Our Why Statement
The purpose of the Unified Support Model is captured in our own Why Statement: ‘To connect people and deliver value so that they are empowered & enabled to be their best’
What is a Why Statement?
A Why Statement is a sentence that clearly expresses the team’s distinctive contribution and impact. For anyone who is interested in learning more about the concept of a Why Statement, we got the idea from Simon Sinek, who has an interesting (opens in a new window)Ted Talk on the subject.
The reason we were drawn to a Why Statement is that it seeks to discover things as they already are, it’s not an aspirational exercise. The Why Statement discovery process is grounded in real-life stories. It looks to verbalise what that team looks like when they are operating at their best.
What does the workshop involve?
The workshop is run - usually in the UCD Agile space - over half a day (4 hours). All members of the team are involved in this, as per the definition of the USM remit; “Anyone in the office who is involved in supporting students/staff in 1-to-1 interactions will use the USM”.
The focus here is on the team, on their experiences, impacts and stories. They are guided in defining their draft Why Statement through their own contributions and impacts. The Why Statement can be further developed in an extra session (1 hour) if required.