The best experiences simultaneously are elevating and grounding for people. Elevating means advancing something worthwhile, connecting people to a purpose or cause, and realizing our potential by striving with boldness. Grounding conjures ideas of sensibility, practicality, and being rooted to specific tasks within a particular community or team. From my perspective, putting these two things together creates a secret sauce for work life – we are all better when we aspire to a noble cause and ground these aspirations in simple (maybe even normal) daily activities.

Experiences should elevate folks to a purpose or cause with inspiring and authentic stories of impact. John Deere elevates new employees to their organization by creating a truly impactful first day experience (including being greeted by a “texting buddy” who hands new hires their favourite beverage and an email from the CEO that explains the history of the company). In this case, elevating means personalization and connecting work with history and legacy.

Experiences should also ground people in concrete examples of how to make an impact every day. Without guardrails that ground folks in their day-to-day work, folks lack clarity and will develop expectations that are mismatched with the reality of their job and their team. In this case, grounding means being focused on accountability and clarity of role, as opposed to a menu of self-serve, ever-evolving development activities or workplace perks.

How are you elevating others to your community’s purpose? What does elevation look and feel like for folks on your team? How are you grounding folks to specific tasks and goals? What connections are you making everyday between abstract and elevated examples of impact and the stuff that needs to get done for clients, customers, and members?

Elevating ourselves to a purpose and grounding ourselves in how to live it everyday is the secret sauce of making a positive impact as a community because when it’s happening everybody wins.