The Case For Putting Your Mission At The Heart Of Your Strategy

“People go home every night and talk at the dinner table about their experience at work. Often, In the HBR , “Put Purpose at the Core of Your Strategy,” the authors describe an intensive study that they conducted to understand the strategies high-growth companies use to drive growth. The authors were surprised to discover one strategy that kept surfacing: putting purpose at the core of your company strategy.

The authors write, “We began to recognize that many of them [high-growth companies] had moved purpose from the periphery of their strategy to its core—where, with committed leadership and financial investment, they had used it to generate sustained profitable growth, stay relevant in a rapidly changing world, and deepen ties with their stakeholders. ” Across my thirty plus interviews with chief people officers (CPOs), Waymo serves as one of the best examples of how a strong sense of purpose can drive culture and ultimately growth strategy. In this interview with CPO she does a brilliant job of breaking down Waymo’s culture and the work her team does to foster it.

is an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to make roads safer. It started as the Google Self-Driving Car Project and is the first company to enable autonomous trips for members of the public. The company has slightly more than 2,000 employees, or “Waymonauts,” and its cars are active in Phoenix and San Francisco.

Becky Bucich, CPO of Waymo Mission-Driven Culture at Waymo Asked to describe Waymo culture in a few words, Bucich offered three phrases: Waymo Sustains Its Culture Through Three Unique Initiatives Bucich shared three critical ways that Waymo fosters its culture: Just-in-Time Learning Helps Develop First-Line Managers Bucich pointed out how essential first-line leaders are to the employee experience, saying, “People go home every night and talk at the dinner table about their experience at work. Often, their manager is the most pivotal person who either makes or breaks their experience. ” The first touch point all first-line managers receive at Waymo is new manager training after three weeks on the job.

Regardless of your previous experience as a manager, you have to attend. “We don’t assume anything, and we ensure that we have a good foundation for all of our managers. We cover our manager philosophy and expectations, which are developed specifically within the context of Waymo,” she explained.

Once the foundations are in place, Bucich takes a “startup” approach to first-line leader development: “We offer quite a bit of just-in-time training. For example, after conducting our employee engagement survey, we train based on the results. ” Bucich and her team also hold manager circles, where newer managers can learn from another manager who has more wisdom or experience in a relevant skill.

What Excites Bucich Most About the Future of Waymo As Waymo scales and prepares to open markets in Los Angeles and Austin, Bucich shared that the thing that gets her out of bed every day is the impact Waymo has on thousands of individuals in their daily lives. “I think about my parents who are aging or a friend of my son who is visually impaired. Waymo enables them to preserve their independence and feel safe doing so.

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