Finding Purpose with an Intention Rainbow

Michael Diffenderfer
Salesforce Designer
8 min readMar 15, 2022
On a black background: There are two rows of words in white type. Each word is sandwiched between colorful lines representing the diversity of a rainbow of people.

The world is still pretty weird these days, y’all. Even the new normal keeps shifting. A lot has changed for everyone and it’s made meaningful connections — a difficult thing to achieve at work already — even harder to form and nurture. I want to share how my team tackled that obstacle and how your teams can do the same.

In October 2020, deep into the pandemic, I joined Salesforce Service Cloud UX from a different area of the company. It was a welcome and exciting change, even though in the over five years I’d already spent at Salesforce, I’d only ever met four of my new teammates in person. Everyone treated one another like family, but the need to connect and reconnect was a palpable presence in our meetings.

This got my teammate, Miranda Morgan, thinking, and in her next 1:1 with her manager, Adrian Rapp, she dug into those thoughts:

“In reflecting on the previous year, I thought about all of the things that had been dictating my day-to-day. None of these were things I had chosen, but the pandemic chose for me. And as a single, mid-30s woman, I thought about all of the milestones I’d planned for at this time of my life. I wanted to meet a partner; I maybe wanted to have children; I wanted to grow professionally. The clock was ticking, and I had been isolated inside for a year. It was getting personal.”

As a reaction to this she thought it would be helpful to boil down her intention for the next year to a single word.

The conversation inspired Adrian, and with Miranda’s permission, he took an opportunity to expand it and share with the whole team. The question to the group: If you were to sum up your intentions for the coming year in one word, what would it be? It became a great time to explore what we needed, why, and to share feelings in a positive space.

The result, pictured at the top of this article, came to be called our Intention Rainbow — a list of words, presented in colors as varied as we are as humans, that represented our intentions for the coming year. It’s a beautiful representation of what we needed, what we would work toward, and a reflection on the things we’d lost since the world began to change.

But how did we get there?

Your First Words

When approaching this exercise it’s important to trust the people you’re with. There’s a certain amount of vulnerability that comes with finding your word, and while that can be weird, it works to build empathy with those around you. Even if there are people you don’t know, it’s vital that this discussion take place in an environment that promotes caring and listening without judgment. The only bits that need to be recorded are the words themselves, and can even be collected afterwards. The thoughts and feelings that come out when discussing your word are as ephemeral as they are personal.

Sounds easy enough, right? I admit that we have the luxury of safe space on our team. We’re all supportive and encourage one another to be our full selves. In the past, I would’ve scoffed at even the thought of something like this. But as people started to share, I opened up. There was a cascading ripple effect of openness. If your team has some folks who can get the ball rolling, hopefully those who are typically more reserved will feel comfortable following along. It’s important to call out, however, that no one should be forced to participate if they don’t want to. This isn’t an all or nothing exercise.

Now close your eyes. Or don’t, I’m not your boss. Set today as day zero. Think back a year on what your experiences have been like — in life, in work, in relationships, and everything else. What did you have that you lost? What of those things do you want back? What could you do without?

Before we approached this exercise I had gone through an enormous amount of change. I’d stepped down from a leadership role in a local arts nonprofit, I’d lost my connection to my work, my old teammates had all grown into different roles and the culture of that team had disintegrated. All of that combined made me feel like I’d really lost myself. Those wounds were all pretty fresh, and with that feeling I chose my word: reclaim.

I wanted to reclaim the heart I’d once put into my work, reclaim the ability to build meaningful relationships, and reclaim space to give back to my community.

It was inspiring to hear other teammates approach their word with the same sincerity:

“I chose the word focus. A word that a friend had previously used to describe me when he observed me in my ‘getting (stuff) done’ mode. If I couldn’t control the world and events around me, how could I direct my focus and attention toward the things I could? And ultimately work toward my goals, in new creative ways, and in a new world?” — Miranda Morgan

“My first word was trust — which honestly I was a little embarrassed about at first, because I felt a little silly having the number one Salesforce value also being my intention word. But I meant to have trust in myself. Trust that I can show up as my full self at work, at home, or at the local coffee shop, and that will be enough. It was the perfect vibe at the start of 2021 as I had an almost 1 year old at the time and was still trying to do alllllll the things.” — Amber Bouabdallah

“My word was revival. I’ve always had this word in my head and was going to use it for one of my future albums. Over the past two years, owing to the pandemic, I found myself in a dark place due to isolation and anxiety. In 2021, I wanted to work toward becoming my older self and started working toward self-improvement, and the word revival was the general theme for that.” — Gurudutt Perichetla

After this exercise, we took our words and made a slide showcasing them all. We didn’t revisit the Intention Rainbow as an exercise for a while, but the slide made an appearance at the end of each team meeting as a reminder of our own direction.

Where did your rainbow lead you?

Approaching the anniversary of the initial exercise, we had our first Rainbow check-in as a team. Just as you change and grow, your intention should, too. We took time to reflect on our word and look back on how we felt we lived up to our intention. Which parts of the intention did we meet, and which remained out of reach? This might seem like a recounting of achievements and failures, but it was a cathartic and emotional experience. It wasn’t about goals, it was about growth.

I thought on my word, reclaim. I felt like I had definitely reclaimed a connection to my work and my colleagues, and as a result, I felt like I’d grown as a leader and supportive teammate. I’d also taken control of my emotional growth and, with help, made great strides. I didn’t, however, get to be as active in my community as I’d hoped. Part of this was prioritization, part was the continuing pandemic, and part was moving to a new community. But I wasn’t there to make excuses. This reflection helped me when we came up with our word for the next year.

Year Two

After we all had time to digest the powerful session where we unpacked our words, we came together to build a new Intention Rainbow. Same as before, we started with day zero. What happened in the past year, and what would we want to see in the coming year?

Again, my team had so much inspiration to share:

“I went meta with my word this year and chose intention as my word. After two years of feeling awash in the uncertainty of the pandemic, I want to regain a sense of control and approach my life with resolve.” — Jason Moll

“Now that I have the hang of things (LOL 😹), my word is weave. I came to the word through my meditation practice. I want to shape, design, mother, host, create, define, interact, etc., but not in a way that feels like just getting things done. That is too harsh and rigid for the reality of things, and frankly doesn’t sound like any fun at all. I am done with the hyperactive do-it-all type-A culture…but pulling a coworker from here to discuss an idea, setting up a framework for enterprise-scale collaboration to thread people together, connecting dots in an essay, folding in friends from two different circles, and then stepping back to see what has come together…that’s the pleasurable weaving-life approach I am going for. There is direction, there is focus, there is productivity, but it’s under a warm cozy textile.” — Amber Bouabdallah

“In 2022, I realized that self-improvement is a continuous and multi-step process, with each step being a checkpoint of sorts. For this year, I chose confident, as I believe it to be an important step in my path of self-improvement — both from a professional perspective and a personal perspective. I’d also admit that I chose the word based on the Demi Lovato song.” — Gurudutt Perichetla

As for me, my word for this year is engage. I feel safer getting out into the world. I feel like plans won’t be pulled out from under me like a cruel rug. I’m going to make every effort to find meaningful ways to be involved in my community, my son’s school, and the world in general. I’ve been comfortable being shut inside of my home for too long, and I’m making myself get out.

If you feel the same way it doesn’t mean that you need to drop everything and backpack across Europe, though that would be cool, right? I’ll be taking weekend trips with my family, going hiking with friends on new trails, and even writing articles for the Salesforce Design blog while sitting in an actual coffee shop. 🙀

Set your Intention and Follow it

I challenge you to find your word. Think to your past, think to the future, and make the change you need in your life and your world. You get to set where your Intention Rainbow takes you.

I’ve found tremendous amounts of meaning in this exercise and don’t plan to stop pursuing it any time soon. I’m excited to engage in the adventures that lie ahead and explore this journey to my next word.

Huge and very special thanks to the entire Service UX team at Salesforce for the encouragement to write this out, and sustaining an environment where we can truly be and love ourselves.

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