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OUR FOR-IMPACT CULTURE CODE
WHY FOR-IMPACT?
“Non-profit” is a legalstructure, not a way ofdoing things.
And we don’tbelieve that we
should defineourselves in the
negative.
Instead, we exist to create
IMPACT.Hence, this is our for-impact culture.
In everything we do,we believe in proving it’s
possible to deliver high-quality,low-cost health care to the
world’s poorest people.
Proving possibility requiresREMARKABLE results.
DEF: REMARKABLEWorthy of remark; striking.
The driving forcebehind our for-impactculture is to get
REMARKABLEresults for our patients.
WHY CARE ABOUT CULTURE?
Culture IS strategy.
—Jim Collins
Great teams bring the sameentrepreneurial energy toimproving their culture as theydo to improving their product.
We want to buildthe best globalhealth organizationin the world.
To do that, we need a culturewhere remarkable peopleproduce remarkable results.
People & results.That’s what makes agreat organizationpeople love andinvest in.
Here are the
10 PRINCIPLESthat drive our for-impact culture.
POSSIBLE’S FOR-IMPACT CULTURE CODE1. We put our patients first.
2. We embrace challenge with grit.
3. We treat efficiency as a moral must.
4. We think big.
5. We build simple.
6. We challenge conventional thinking.
7. We realize great design creates dignity.
8. We are transparent until it hurts.
9. We balance professional intensity with personal support.
10. We believe everything is impossible, until it isn’t.
1We put our patients first.
Our #1 rule:
SOLVE FOR THE PATIENT.
In every patient, we aim to see the possibilities we see in those we love.
The dignity andopportunity of ourpatients are far moreimportant than our ownegos or who gets credit.
Favor the patient’sinterest above the team’s.
Favor the team’s interestabove your own.
2We embrace challenge with grit.
We are obligated tothe battle, but notentitled to its fruits.
—Bhagavad Gita
If building effectivehealthcare systemsfor the poor wereeasy, everyonewould do it. We dothis work
PRECISELYbecause it is labeledas “impossible”by many.
We expect failure andtremendous degrees of adversity.
GRIT is what we deploy to getremarkable results anyway.
DEF: GRITIndomitable spirit;passion andperseverance forlong-term goals
The only thing that I see that is distinctlydifferent about me is I’m not afraid to die ona treadmill. I will not be outworked, period.You might have more talent than me, youmight be smarter than me, you might besexier than me, you might be all of thosethings--you got it on me in nine categories.But if we get on the treadmill together,there’s two things: You’re getting off first, orI’m going to die. It’s really that simple.
—Will Smith
We seek out people with gritbecause we are building aFORMIDABLE team.
DEF: FORMIDABLEThe kind of team who “seems like they’ll get what they want, regardless of whatever obstacles are in the way.”
*h/t to Paul Graham for this definition
3We treat efficiency as a moral must.
When your outcome is impact,
TIMEis a terrible thing to waste.
And when you’re workingin the world’s mostchallenging environmentsunder constant uncertainty,the way to maximizelearning is to minimize thetime to try things.
It’s everyone’s job to turntime into resources andpossibility for our patients.
We are obsessed withusing simple tools toshrink the time wespend on “work aboutwork”. There is a
CRITICAL andconstant pushtowards making ourindividual and teamworkflows as efficientas possible.
4We think big.
Lions can catch, kill, and eat mice, but they will diedoing so because it’s a calorie negative endeavor.
So instead they hunt antelopes.
Like lions, we can’t afford tohunt mice.
Nearly 1 billionpeople around theworld lack accessto high-qualityhealth care.
Thinking
BIGis balanced by focused execution.
But it’s dishonest and leadsto low-quality impact.
Spreading resourcesthin to appear big isenticing and commonin impact work.
Instead, we set goalsthat are big enough to
matter and smallenough to achieve.
5We build simple.
Complexity is easy.Simplicity is hard.
People ignore complexity.People enjoy simplicity.
Complexity makes work feel like a burden.Simplicity makes work feel like progress.
Our goal is to minimizecomplexity as we grow.
That is really hard to do.
But otherwise, complexityand bureaucracy flourish,great people leave, andresults suffer.
6We challenge conventional thinking.
Most conventional“wisdom” says the poorcan’t have high-quality,
low-cost health care.
Is this the beginning of aconversation about gettinghealth care to the poor or theend of one?
—Dr. Paul Farmer
When confronted with that “wisdom,” we should always ask:
When challenging convention:
Don’t be angry.
Don’t be arrogant.
DO demand data to justify conventional wisdom.
If data doesn’t exist, solve for the patient and prove possibility
with data. It’s our job to solve for
THE PATIENTand win debates with data—
not create enemies based on opinion.
7We realize great design creates dignity.
Everything we build,from a hospital to abusiness card, has realimplications for the
DIGNITYof our patients andthe effectiveness ofour impact.
Great design isn’t a luxury—it’s a powerful and realpriority in everything we do.
Design isn’t just the way somethinglooks. It’s the whole thing, the waysomething actually works, on so manydifferent levels. Ultimately, of course,design defines so much of ourexperience. I think there’s a profoundand enduring beauty in simplicity, inclarity, in efficiency. It’s about bringingorder to complexity.
—Jonathan Ives
8We are transparent until it hurts.
—Louis Brandeis
Sunlight is the bestdisinfectant.
At the core, we believe intransparency because it’san accountabilityguarantee against our ownhuman frailties.
We believe it’s mostimportant to be
TRANSPARENTabout our impactdata, finances andfailures.
We also work to build intransparency as a defaultstate in our systems.
A few examples:
We publish quarterly impact reports openly covering all areas of the organization.
We use Asana so team members can see everything happening across the organization.
Our strategy, areas of responsibility, milestones, and board minutes are open within the team.
9We balance professional intensity with personal support.
—Netflix
We’re a team, not a family.We hire, develop and cutsmartly so we have stars inevery position.
Solving one of theworld’s mostchallenging problemsrequires intensecommitment.
We are supportive
AND intense.
But when push comes to shove, we are intense.
Yet our leaders constantly remindthemselves to be professionallyuncompromising and personallysupportive.
We only select leaders who are “givers”—people who are always looking to add value to their teammates’ lives inside and outside of work.
A few ways we are personally supportive:
We use our networks to find world-class mentors for team members.
We use a reciprocity listserve so anyone can ask for support inside or outside of work.
We let people own their 1 on 1 meetings with their managers so they can cover their needs.
We believe everything is impossible, until it isn’t.
We go to work every daydetermined to create abetter world—to expandhumanity’s belief aboutwhat’s possible.
Hope is the belief in theplausibility of the possible as opposed to the necessity of the probable.
—Maimonides
In our team,
HOPEisn’t a fluffy, soft, or naïve concept.
We believe in a hard-edgedhope—one created when
possibility is earned throughexecution against all odds.
Do we sound like your kind of people?
Thanks to the many exceptional teams and individuals who influence our evolvingfor-impact culture. We recommend reading their work for more insights.
asana.com hubspot.com netflix.com
managementcenter.org pih.org forimpact.org
CONTACT USOUR OFFICES
USA17 W. 17th Street, 7th FloorNew York, NY 10011
NEPALBadelgada, Ridikot-2Achham, Nepal
GENERAL [email protected]
