Why IBHS?

Each Monday morning, I send a note to the entire IBHS team. It informs, encourages, and, on really good days, celebrates. Sometimes a colleague hits reply and shares what it means to them.

Last week was a little different.

The topic: Our WHY

Here was my message:

Monday Morning: 38 Words

38 words.

Enter the lobby and these 38 words hang prominently on the wall.

Severe weather

Each day comes with weather. Some days, the weather conditions are remarkable – sometimes for its beauty, sometimes for its vengeance. IBHS cares about the severe and extreme.

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Disrupts lives

Disasters often drive you away from your ??home and take away the normal pieces of our lives.

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Displaces families

Amid repairs and rebuilding, you and yours are situated somewhere other than home. Those you’re accustomed to sharing life with can be broken apart.

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Drives financial loss

Disasters take something away from you. Sometimes small, sometimes big…but it costs to put life and buildings back together again.

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We deliver top-tier science

Into the space of these disasters, IBHS works the science of ??wind, ??rain, ???hail, and ??wildfire. And we deliver the science that others have not (or cannot) bring forward.

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Translate it into action

Science alone is insufficient. IBHS needs to drive different choices and behaviors across families and communities.

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To prevent avoidable suffering

At the center-point of the disaster, destruction is very likely. Yet we can narrow the impacts. Some of the pain from disasters is avoidable. Our work is to find and advocate in that ‘avoidable’ space.?

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Strengthen our homes and businesses

The buildings where we ??live and ??work can experience less (or no) damage during disasters…with the right construction choices and retrofits.

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Inform the insurance industry

Our Members get the benefit of our research. They pay for our work to happen.

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Support thriving communities

Yet, without exception, our Members want the science and products of IBHS to bend down the risk curve so fewer experience losses. And help the social and economic lifeblood of communities to thrive.

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So why does the world need IBHS?

Because…

Severe weather disrupts lives, displaces families, and drives financial loss. IBHS delivers top-tier science and translates it into action so we can prevent avoidable suffering, strengthen our homes and businesses, inform the insurance industry, and support thriving communities.

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Some of us have 6 months in with IBHS. Others have 7-8 years of service with the Institute. Some of you are just learning the Why of IBHS. Others of you helped write these words. From both ends of the spectrum, we need to understand (or remember) all this why-ness.

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Why are you a part of IBHS?

Serious and sincere question. I’d love to hear back from you: Why are you a part of IBHS?

Reply to me with your answer in the #mondaymorning Slack channel.

You are IBHS! You make it happen!

And they did. Here’s a few that meant the most to me:

“I remember as a child hunkering down due to tornadoes on the ground in elementary school under the chalkboard with the power out, no AC, and kids crying for their parents…No one thinks it can happen to them until it does. We KNOW there is something we can do to build better!”

“First and foremost, I am absolutely captivated by the purpose for which IBHS works: Preventing or mitigating catastrophic damages. Secondly, I am passionate about my job of solving problems!”

On a more societal level, I think of us as doctors who save lives. We change people's quality of life and comfort through our research. Impacts in the real world are our finish line. The fact that more homes are saved after an event is not an imaginary thing; it's a real thing...As real as a doctor saving people’s lives.

“Where else could a guy like me work with such brilliant, dedicated people AND watch us burn things down and blow them over?”

“Before I started working here at IBHS I never thought about the impact weather has on the world and the changes needed to make people live safely. Now working here for almost two years it's become a duty of mine to do my job to the best of my ability to produce accurate research to make the world a safer place to live.”

First and foremost, I am absolutely captivated by the purpose for which IBHS works: Preventing or mitigating catastrophic damages. Secondly, I am passionate about my job of solving problems! I'm pretty confident (99%) that I couldn't find a more dynamic working environment that offers research, producing extremely useful data, and learning opportunities!

After years of just going to work – not really feeling like what you were doing had any real impact on people's lives, I discovered IBHS. At first, I thought this can't be real. Is there really a place that actually does research to try to help build stronger and better homes? The research we do here is important and changes things. You have a sense of pride in knowing that what you do actually helps people…I have to admit that this place is pretty cool. how many people you know can say that work at a place that makes hail and can create 100+ mph wind?!

“There are very real and impactful actions we can take based on our science and business acumen to effect meaningful change and reduce losses.?It’s not just a dream; It’s a reality I wake up to every day; A reality that keeps me motivated and focused.”

And the list goes on...

What is your “why”?