I recently appeared on the Alldus podcast, where I drew on more than 20 years in systems engineering, application development with a compliance focus, and security architecture, most often as a trailblazer leveraging the latest technology. And one key lesson stands out: Community is everything. When your team shares values and goals, collaborating to solve business challenges comes easily.
When we merged six companies in 2022, we set out to create a culture that reflects the values of our Crew Members across all departments and at every level. This was no simple task — but with in-depth employee feedback and an empathetic approach to people management and customer relationships, we’ve built a community where our Crew Members are proud to work together each day.
Since I joined NewRocket, I’ve gone from overseeing 15 Crew Members to managing more than 150 — cultivating community is a huge part of my work. One thing to really understand is for me and my crew, technology comes easy; in fact, we work daily to master our craft, but it’s the connection to each other and our customers that means everything. Here’s how I keep my teams united and aim to reflect our values in every project.
One Crew, One Mission
As we brought our NewRocket community together, we laid the foundation for our culture with five core values: Excellence, Creativity, Integrity, Teamwork, and Empathy. But it can’t end there. How do we bring these values to life in our daily work?
Adopt a Growth Mindset
First, we teach our Crew Members to adopt a growth mindset in their approach to everyday problems. Working with customers around the globe, our engineers and architects constantly face new obstacles. By looking at each obstacle as a chance to improve, we maintain an uplifting environment where team members are excited to meet challenges head-on.
A growth mindset also means looking to the future to consider how our team must evolve to solve problems as our customers’ industries shift. When we approach long-term challenges with a shared lens, it leads to aligned priorities, more efficient workflows, and better outcomes for customers.
Invest in Career Pathing
Give team members the tools to drive their own professional advancement, and they’ll reward you with thoughtful and intentional work. If you don’t have the tools, create them!
At NewRocket, we power comprehensive career pathing with our Solar Rising program. Based on 32 key competencies across five areas and seven levels, the program invites our Crew Members to drive their own career experience. Each competency offers clear examples of success for Crew Members, both in their current role and at the next level.
This program enables our Crew Members to focus on the importance of skill building, teamwork, leadership, ownership, and operational excellence, empowering them to engineer excellence for our customers.
The ABCs of Measuring Success
Building community in the workplace feels good, but we need to constantly monitor our impact.
How do we get closer to our customer’s problems? And how can we ensure we’re delivering their desired outcomes ensuring best practices in the most efficient and strategic way possible?
When we analyze success from the customer perspective and coach our Crew Members to do the same, we’re driven to predict challenges, build trust, and offer high-value solutions to customers.
The JTBD Method
In building customer relationships and designing new solutions, I like to use the JTBD (Job to Be Done) Method. This approach helps us put ourselves in our customers’ shoes and uncover key success metrics for each customer.
The JTBD Method asks:
- What is the problem we’re solving?
- What is the motivation to solve this problem?
- What is the desired outcome?
When we analyze a problem using the JTBD Method, we equip ourselves to show customers we’re more than just implementers — we are trusted partners who know how to align our solutions to their evolving goals.
The IPDE Method
Another helpful framework is the IPDE Method: identify, predict, decide, and execute. I first discovered this method when I was learning to drive as a high schooler. I’ve found it’s also a great way to approach strategic planning and relationship building.
The IPDE Method is a proactive system of seeing, thinking, and responding by:
- Identifying key goals and potential obstacles.
- Predicting where and when challenges may arise.
- Deciding the best way to meet goals while avoiding challenges.
- Executing on your decision.
To show our value as a partner, we can’t afford to be reactive. With the IPDE Method, we proactively show our customers a strategic, personalized plan to mitigate risk while driving the outcomes that matter most to them.
Better Together
Work is better when we do it together. As we’re creating programs, making decisions, and designing solutions, we’ve got to remember how important it is to connect with people and develop a shared vision of success.
To learn more about how NewRocket cultivates community to guide customers through their ServiceNow journey, check out my interview on the Alldus podcast.
Teresa is a purpose-driven servant leader with over 20 years of experience transforming organizations, projects, and teams. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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