EPM's Core 4

My LinkedIn articles often focus on how we’re achieving the 23 Fundamentals of the EPM way. These are beliefs that help inform the way we live, operate, and structure our lives within the organization. They guide behaviors to help people understand who we are and where we are going. And as an organization focused on always evolving, we wanted to evolve the way we address these fundamentals too. 

The Core 4 are actionable behaviors that we look at as an advancement of the original 23 fundamentals. There’s nothing new about the overall concepts. They’re based on the natural language we’ve used over and over again to describe the EPM Way. But the Core 4 is a practical way to deliver the 23 fundamentals that highlight our personal growth and emotional intelligence and makes our guidelines to success feel more focused, streamlined, and attainable.

We want to encourage engagement and adoption of these fundamentals by our entire organization. And we also want to cut down on overwhelm wherever we can. Thinking about 4 Core Values takes up a lot less of our valuable brain space than trying to balance 23 behavior drivers. But our original 23 fundamentals are still all strongly rooted in the 4 Core. This is what that looks like:

Show the Way

With our 4 Core, we can determine how to continue with honor, lead by example, and have excellence in what we do every day. As leaders in our industry, Show The Way means we incorporate the fundamentals rooted in lifting EPM and focusing on the way we conduct business and ourselves:  Do The Right Thing, Always; Practice Blameless Problem-solving; Demonstrate Empathy; Treasure, Protect, And Promote Epm; Show Sincere Appreciation;  Show You Care; and Be Proud Of Our Appearance.

Unify through Collaboration

Collaboration is about coming together as a team, and as an industry, to push our mission vision and goals forward together. Collaboration is the basis of healthy growth as a unified organization with the same vision and goals.  Share Best Information; Think Team First; Choose Positivity; Listen Generously; Keep Things Fun.

Struggle Well

EPM and our industry is constantly evolving. Change can be complicated even when it’s good change. Struggle well reminds us to bring value to others with our actions. We embrace the opportunities that come with evolution, so we aren't doing the same things the same way, and so we are finding new ways to address problems and opportunities as they come. The fundamentals that remind us how to Struggle Well are: Honor Commitments, Deliver Results; “Bring It” Every Day, Deliver Superfan Service; Get The Details Right; Mediocrity Is Your Enemy, and Set And Ask For Expectations.

Own Unique

Own Unique is all about innovation. We excel at pushing boundaries, coloring outside the lines, and thinking outside the box. We’ve set ourselves apart from others in our industry and will continue to do so by embracing these important fundamentals: Be Resourceful; Always Be Evolving, Speak Courageously, and Continuously Improve Yourself.

The substance of our 23 Fundamentals isn’t going anywhere, but the design, delivery, and approach to enable people to buy into EPM’s mission and values has evolved. When we can contribute to the success of our team members within our organization, we are contributing to the success of our communities, our economy, and our nation. Our 4 Core  is just another important approach to helping Empower People More.