At Prototype Training Systems we believe that our values are our guides to every decision that we make. In life, we are faced with decisions that are difficult, however, the decisions that tend to be the most difficult are the easiest to make if you have a defined set of core values.
The importance of having strong core values is something we not only believe is imperative to our organization, but it’s also an important factor in our lives as human beings.
Something that you might not know about us is every team member who begins their journey with us at Prototype is required to do a core values exercise. We do this for a few reasons, but mainly to identify what’s most important to that person and their alignment with what we believe at Prototype.
Prior to opening Prototype in 2012, we created a set of values that established the foundation for what we were going to build. Over time our values have evolved and have taken on deeper meanings. Furthermore, we believe that giving more definition to our values serves our community and those that are part of our organization in a much deeper way.
Below is our original set of core values. If you were to walk into Prototype (still to this day) you would notice these values on the wall and they have been there since near inception.
Values circa 2012:
-Family
-Integrity
-Excellence
-Helping Others
-Fun
-Growth
As we have grown and the complexity of what we do has changed we believed that it was time to consolidate these values and give more meaning to where we are going into the future.
Below are our redefined set of core values. These values will be our guides to helping us make the best decisions for our community, for our team, and for any difficult decisions that we may face.
Create meaningful and lasting relationships
The vision of Prototype Training Systems is to create the greatest relationship business ever. Similar to our original value of family, we believe that creating meaningful and lasting relationships is a foundational principle that will guide us well into the future. We define GREAT relationships as long-term, durable connections characterized by care, respect, empathy, and trust that ultimately improve our member’s quality of life. The litmus tests are
1) is the client’s quality of life improving in meaningful ways from their (not our) point of view?
2) is there mutual care, concern, respect, and trust from both the client’s POV and the coach’s POV?
3) Are defining moments being created to make a lasting impact?
Regardless of the depth of the relationship, each person feels important, they feel cared for and there is free, open communication between us and them.
Furthermore, this extends not only to our members but also our team members and staff at Prototype and those relationships outside of the walls at Prototype. This means that how we interact and what we do to create meaningful relationships, is crucial to the overall impact we can make.
Embrace the journey through humility
We believe that humility is a core feature that defines who we are. We are constantly learning and focusing on improving each and every day. We will never believe that we know everything and through failure, we learn and grow.
This carries over into how we work with our clients and team members from a growth and development standpoint. Many organizations tend to focus on only the bottom line, however, we believe that learning through failure and embracing the journey of growth makes life a hell of a lot better!
We Believe that you can’t take everything too seriously and you have to have fun while doing it, or it’s not worth doing.
Do what you say, say what you do
As I mentioned above, we don’t claim to be perfect nor will we ever be, however integrity and doing the right thing is always important. We define doing what you say and saying what you do further than just acting with integrity, though. In other words, it means to do what is right when no one is looking, even if it puts you at a disadvantage.
It also means that you follow through on what you promised to deliver. We take this very seriously and we believe that every decision we make is based on the overall good of our community and the people we serve. Acting against what you believe in or what you believe is right gives you that uneasy feeling like you’re going against your moral compass.
If we say we are going to do something, you better believe we are going to do it!
Achieve more together
Remember the acronym that was used to describe TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More)? Well, it’s true. We believe in the greater power of working together and collaborating. Teaming, community, working collaboratively, asking for feedback, being receptive to feedback… These are all components of the value of achieving more together.
Charlie Kim, Co-CEO of Next Jump has put it so eloquently, “A Better Me + A Better You=A Better Us” and we strongly believe in that. There isn’t one superhero amongst us, it’s the work we do together that brings us closer to our vision and allows us to make a greater impact on the lives of our members and the community.
Community stewardship
We define Stewardship as the act or actions of taking responsibility for the well-being of the community. Overall, this value extends as an ethic or ethos that we live by at Prototype.
The idea that we will take care of the people in our community and those around us. Our job doesn’t end after a workout ends or your training session is over, our responsibility is to serve and to take care of our people.
We passionately value the fact that our clients, community, and the team have put their trust and loyalty in us, and to reciprocate is our duty.
Understand that as stewards of this community, we will do whatever it takes to help and to act in the best interest of the people that make up Prototype.
If you’ve never done a core values exercise, we believe it’s incredibly valuable in defining what the most important things to you are as it creates a framework of how you want to lead your life. If you want to talk more about this or need help, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly at mike@prototypetraining.com.