After refreshing our brand earlier this year, we decided an update to our vision and values statements was also needed to clarify our identity more succinctly, especially given the significant changes taking place in the energy industry today. Our vision and values are not just words on a page or pictures on a wall to us. They really do shape our work environment, our culture and the business decisions we make.

Why change?

At PSC we’re always looking for ways to better serve our clients, improve our processes and help develop our team. As a group, we are becoming much more intentional about how and why we move forward and grow. And by definition, growth requires change. It’s simple enough to say, but in practice, it’s not always so straightforward.

The fact is that I’d been struggling with the idea of having both a mission and a vision statement for a while. What I wanted instead was one clear statement that inspires all of us and represents our underlying purpose.

So we set out to review our existing language and found that we just needed to tweak it a bit to really underscore the alignment between what PSC does, who we serve and why it matters.

For our values, it was a matter of reviewing them against our current culture, to make sure they were inclusive of every employee regardless of position or tenure, and that they were actionable.

The process

Our PSC team is bursting with problem-solvers, not all of whom are engineers. We approached reviewing and updating our vision and value statements using the same methodology and logic we apply to all our work.

First, we had to determine what we were actually trying to solve! After some discussion, we found that our existing vision, mission and values were a little outdated and maybe a bit too verbose for the fast-paced world we live in today.

Next, we assembled a small team of people from throughout our Company including an external consultant whom we’ve worked with before and who knows our staff and overall organization well. We spent time brainstorming and collaborating, trying on various options to see if they fit, hear how they sounded, if they resonated.

We spent time doing what some might call “word-smithing.” I viewed it as just trying to be as efficient and consistent as possible. (Did I mention I’m an engineer?) It did provoke some interesting and enlightening conversations about who PSC is, who we aspire to be and the kind of meaningful contributions we are committed to making for the greater good.

The results

We found it is essential to incorporate our purpose – our “why” –  the underlying reason for being in business and why we come to work every day at PSC, and to enunciate our vision; the big picture of what we want to achieve. We also refined our values slightly to better reflect the reality of our daily work.

I’m pleased to announce our revitalized vision, why and value statements. We’ve streamlined the language, articulated our purpose and condensed our values down from five to four.

We’re leaning into our clarified vision and values. We’re committed to living them authentically every day. If you believe in our vision, we welcome you to review our job openings and join us as we help power a more sustainable world.