect. Even though we must live forwards, our life can only be understood backwards.?
Here are the four main factors that I believe were crucial for our success today.
- Number one, vision. In working with you on a daily basis, I have relearned that intrinsic motivation is highly contagious. By looking at all of us right now I see people who have the drive to contribute to something bigger than ourselves. Our vision, our infinite goal, of constantly pushing the boundaries of our business, while working safely with integrity and caring about our environment and communities, is what gives us meaning and direction. It's our vision, that is free of selfish motives and tightly linked to our core company values, which glues us all together. It's a tool that amplifies our drive to bond and our drive to comprehend in a natural way. Ergo, vision matters. It not only unfolds our motivation but also directs our daily behavior. I am proud to work with people who can think big, think ethically, and think sustainably.
- Number two, goals. Having an inspiring vision is one thing, executing it is another. We have managed to form a team that has the capacity to translate our vision into reality. Otherwise, we would just be talking, not doing. Remember, a vision without a strategy is just a wish. So, I am more than glad to say that we are surrounded by people who have the ability to break abstract, infinite goals into solid business strategies composed of concrete, measurable, and finite business goals as well as actions that are consistent with our core company values. I am proud to work with doers, not just talkers.
Let's stop here for a moment. The ability to combine abstract, infinite goals with concrete, finite goals is crucial to our success. Our business is not a finite game with known players, fixed rules, and goals carved in stone. It's an infinite game with known as well as unknown players, changing rules, and volatile goals caused by shifting technology and markets. The goal in such an infinite game is not to win. The goal is to keep playing. The goal is to keep pursuing finite goals in the context of our infinite goals. I am happy that you accept this challenge, and I am proud to play this highly dynamic infinite game with you.
- Number three, practices. In the last twenty years, we have faced a great variety of challenges. In our early days, we have been pioneers who redefined our market. We have been trendsetters who tried to be unique in a high-growth market for a long time. We have been consolidators in a slow-growing market who pursued cost-efficiency during the last financial crisis. Now, we are reinventors who need to adapt to major changes in a mature market by constantly rethinking, redesigning, and reengineering our business. So, I am proud that we have managed to establish lightweight but powerful practices across all of our departments that help us to achieve our business goals efficiently and effectively in an ever-changing economic landscape. I am proud to work with people who have the ability to master this continuous change while knowing that there aren't any best practices, only good practices in context.
- Number four, people. Having flexible practices without having the right people in the right position to perform these practices is like having a helicopter without knowing how to fly. We know how to fly, most of the time; and if we don't know how to fly, we do have the drive to learn it. We know that learning leads to self-improvement which, in turn, only begins at the end of our comfort zone. You see, our business is all about the people; it's about you! Our diverse and inclusive culture is our biggest asset. It's rooted in respect. It's our biggest weapon for our global success. Sure, we aren't perfect; we are far from being perfect. We are struggling and failing most of the time, but we aren't getting tired to learn from our failures. Learning from tough situations is what makes us stronger; it makes us better leaders, day after day. I am proud to work with you. I am proud to work with people that are driven, honest, fair, empathetic, accountable, result-oriented, self-aware, and willing to grow by being willing to change.
I am proud to be a part of this company. I am proud to be part of you. You are the ones who make this company the world's best place to work. Thank you!
