Infinis
Infinis Vision and Values Launch
Infinis are a company on a mission. Well led, with proven market leading credentials they are already the largest renewable generator from landfill gas in the UK, and that’s just the start as they continue to grow, innovate and diversify. They will achieve their ambitious goals through their values, and it was our job to help define them, understand them and truly bring them to life in the hearts, minds and actions of every member of staff – from head office to each remote site, from the long servers to the apprentices and newest joiners.
With the vision and mission set, over 80% of the staff met over a period of a few months to help define the values. ‘What makes us us?’ ‘What are we every day?’ ‘What marks us out as different?’. The output from this first phase was that the internal team developed an excellent set of values with a clear, if rather lengthy, rationale behind each. We couldn’t change them, rather our job was to effectively translate and elevate them and in so doing to make the values succinct and memorable for everyone. We produced the new versions in printed and video format, aware that different people take on information in different ways.
And we also needed to frame or rather ‘brand’ the exercise – the mission, the journey. The ambition to grow, the values and something that would put future change in context. And, ‘The possibilities are Infinis…..’ was born.
So far so good. But there was still more to do to truly embed the values in all staff. Why them? Why now? Why is it so important to the fabric of life around here? In order to achieve that every member of the 300 or so staff came together over three successive Tuesdays. After a morning of company presentations we brought the values to life. Broken into small competitive teams the staff had to work together to complete a number of problem solving challenges each centred around a value – excellence, innovation, openness, responsibility, fulfilment, commitment. The completion of the six challenges yielded the finale – to build your team’s rocket from a coke bottle and a kit provided, to decorate it with the branding and the six values. (As you can imagine a room full of hands-on engineers loved it.) We then launched each rocket using water and compressed air, soaring like eagles across the hotel grounds (well not all of them to be honest).
Whilst we really did ‘launch’ the values to loud cheers and much laughter, more importantly we were able to embed an understanding that the vision and values are something you live every day in your work, not something stuck on a wall to tick a box or hide a damp patch.