Exploring the One KBTG Culture Ep. 3: One Goal
Small goals toward our one big goal
Think about company goals, cascading down to team and individual goals
Achieve individual and team goals everyday
As we learned from the previous episode, treasuring innovativeness and creativity is undeniably a crucial factor in ensuring the survival of any organization. However, without a clear unified goal, instead of contributing positively to the company, unique and diverse ways of thinking can become sources of confusion and egoism that lead to conflict from within. Furthermore, people’s passion in work will gradually disappear because they struggle to see how their individuality contributes to the bigger picture of the company. To unleash maximum potential, each person must have clarity on their purpose and role. Therefore, KBTG places significant emphasis on ensuring that each person truly understands not just the organization’s goals, but how their own life is directly connected to its achievement.
Last episode, we learned from Leonardo da Vinci, a historical figure as our source of guidance on innovation. In this article, true to the KBTG spirit of creativity, let’s divert and learn from something more unconventional. When I first studied about the One Goal value, the concept of “small goals toward our one big goal” reminded me not of large corporate success or groundbreaking achievements in history, but a beloved story I grew up with that taught me countless valuable lessons on life. And as Stephen King once wrote “fiction is the truth inside the lie”, follow along and find out how my favorite work of literature helped me deepen my understanding of KBTG’s One Goal.
One Piece
One Piece is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. The story focuses on a young boy named Monkey D. Luffy whose goal is to become the King of Pirates by finding the ‘One Piece’, the world’s greatest treasure that promises an unlimited amount of wealth, fame and glory. However, Luffy is not interested in materialistic possessions. His reason for being a pirate is one of simple, pure, and childlike wonder: the joy of an exciting adventure together with his friends. To realize his dream, Luffy sets out to sea to gather a strong crew and together, they embark on a journey where they experience crazy adventures, unveil mysteries of the world, and battle many strong enemies.
The Straw Hat Pirates
Currently consisting of ten members, Luffy’s crew is known as the “Straw Hat Pirates”, named after Luffy’s signature straw hat given to him by Red-Haired Shanks, Luffy’s pirate idol who inspired him to set out to sea. What makes the relationships between Luffy and his crew so interesting is the uniqueness of each member. In the fantasy world of One Piece where ships can sail up waterfalls that lead to floating islands in the sky, seahorses act as taxis in Venice-like cities and the sea is populated by talking animals, zombies, giants, fish-men and countless more, one can expect that Luffy’s companions would be no less absurd:
- Monkey D. Luffy: a boy whose body can stretch like rubber
- Roronoa Zoro: a swordsman with a terrible sense of direction
- Nami: a money-obsessed thief and navigator
- Usopp: a sniper and compulsive liar
- Sanji: an amorous yet chivalrous cook
- Tony Tony Chopper: a talking reindeer doctor
- Nico Robin: an archaeologist and assassin
- Franky: a cyborg shipwright
- Brook: a skeleton musician
- Jinbei: a whale shark-type fish-man and helmsman
Not only are the crew members’ appearances and personalities incredibly diverse, but their real objectives and beliefs are also very different from Luffy’s. Each member is wildly independent from the captain because they are striving to accomplish their own dreams:
- Monkey D. Luffy: Become the King of Pirates
- Roronoa Zoro: Become the world’s greatest swordsman
- Nami: Create a world map
- Usopp: Become a brave warrior of the sea
- Sanji: Find All Blue (a mythical place where all the seas of the world meet)
- Tony Tony Chopper: Become a doctor capable of curing all diseases
- Nico Robin: Learn the truth of the Void Century (a century-long gap in recorded history)
- Franky: Build a dream ship that can circumnavigate the world
- Brook: Sail around the globe and reunite with his friend, a whale named Laboon
- Jinbei: Break the cycle of racial hatred between Fishmen and humans
Although there are many differences in the crew, Luffy’s relentless willingness to cherish and befriend those around him gradually united the hearts of each crew member. Luffy deeply understands that he cannot do everything by himself. He needs the help of others if he wants to keep on living and without their support, he could never achieve his dream.
Through his character, Luffy demonstrated countless times that he would go through the ends of the earth to protect his crew. He climbed a vertical mountain 5,000 meters high in freezing conditions while carrying a severely sick Nami and wounded Sanji to find a doctor who can treat his friends. He declared war on the World Government, a federation of 170 countries simply because they threatened to capture Robin. Most crew members might have joined the crew in pursuit of their own personal ambitions, but because Luffy treasures his crew so much, he earned their immeasurable trust and as a result, another purpose began to emerge.
Straw Hats Begin Their Training: We’ll Meet Again in 2 Years!
At one point in the story, after suffering complete defeat in a battle against strong military forces of the World Government, the Straw Hat pirates were separated to different locations. Although Luffy wanted to reunite with his friends badly, he puts finding his crew on hold in favor of rescuing his older brother Ace, also an infamous fellow pirate, after finding out he that has been captured by the Navy and is about to be executed. But despite all his efforts, Luffy could not save his brother.
Upon hearing the news of Ace’s death, Luffy’s crew was devastated. Struck by grief and the thought of how much he must be suffering, they desperately wanted to reunite with their captain. However, the loss of his brother made Luffy realize that his crew is not ready for the rest of the journey where they will encounter much more powerful enemies. He decided that everyone must strengthen themselves. Taking advantage of the newspapers’ publicity, Luffy purposefully drew attention to himself to send an exclusive message to his crew. He carved a tattoo on his arm that said “ ̶3̶D̶̶ 2Y” which means instead of meeting in 3 days as originally planned, they’ll stop here, become stronger and meet again after 2 years!
This is a significant turning point in the story because it is the moment where every crew member discovered something more important than their personal ambition. Ace’s death made the crew realize there are many enemies beyond Luffy’s power. Luffy could lose. He’s pushing himself and crying out for help. That’s why they want to become stronger with every fiber of their being. Their desire for strength is no longer just for their own goals, but so they can help Luffy become the King of Pirates, just like how he helped them.
This character development does not mean each member sacrificing their dreams. Rather, their dreams gained a greater purpose. An example of this is Zoro who aims to be the world’s greatest swordsman and set out to sea seeking to defeat Dracule Mihawk, the current swordsman who stands above all. Earlier on in the series, Zoro met and battled the man he aimed to surpass but suffered a humiliating defeat. When the Straw Hats were separated, mystically Zoro ended up on the island where Mihawk resided. After receiving Luffy’s message, Zoro begged on his knees asking Mihawk to train him. For a man who values pride as a swordsman above all else, to bow his head and ask for help from his sworn enemy is unthinkable. This shows how dedicated Zoro is to Luffy: he is willing to swallow his pride for the sake of someone else. He wants to become the greatest swordsman, not to satisfy his own ego, but to help his friend.
Similarly, Chopper, overcame his insecurities about his appearance for Luffy’s sake. Originally a reindeer, Chopper was born with an odd blue nose which caused his reindeer herd to treat him as an outcast. He then accidentally ate a mysterious fruit that gave him powers to speak human language and transform into a human hybrid. However, villagers saw him as a monster and started shooting at him. Rejected by both reindeer and human societies, for many years Chopper couldn’t befriend anyone. Finally, he found love and family-like warmth from Luffy and his crew who accepted him just the way he is.
After Ace’s death, realizing how much Luffy pushes himself for his friends, Chopper decided to stop caring about what other people thinks of him and focus on developing his strength and medical skills to support Luffy. He wants to help Luffy so badly that he’d do anything to become stronger, even if it means becoming a real monster. Again, what makes Chopper’s growth so moving is that he is willing to become the very thing he hated, that caused him so much loneliness and suffering, if it means he can protect his captain’s dream. Because Chopper wants to become stronger for the sake of someone else, he was able to surmount all his insecurities without hesitation.
One Goal
The Straw Hats’ beautiful relationship made me think maybe this is what One Goal looks like: a gathering of people with unique individualities and goals that advance together in the same direction united by a common and lofty purpose. With such a diverse and talented work force, we KBTG are keenly aware that to transcend differences and ensure our people’s uniqueness functions in a positive direction and creates the most value, we need to create a culture where our people strive to develop a personal connection to organizational goals:
- “Why?”: a very simple word but crucial to the growth of the entire organization, “why” is the driving force behind our thought processes and every decision we make. Therefore, those who have a clear purpose can unlock vastly more potential than those who don’t. The stronger and clearer the reason, the better one can utilize their unique talent and skill to achieve the goal. By repeating this process of clarifying the end goal and envisioning a clear outcome, they can gradually discover their role and how they can use their identity to contribute to the organization’s goals.
- All Hands: one of KBTG’s most vital gatherings, overflowing with energy and passion, our “All Hands” events allow people from various teams to invigorate their spirits and strengthen their sense of purpose. Throughout the year, different teams assemble at the K Stadium where they engage in fun activities and learn about the bigger picture and how their team contributes to company goals. Whether it’s KInfra’s IT infrastructure and operation management or KBTGSec’s strategy and human resource planning, “All Hands” is a space where each team member refine and polish their understanding of their role in advancing KBTG.
- 1:1 meetings: by constantly checking in with each team member, our leaders give our people an opportunity and safe space to not only report their work progress, but share their thoughts and open up about their personal problems as well. Although transmitting the company’s goals and values through large gatherings like “All Hands” is powerful, we also recognize the equal importance of another crucial form of communication: one-to-one dialogue. By having open-hearted conversations with one person at a time, our leaders build trust and a personal relationship with their team members. Our 1:1 meeting is a space where employees can honestly express themselves and bounce ideas back and forth with their leaders. Through this process, our leaders can gauge how well their team members understand the company’s goals and help them see how their small individual efforts each day can uniquely contribute to KBTG.
- Performance Goals and Individual Development Plan (IDP): every KBTG employee must set both individual and team performance goals. We try to create a culture that enables our employees to learn how they can achieve personal growth and also help the team achieve a specific outcome. More importantly, they know which step they need to take in order to reach said goals and what support they require from the organization. Part of our One Goal culture is giving autonomy to our people to design their own roadmap for career success. We want our people to take the initiative, think for themselves and plan their own progress because we believe that is the best way to unlock each individual’s potential, leading up to the company’s overall success.
Just like the Straw Hat pirates’ relationship, KBTG believes that a deep sense of purpose is not something that can be given from someone to another, but must be awakened from within each individual. Nothing is more powerful than a person gaining absolute clarity on their goal. That is the purpose of our culture. Every 1:1 meeting and every All Hands event are simply small nudges, like seeds of KBTG’s spirit that we plant in each person, fully believing that one day they will bloom into unshakable trees that tower towards an endless sky.
Although one’s purpose may be as clear as day, without a bow and an arrow functioning together in harmony, the archer will never strike the target. With such ambitious goals in front of us, exceptional team chemistry is undoubtedly needed. What kind of teamwork does KBTG have? How do we define unity?
Next Episode
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