Over the past couple of years we’ve been reflecting as a team on what things are important to us as a business, as we’ve looked to crystallise a series of values that reflect who we are and how we want to work.

We settled on a set of six values (which you can read more about here), one of which is that we want to Change the World.

But what does that actually mean to us?

With each value, we’ve tried to craft a practical description that ensures that they can be put into action. It’s important to us that these values are owned and lived by each of our team members, and felt by our clients.

We define Change the World like this:

We want to make a difference.
With our talent, our time, and our clients.
We want to leave a better place than the one we found.

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This has an impact on how we choose to work and spend our time and resources as a business, but it also can be strengthened through the clients we work and partner with.

We’ve been working with Bruntwood over the past few years. Their singular purpose is expressed as Creating Thriving Cities, a purpose that has guided them through their 40-year history. This has led them to reinvest in the communities that they operate in; to establish arts prizes and to champion cultural enrichment of cities; to take care of their employees as well as their customers, and to support the small businesses that make our cities such great places to be.

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Bruntwood recently shared this blog post about social value and being a purpose-first company. It’s worth reading to get a sense of who they are as an organisation - and why we’re really proud of the work we’ve done with them.

Over the past few years, we’ve worked closely with Bruntwood to help them communicate their purpose to both their staff and to their customers, and it’s been a real joy to work on these projects. It’s been varied - we’ve spent time with brilliant teenagers in a local youth centre workshopping their vision for the future of our cities, to looking at what sustainability means to an organisation that shapes our built environment, to an honest and open exploration of what diversity and inclusion means to Bruntwood colleagues.

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Bruntwood is a company that lives and breathes their purpose, and it shows. Their purpose isn’t just something written on their wall in neon lights (although it is literally written on their wall in neon lights). Their purpose is at the forefront of their decision making, and at the heart of much of the work we’ve done with them.

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Working with Bruntwood helps us in a small way to actualise our own values. For us, Changing the World can’t only be about big gestures, as there’s a limit to how much we can achieve on our own. But working alongside people who are seeking the same things as you helps everyone to take steps in the right direction. More than that, Bruntwood are a brilliant example to us of what it means to put values into action, and that’s a great foundation on which to build a successful partnership.

Read the Bruntwood blog post here https://bruntwood.co.uk/blog/bruntwood-our-roots-in-community/