Discovering Our Purpose at MedEngine
To better understand life with Parkinson’s, we reach out to more and more people with Parkinson’s every day. Naturally, we get a lot of questions…
“Who are MedEngine?”
“What is it that you are making?”
“So, what do you guys do?”
To add to that, we welcomed a number of new “MedEngineers” to the team and there was a need to share the MedEngine worldview. Something that could serve as a “north star” going forward. It became apparent that we needed a clear, coherent message to give to the world about why we exist and about what difference that we want to make. Our purpose.
Purpose refers to exactly that.
Why do we exist? What difference are we making?
To think bigger, we thought it was best to get out of the office and find a new location. Luckily, thanks to SpaceBase, we found a great room, not too far from the office, to start our journey of self-discovery. Deeper discussions such as these always can benefit from some external guidance so we invited Nora Dietrich— a Berlin-based coach and facilitator — along to help us discover our reason for being.
What did we do?
Stage 1
We started with an exercise where we each drew a picture of where we felt MedEngine stands today. We then tried to interpret each drawing and what it meant. Attempting to understand each drawing unlocked our creative thinking and got our heads in the right place for the rest of the session! Also, it was great to see those GCSE art skills get put to good use!
Stage 2
We were then introduced to a Japanese concept called Ikigai. This translates as “reason for being” and is a model used originally to derive one’s sense of purpose in life. Here, we used it to help us outline what our purpose could be.
We paired off and used sticky notes to write down notes and separate them into 4 sections:
- What we love
- What we’re good at
- What we can be paid for
- What the world needs
Stage 3
In our groups, we then took it in turns to explain what we had come up with and where the crossovers lie. Here we took time to acknowledge the difference of opinion and discuss what could be at the heart of why we exist.
What did we get out of it?
We found a way of communicating to the world in a manner that is clear and authentic to us. A common language that we can use to describe who we are and why we exist. By reflecting, discovering and distilling everyone’s thoughts and experiences, we felt an increased sense of togetherness, alignment and renewed levels of enthusiasm for taking on the challenge ahead of us. A shared sense of purpose emerged.
So why do you exist?
After much discussion and exchange of ideas, we settled on a statement that captures the essence of why we are here…
We are:
‘ Improving Parkinson’s Care through technology. ’
An organisation’s path evolves over time, however, purpose gives us a firm and overarching sense of direction while we move through the changing business landscape. We now have a sound narrative that people both within the company and outside of the company can understand and contribute to.
Feel that you can contribute to our purpose? Reach out to us: contact@medengine.co
