The Path to Your Personal and Organizational Sustainability

Maximize your Fulfillment ROI

Fulfillment can be represented in the simple formula of energy you input to the value you create. If this exchange is a positive ROI, you’re fulfilled. And if you’re fulfilled, that’s the only true basis for sustainability.

Is Fulfillment Elusive? – My Journey 

This question has been a burning one for me for about as long as I can remember. I’ve always wanted to live a life of purpose, to be fulfilled. To find that sweet spot where I was aligning my deepest passions to the world’s yearning need. And man did I try to find it in a lot of different places: tech start up, social justice, ministry, corporate America, consulting, coaching, and on. And while I would find fleeting moments I would label as fulfilling; they were just that: moments. It was by no means a state of being, but a moment in time. 

And frankly that bugged the crap out of me. I mean yes, I had been flitting from one engagement/career like a moth at a lantern convention, but Iike that moth I was SUPER excited each and every time.  Eventually I had to acknowledge my approach to fulfillment wasn’t working. So I was stuck at a fork in the road.  

• Path A: fulfillment is just luck of the draw, enjoy it when it comes, but stop chasing it.  

OR  

• Path B: I’m missing something and need to slow down, pay attention and learn.  

And to be honest, I was leaning towards Path A, even going so far as to lift my foot and orient my body in that direction. When, BOOM! it’s March 2020 and the world has decided everyone is going to socially distance our collective selves down Path B. And so began my journey to go slow so I could grow deep. 

What Exactly Is Fulfillment?

Fast forward about 18 months to the end of 2021 and a I’m rocking with a sweet team of four Flipsters and feeling that sweet fulfillment. Then we lose a big client; I start to ruminate on the why; and realize man do I feel tired. Quickly I start losing that sweet feeling. In this space, I start butting up against one of our cultural pillars: 

 “No Work | If it feels like work, stop. If it persists, talk about it.”  

 And I think: “Not again.” So, I take our culture seriously and I start talking about it. And God bless this awesome team, they listen. We reflect. They create space. They respond. I grow. Frankly, fewer awesome things happen on this planet than this type of interaction. In the end the idea of the Fulfillment ROI starts to coalesce (captured in the sweet infographic below).   

It's such a simple formula. Value Created > Energy Input. Yet, the implications have been far reaching for me personally and in our business. We’ve stopped using the term “work” to describe what we’re doing (which fits well with the pillar stated above) and started talking about “catalyzing” (reducing energy requirements) and “vectoring” (acting with purpose and impact to improve value creation). So now we could answer the below. 
 

QUESTION: How can I feel more fulfilled? 

ANSWER: Catalyze & Vector.  

So What About Sustainability?  

Yet, the biggest “a ha” for me was realizing that this formula has a secondary impact: It feeds sustainability. It does so by addressing the question of “What stops sustainability?” The answer to which turns out to be the reverse formula: Energy Input > Value Created. By working on improving your Fulfillment ROI you flip the formula back and can course correct unsustainable activities. Once you are producing a positive ROI, this then acts as a buffer to stave of momentary bumps in the road because these bumps inevitably are felt as increased energy investment or reduced value creation.  

So helping maximize our Fulfillment ROIs we increase the chance to weather the storms and keep us on the sustainable path.  

An Example: The “Great Resignation” 

As a current example, let’s look at the phenomena sweeping the nation (and world): The “Great Resignation”. Seen through the lens of the Fulfillment ROI this situation and its solution makes a lot of sense. It’s a natural next chapter to the “Great Pause” we collective experienced in 2020-2021. As people were forced to hurry up and wait, many aspects of our lives and work got called into question (aka we reassessed the Value Created).  

We also had some realized example of how we could perform these different roles in our lives as many aspects were stripped to their bare essentials, like “What can you truly get done when isolating at home, possibly with the rest of your family also doing so, and worrying about every trip from this shared space/home/prison?” From this position we started to see the proverbial Matrix of how our energy inputs impacted our created value. Many realized some of these weren’t “worth it” (aka not providing a positive ROI).  

And so we are now in a period where people are consciously questioning what is “worth it”. Which is to say they are assessing their Fulfillment ROIs. 

You can maximise your fulfilment ROI (the energy invested vs. the value created) by catalyzing to reduce the energy required or vectoring to create more value.

It's such a simple formula. Value Created > Energy Input. Yet, the implications have been far reaching for me personally and in our business. We’ve stopped using the term “work” to describe what we’re doing (which works well with the pillar stated above) and started talking about “catalyzing” (reducing energy requirements) and “vectoring” (acting with purpose and impact to improve value creation). So to fill more fulfilled in anything, learn how to reduce the energy needed to create the value or increase the value of what is being done.

What is Sustainability?

Yet, the biggest “a ha” for me has been that this formula has a secondary impact: It feeds sustainability. It does so by addressing the question of “What stops sustainability?” The answer to which turns out to be the formula: Energy Input > Value Created. So working on improving your Fulfillment ROI you both can course correct unsustainable activities AND once producing a positive ROI it acts as a buffer to stave of momentary bumps in the road, as these bumps inevitably are felt as increased energy investment or reduced value creation.

So helping maximize our Fulfillment ROIs we increase the chance to weather the storms and keep us on the sustainable path.

What’s Next?

For organizations and individuals feeling the impacts of this new chapter and wondering what to do, check out some of the examples given in the infographic below. We promise you the energy invested here will provide you the value. How’s that for meta?  

At Flip the Script, we’re still working on it, finding new ways to clarify and maximize our own Fulfillment ROIs. It’s the backbone of every offering in our portfolio. EP!C Remote Management? Maximizing the Fulfillment ROI for managers, especially with remote/hybrid teams. Process Documentation? Catalyzing by creating clarity on how things get done and by whom.  Ecosystem Design? Vectoring your system so your success is leveraged through them not achieved despite them. If that resonates with you and you’d like to shift your Fulfillment ROI into positive territory, book a call below!