Gut Check
Sometimes I indulge in a mid-day run, and it is almost always rewarding. On a good day it feels that I reach flow effortlessly. I am able to process and vet, available at the same time to random thoughts and ideas. These small but potent chunks of time for openness and listening are often what so many of us need. A calming of the conversations in our heads, the to-dos, the reflex responses to communications and opinions of others, and a return to our core make-up and beliefs. It is during these runs that I also get a good gut-check. Sometimes I find that I needed it more than I realized.
But sometimes, we also need a good punch in the gut. An opportunity to lay things bare, where we’re forced to assess, respond, and possibly pivot, maybe in a massive way. PARE embraces both sorts. To guide an exercise for a gut-check, but to also help ascertain when the gut-punch is required, and to undertake that exercise (and not just any exercise) with our clients. We excel in the diving in, digging deep, and knowing the difference in a gut-check validation and landing a good healthy gut-punch when required.
Such tapping into what is of utmost value to any of us, as individuals and as companies, requires consistent returning to evaluation of our mission, our goals, our belief systems, and the realities of our abilities to affect them.
We talk a lot at PARE about legacy. We believe so strongly that one of the ‘whys’ for any company, might very well be the legacy they leave behind. Did they strike a nerve? Did they shift thinking? Did they embrace and build upon their stated and intended values? But how to know? How to prepare? How to best take advantage of, and learn from, a gut-check?
At PARE, we start with an exploration of what is realistic, versus what is ideal, and all of the possibilities in between. We were recently struck by an artist statement by Vanha Lam, who we admire both for her produced work, and what is at the core of her approach, “I always start with limitations. This provides a structure for me to navigate within. I then establish a boundary and see how far it can be pushed. Or build a framework and see how many ways it can break. It’s a delicate balance between order and chaos, intention and intuition. First, set the scene, then let the materials, process, or environment intervene. This is what I mean by ‘a controlled collapse’.”
Establishing productive boundaries, understanding and challenging limitations, breaking frameworks that no longer serve, seeing the positive in creating controlled chaos, adhering to intention and just how far to pursue intuition versus research and data, due diligence, and an overall informed approach is the very structure that PARE thrives within, and within which we feel many of our best clients thrive as well.
A subtext of PARE values—in fact the three words that call us to action—is Design Disturb Distill. The very name of our company, after all, is rooted in getting to the core, to the essence, to the distilled very right version of anything. And to do that requires an immense amount of willingness to root about, discover, and surface those essential aspects of a business. It is to never rest on the what has been, on assumptions, or the dusty mission or value statements that haven’t seen the light of day since they were first written down. We thoughtfully shepherd a process of evaluation, taking our clients to perhaps uncomfortable territory, in order to find their best selves, and all that is possible with an openness to disruption. We offer both gut-checking and gut-punching, to the degree a client is ready to be in the ring.
—Steffany
