Our Mission, Vision, and Values

Mission

The Culture Patterns Project exists to empower values-driven organizations with the knowledge and tools to intentionally map their cultures and meet change with purpose. 

Vision

The Culture Patterns Project seeks to give values-driven organizations the tools, knowledge, and motivation to understand their own culture, how they interact, and how to change them for the better. We envision a world where we move intentionally with the knowledge that we co-create the cultures we are a part of. We envision organizations that reflect the values and reality that they work to bring about in the world. We envision leaders capable of vulnerability, change, and creativity.

Espoused Values

We are curious.

We approach people and ideas with inquiry. We want to learn, we want to understand how things work, how things change, and how we understand how things work, can change. We will loosen our grip on being right or better or cleverer, if it means we can learn.

We connect the dots before we spread more.

We make connections between strands of thought and work, all so we can build a cohesive, holistic understanding of culture and change. We do not add to the clutter of thinking just to have something we put our name to. We work to integrate what we offer with where organizations are at, what they value, and their approach.

We combine care and consciousness with rigor.

We use reasonable, evidence-based practices and theories. We do so with the knowledge that this doesn’t work for everyone. We do so, couching what we do in an accessible, approachable format. We do so, knowing that what is “reasonable” and a “best” practice, is simply what works for the ones who defined those terms.

We know how power works.

We know that power works to build and maintain power. We know that when too few hold too much power, oppression follows. We know that for too few to hold so much, oppression led. We know that distribution of power is the only path that leads away from oppression. We know that we are not exempt from the way power works.

We make diversity the strategy, equity the vision, inclusion the goal.

We make diversity of people, knowledge, tools and culture the strategy. We understand diversity as adaptive, creative, fun. We understand that diversity is not sufficient. We make inclusion the goal. We aim to create what speaks to, is accessible by, and is needed for diverse groups of people. We make equity our long-term vision. We want a world that meets the needs of all. We want a world where power and wealth are not held by the few, but shared among many. We want a world where power and wealth mean more than what we can hold alone.

We see purity and perfection as problems for change.

We see demanding purity of morals and perfection in outcomes as a problem. We see the standard as crafted by those the standard works for. We see the ones escaping consequences as those with the power to. We believe that humans make mistakes. We also believe that what is a “mistake” is not always clear or permanent. We believe that social change requires constant learning and growth, and demanding purity and perfection is wanting some to have reached its heights. We will make mistakes. We will persist. We can hold ourselves and others accountable, while accepting we are human.