Hush Is 1 Year Old — Are We Learning + Living Our Values?
We officially launched our business one year ago, after almost a full year proceeding that of dreaming, planning and you guessed it, strategizing. One of our first strategic planning sessions was to establish our Hush Brand DNA — which is a foundational brand strategy tool that we use to document and differentiate the fundamental elements that define our brand.
As an exercise in walking the walk, and not just talking the talk, we reflected on our operating values as a start. We asked each founder what they’ve learned when it comes to truly acting on our values.
Hush Value 1: Honest for Good.
When required, we center truth over comfort.
Lessons Learned:
Be honest with yourself even when it’s hard. Monitoring the balance between passion and burnout is really difficult as an entrepreneur. The more honest we get with ourselves, the more iteration we do to ensure our path forward includes realistic goals and expectations.
Make intentional space for feelings. As four friends who started a business, we are constantly doing boundary work — communicating openly about feelings and responsibilities and centering truth over comfort. Through this, we’ve been learning what it is like to bring fuller versions of ourselves to work.
Like Brené says, clarity really is kindness. When you say what’s important directly, people tend to communicate more clearly and effectively in return. By removing ambiguity in our partnerships we’ve seen how relationships can really flourish.
Hush Value 2: Trust the Gut.
Intuition is an advantage and we exercise it liberally.
Lessons Learned:
Risk is an individual journey and a team sport. Risk is connected to the gut and we all had to get more familiar with our own instincts as well as our individual relationships to risk. We worked together to find compromises on what we each needed from the business and what the business needed from us.
The highs are higher, and the lows are lower. Entrepreneurship is a lot like riding a really long roller coaster, stomach flips included. In order to stay committed to our intuition we created quarterly culture meetings that serve as an organizational gut check. While they don’t stop the chaos, they help us to digest it.
Hush Value 3: Plan Early, Plan Often.
Sustained alignment is crucial to success.
Lessons Learned:
Alignment makes ALL THE difference. One of the reasons strategy is complex is our own fault. We all use different terms and jargon that’s caused confusion in the space. We build in the time to create shared language and understanding regardless of the type of engagement we are in — with ourselves and with our clients.
Work to be both rigid and accommodating. While alignment is critical, we also recognize the unpredictability of strategic project work. We plan, pivot, plan, and pivot accordingly — we don’t over architect in order to leave space for humanity, especially in today’s world.
Hush Value 4: Cultivate Curiosity.
Curiosity is essential for strategic and change management work.
Lessons Learned:
Curiosity must be in the driver’s seat. A new business requires curiosity, especially when you are trying to do things differently. Whether it’s through our varied learnings, volunteer efforts, or Hush passion projects, we will never stop growing.
Adaptation is inevitable, so plan for it. Having a new business means you’re always trying to refine what you’re selling and to whom. The sooner we learned to get comfortable with iteration, the happier we became with embracing both the adaptation and the flow.
Hush Value 5: Take Care, Seriously.
We know that support and space are necessary when learning and doing new things.
Lessons Learned:
The potential never stops, so give yourself guardrails. If you are a problem-solver, entrepreneurship is intoxicating as there are always meaningful things to work on and work out — so we’ve set boundaries across our disciplines to help us know when enough is enough, for today.
Never underestimate the generosity of others. When you show up for others, they will show up for you. Ask and you shall receive more than you could have imagined. You have fans, let them show up for you.
It’s important to share this reflection publicly because while we are proud of our progress, there is always more to learn. As a utility and change focused strategy practice, our work is done with a generative and abundance mentality. We aren’t just selling change, we are committed to it as a company and want to collaborate with those who are as well.
So there they are — our values and the lessons we’ve learned to date. We hope it provides some fuel or friction for conversations within your teams and organizations.
Curious about how to build operational values as a brand or organization or want to learn more about how they are working within our business? Let’s talk. We’ll listen.