Values + Strategy = Autonomy

To the point of motivation, and to the point of leverage, I find the combination of a well‐communicated plan (Strategy) coupled with a clear and reinforced set of values to be the thing that enables autonomy within an organization.

Imagine you need to cross a thick forest and arrive at a specific place at a specific time on the other side of the woods. Values are the rules you will use as you move through the woods (e.g., don't eat those berries, only sleep in trees, don't harm the bears), and the strategy is the map, compass, and supplies you'll carry with you.

With those two things, you should be able to navigate safely across. And your manager or executive won't have had to make sure they were present for every single decision. And that is leverage.

Leverage can only be created when you arm your team with the necessary information and tools they need to do their jobs and then give them the decision‐making framework to tackle difficult problems through the values you instill.

Values Should Help Decision Making

Importantly, as you think about the values you want for your organization or the things that motivate you and define who you are, I would offer the idea that values are only useful if they assist with decision making. I often joke that it's not useful to have a value like “We believe in breathing oxygen” because as humans we don't really have a choice in the matter. We either do or we die.

So it's useful to build in specific‐enough values that have enough of the essence of who we are that they actually help you make specific discrete binary decisions.

The set of values we have at Pavilion are:

• Members first
• We get by giving
• We deliver X+Y
• Listen closely, act quickly
• Diversity makes us better
• We deliver results
• We choose to come from kindness

Members First

We work backwards from our Members' success. That's our first principle. We don't solve for internal politics or what's easier for us. We solve first and foremost for our Members. We go to great lengths to help our Members. We do things that aren't scalable. We take their calls on a Saturday. We offer time we didn't know we had. This is about them. Not us. Helping them.

Members First is not just a trope for its own sake. It explicitly speaks to decisions we need to make internally.

If we are focused on our Members, who are not our users, but rather our customers, then we can decide if the decision we're taking is better for us or for them. As a company scales, there is a need to drive efficiency, but that efficiency often comes at the cost of customer experience. Think of the algorithm of your favorite social media platform. Algorithms are good for business. Companies will pay a lot of money to be served up to a relevant audience. That's when you, the user, become the product, as we discussed in the previous chapter.

So even though you call for a chronological timeline or other features that would make your user experience better, the company doubles down on the algorithm and advertising dollars. Because it is better for them. Again, I'm not saying this is necessarily nefarious on their part, but it is how most companies operate. It is a strategic point of difference to put the end user first.

When at the crossroads of easy for us or better for our Members, we do our best at Pavilion to make a decision that errs on the side of the Members, not our internal needs.

For example, we call our Members the moment they sign up to join Pavilion. At the time we made that decision, we didn't have any infrastructure to make phone calls at all. We knew making this decision would involve retraining our Member Success Team and take up hours of their time every week. But we firmly believed it would improve our Member happiness, result in a better onboarding experience for them, and ultimately drive our Net Promoter Score higher.

Members First is our North Star and most important value. As you'll see below, our values and the way we operate have evolved over time, getting clearer and more specific to help employees make decisions. However, the value that will never change is Members First.

When you are building a business or helping to drive a culture of kindness, you must have at least one central tenet that remains true no matter what. A beacon that will always shine and guide the way for your team. When your business inevitably becomes more complicated and nuanced and layered, there will still be that source of truth you can turn to that will keep you on the path you intended.

We Get by Giving

Giving and helping are their own reward. We are playing a longer game. Our relationships aren't transactional. We believe and know that through helping others we will help ourselves in ways that will be far greater and more impactful than we ever imagined. We know the world is not zero sum. Our help to others increases its abundance.

“We Get by Giving” is a central theme of this book—and crucial to how we operate at Pavilion. We wrote this philosophy into our core values because we believe that reciprocity and kindness will fundamentally change the business world. And if you've made it this far, I hope you believe that, too.

In Chapter 4, we covered how generosity can be a competitive advantage in business. It's not altruistic to put others first in the sense that it is a sacrifice for you. It is a long‐term strategy where everything you give will come back to you in abundance because you have the patience to play the long game.

Just as “Members First” means we sometimes take inefficient routes, “We Get by Giving” means that the ripples we create by helping others are far, far greater than a one‐time, immediate payoff.

We Deliver X+Y

Doing the bare minimum (X) is never acceptable. We ask ourselves, “Why are we doing this?” and anticipate not just the minimum requirements (X) but the added requirements (Y) even if they weren't requested. We don't just identify problems (X). We identify problems and suggest solutions (X+Y). We take pride in moving outside our job description and outside our comfort zone. We get our hands dirty. We pick up the phone. We take action to drive the business forward and help our Members thrive. We deliver X+Y.

The concept of X+Y came from my first job out of college—the one I left to start that ill‐fated record label. My boss Omid C. Tofigh at Stern Stewart called me into his office for a performance review. I strolled in thinking I was about to be praised for a job well done. I was hitting all of the metrics I was told to. I did everything by the book.

What Omid told me crushed me—he was underwhelmed by my work. I sank down. How could that be true? I came into the office every day, did my work, and delivered the intended results. Didn't I?

He told me that I only delivered X. Exactly what I was told to do and no further. I wasn't thinking about ways to improve, to drive more, to push further. I was coasting, doing just fine and nothing further.

He told me if I had ambitions, if I wanted to be more, I needed to start thinking about how I can go beyond X. How I can add Y.

There's that long‐term thinking again. Those who need that instant gratification, who can only see what is in front of them, shoot for X. Those who understand that there is always more you can be doing look not just for one outcome or solution, but a long‐term plan to deliver better results. That's X+Y—yet another differentiating factor for your business.

Much later, a friend told me that numbers‐missers tend to stay numbers‐missers. They come up with excuses instead of solutions. But numbers‐beaters tend to remain numbers‐beaters, always pushing to add Y.

Both of these stories took hold of me. I wanted to create a culture of X+Y, of numbers‐beaters. I wanted my team to know that to make this the best business it can be, to truly serve our Members, and to keep giving, we can't just deliver minimum expectations. We all need to anticipate needs, use our brains, and take pride in our work. The results will be a company of doers who delight customers and make the business better every day.

When you are outlining values for your business, think about the kind of company you want. Do you want to build a place where people clock in and clock out with little thought in between? Or do you want a company where your people are innovative, pushing the boundaries of what's possible? If it's the latter, you need to create that framework through your values and build it into everything you do.

Listen Closely, Act Quickly

Our Members will tell us what we need to build if we listen. But we must listen to them. This means careful observation and empathy. This means that we talk less than they do. And once we absorb an idea, we move very quickly to execute it. Speed becomes a competitive advantage unto itself. The modern world requires rapid iteration and tolerates a lower degree of perfection in favor of speed and responsiveness. We know that. We use that to our advantage. We listen closely. We act quickly.

We'll explore this concept in more detail in the next chapter, but what this value tells Pavilion employees is that progress is better than perfection. Tying back to Members First and loving your customer, our Members tell us what they need. Your customers will tell you what you need. It is then your job to make it happen.

An extension of the next right step—Listen Closely, Act Quickly—means that you don't need a 10‐year plan to execute on something you know to be true. Take in the information from your customers, identify patterns in feedback, and take action based on that feedback.

I know it can be easy to fall into a feedback spiral. One person says they love something about your product. The next says they hate that same thing. The conflicting statements cause you to gather more and more and more information before you act. Then you end up not acting at all.

Of course you can't make everyone happy. You can do everything your customers ask you to. But it is your job to take a step back and really hear what your customers are saying. What is the through‐line in all of the feedback? Identify it and move. Speed is critical in today's marketplace, especially SaaS (software as a service). If you aren't working to incrementally improve your product, someone else will fill the gap.

Speed to market and constant iteration are necessary in today's market. Being able to make decisions quickly and bring them to life is more important than having a perfect plan in place. All it takes is the next right step, then the next right step after that to keep you moving forward and aligned with your customers' needs.

Diversity Makes Us Better

Pavilion is diverse, and our team needs to be diverse to ensure we appreciate all perspectives. Diversity strengthens us. Diversity forces us to appreciate different perspectives, to empathize; it forces open our minds like a crowbar opening a dusty vault. To be better, to be our best, we need to value everyone and mean it.

“Value everyone and mean it” is the key phrase here. As I said, it's easy to slap up some surface‐level values that you never do anything about. It's easy to talk and say something performative you know will make you or your company appear better in the public eye.

But values need to be actionable. For us, Diversity Makes Us Better is a call to look for a range of voices and experiences and actively bring them into our business.

From a panel discussion to our executive team, we strive to champion a diverse set of voices in everything that we do. I'm proud to say that as of March 1, 2022, 54% of the Pavilion HQ team identifies as female and 36% self‐reported as Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color (BIPOC). That includes 60% female leadership on the executive team.

Within our membership, we have created private spaces for Women of Pavilion, Pavilion of Color, and LGTBQ+ of Pavilion to provide a safe place where they can talk about challenges they face and be supported. Why does this matter? Because we believe that in order to achieve and unlock your professional potential, you should be able to tap into your full self without fear of judgment. We believe that by having an HQ team that reflects the diversity of our membership, we will be better able to understand them and to serve them.

So if your company says it values diversity, think about the tangible ways you are working to make sure diverse voices are heard and respected in your space.

We Deliver Results

The great thing about how we've structured our values is that there is room to grow. Our mission and North Star (Members First) always stay true, but how can we adapt over time and make room for more.

Originally, this value was “Always Better.” We wanted to be a company that never finished evolving, changing, and trying to improve. We valued feedback as a way to keep learning and unlock change and innovation. All of that is still true, but in practice we found that “Always Better” was not specific enough to serve as a guide for decision making.

In the spirit of “Always Better,” we evolved to incorporate a new value—we deliver results.

Results matter. We are focused on achieving our goals. That includes a sense of personal responsibility for our performance and outcomes. If we're reporting on a number, we take responsibility for that number. If we set a goal, we commit to reaching that goal. We proactively communicate along the way. We don't hide. We understand that we can't deliver on our promise to our Members and to each other if goals don't matter, if results don't matter, and we aren't doing everything we can to help the company grow. We want to look to our left and to our right, even if virtually, and trust that everyone on the Pavilion team is committed to holding up their end of the bargain. Results matter.

“We Deliver Results” speaks to why we need to always be improving. We are improving for a reason, and that reason is to deliver specific results for our Members and for our business. Our Members have goals, and we help achieve them. Our business has goals, and we will be numbers‐beaters. By baking results into the values of our organization we instill in all of our employees—and in our Members—a sense of ownership. We are in charge of our own destinies and our own projects. If we say we will do something, we do it.

Think about the values at your organization. Do you explicitly say that you value outcomes? If not, what message does that send to your team and your customers?

From the beginning, we used the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework to build annual and quarterly goals for the organization as a whole. But in 2022, we incorporated OKRs at the department and individual levels, too. Individual OKRs roll up into department OKRs, and department OKRs roll up into the company‐wide OKRs.

By aligning individual goals with your department and then the overarching organizational goals, you ensure that everyone will be rowing in the same direction. We see within our membership endless debate around aligning sales and marketing, marketing and customer success, customer success and sales. It goes on and on. We found that by incorporating a value based on results and building a framework where all individuals understand how their actions impact the larger organization, alignment has come naturally.

We Choose to Come from Kindness

Kindness begets more kindness. Every action we take comes from a place of empathy and compassion. We treat our teammates and our Members with the compassion and empathy they deserve as human beings. We try to pass along the legacy of compassion, empathy, and understanding in every interaction, even when delivering bad news or constructive criticism. We are honest and direct, but we don't use that as an excuse to be an asshole. We don't blow up a meeting with temper tantrums. We don't act like children. The world is better when people are kind. We choose to come from kindness.

The wording of this value came from Pavilion's VP of partnerships and alliances, and I love how it was written. We choose to come from kindness. We make an active choice every day to approach each interaction with empathy and understanding. Even if it is a tough conversation. Especially if it is a tough conversation.

Being kind doesn't mean you are a pushover. Or that you sugar‐coat bad news to save people's feelings. Or that you never scowl or are in a bad mood. My team will tell you that my mood fluctuates, and I have a hard time hiding it.

Choosing to come from kindness means that you understand and respect that everyone has a lot going on in their lives. That you first come from a supportive place looking to help others improve or achieve their goals.

The world is insistent that you need to toughen up, to have a thick skin. In business, we've been told to relentlessly pursue our goals, and you need to be a bit ruthless to truly make it to the top.

But you know that I believe there is a larger table with room for everyone. Some might take advantage of your kindness. But many, many more won't. And in the end, what you will remember are the people you've helped and the difference you made.

Choosing to come from kindness means that you don't need to keep score of everyone who has wronged you. You don't need to constantly remind people you could fire them. You don't need to put people down.

Choosing to come from kindness means knowing that every good deed you put out in the world comes back to you tenfold. The title of this book says it all. Choosing to come from kindness is how nice folks finish first.