Any business can say anything when it comes to their values. It would be easy to choose words you know your clients want to hear. After all, pretty much anyone can lay claim to generic values like “honesty” and “integrity.”
So, when we sat down to think about our company values, we wanted to do things a little differently. We decided to work backwards to come up with our values. After all, only the actual experiences we’ve had and the deliverables we provide can define who we are.
Our New Mission and Values
Our mission and values may be recently defined, but they are certainly not recently implemented. We considered our shared values closely, looking at concrete examples of projects and how we brought them to life.
Today, we want to dive into one of the examples we used when we were thinking about our mission and values. That’s because we believe you might as well not list your values unless you actually apply them! So, we want to show you how we’re doing that.
First, here’s what we came up with:
Our mission is to build cool shit. Whether we’re working for homeowners or governments, engineering bridges or housing complexes, every project is awesome in its own way, with its own challenges and complexities. By always embodying our values of creativity, practicality, service, and solidarity, we’re able to build cool shit for people and organizations that matter to us.
Our values include:
Creativity – To us, creativity means rethinking stale and unchallenged ideas and drawing inspiration from unique places. It’s never taking the easy way, but always pushing harder to find the best way.
Practicality – Practicality goes hand-in-hand with creativity. We solve problems using solutions that are already on hand and we aim for the straightest path through a challenge.
Service – We’re going to do whatever it takes to get the job done effectively, easily, and with the least possible costs. If it costs more, it’s only because we’ve worked harder to save time and money down the road.
Solidarity – The CVL Engineers Inc. team is always up for a challenge because we’re confident in our shared abilities. We’ve worked together for years and we know how to handle the pressure without cracking.
How We Put Our Values into Action
It’s hard to draw an example of any single one of our values because they work together so well. If we’re being practical, we’re also usually being creative. If we’re giving great service, it’s probably because we’re acting with solidarity as a team. But there are some great examples that show them working in tandem.
Here’s one:
A commercial building client was looking for a more cost-effective method for a commercial building. Engineered wood joists is a solution typically used in residential construction, but there is no reason we can’t use it in a commercial setting. It’s more practical because it’s more affordable. It was also a creative fix because other engineering firms mostly likely wouldn’t have considered it as an option, despite all the benefits.
In this case, we thought creatively to put together the most practical solution for the client. For the client, it resulted in exponential savings during construction. This is what we do on a regular basis for all of our projects, large or small, because we place high value on these characteristics in our work.
For more examples of how our values show through our work, check out our recent case studies.
