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Croxford Consulting Manifesto

Creator

Rob Croxford is a local government specialist who assists and advises clients to deliver the right services at the optimal costs because he believes this is the key to improving community satisfaction levels.

Purpose

The manifesto word cloud sets out what Croxford Consulting stands for.

Manifesto

“I believe that your communities deserve to receive excellent local government services.”

Source

Rob Croxford’s Linked In Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-croxford-180521126/

Comment

This is a simple and effective way to quickly create your manifesto.

The Croxford Consulting Manifesto is a mix of values, business offers and principles simply listed and presented as a word cloud.

Word clouds present a series of words with a hierarchy of their importance. Words are displayed at different sizes depending upon their importance or how often they are used.

Here are some quick steps for creating your own Word Cloud Manifesto:

  1. Write down a list of the things that are important to you – your values eg Learn, Give, Pragmatic
  2. Write down principles or strategies that guide what you do eg Rise Early
  3. For business, write down a list of the services you provide eg Service Reviews
  4. Do a search for ‘Word Cloud Generator’
  5. Type your words into the generator and arrange them so the most important ones shine through. Use colours that reflect your brand or personality.
  6. Save your manifesto as an image file
  7. Share it on your website, blog, social media, Linked In profile etc.

One thing that can lift your manifesto is to give it a distinctive title – we want to call it something.

This may be as simple as ‘Rackspace Core Values’, which can be useful but is also generic.

Another angle is to take the title from the key words like Emily McDowell has done in her Let’s Get Real manifesto.

This starts to take your manifesto from being just about you to being a double-sided vision that your clients and community can also buy into.

Notice how you relate to ‘Rackspace Core Values’ versus ‘Let’s Get Real’. For me, ‘Let’s Get Real’ is more inclusive.

For Rob, I think the next level manifesto would be his philosophy around how to provide ‘excellent local government services.’

More

Rackspace Core Values

Apple Corporate Values

Emily McDowell – Let’s Get Real

Suzanne Mercier – Purpose to Profit

Creator

Suzanne Mercier is a Sydney-based coach, author and speaker. She works with business owners, entrepreneurs and leaders to help them recognise and develop their potential. She is considered to be Australia’s expert on identifying and moving beyond limiting mindsets including the Imposter Syndrome … a key barrier to performance.

Disclaimer: I helped Suzanne create this manifesto as part of my coaching services.

Purpose

Suzanne offers a Purposeful Coaching Program and her manifesto highlights the importance and key principles of purpose for all people in business.

Manifesto

Purpose is everything!

Purpose gets us out of bed in the morning.
Purpose allows us to find meaning even in the face of life’s challenges.
Purpose helps us live longer and happier lives.
Purpose is about making a difference and leaving a legacy.

Purpose is NOT a bandaid

Purpose is not something you add into the mix.
Purpose is an organising principle – the central tenet of your business upon which all other business goals and levers are based.

Purpose is the only path to sustainable business success

Profit is necessary for sustainability. But profit isn’t the reason we’re in business.  We need to breathe to stay alive. But we don’t exist to breathe.
Focus on profit leads to short-term decisions with longer term consequences.
Purpose emotionally engages stakeholders at a deeper level, inspiring them to make their own unique contribution.
Purpose reframes barriers as challenges, not stop signs.

Purpose multiplies Profit

It provides authenticity, clarity, focus and a filter for business decisions.
Purpose delivers the highest influence on employee engagement, increasing bottom line.
Purpose is the key principle to align all goals and inspired actions within the business, maximising impact and profit.

Purpose is certain in an uncertain world

Purpose is a fundamental truth for your business.
It is the foundation NOT a bandaid slapped over existing elements of your business model.
Purpose holds true in dynamic business environments, although its expression and delivery may change.
Purpose provides the foundation for both evaluation and recalibration in the face of significant change.

Purpose inspires your brand

Purpose is an expression of the service you are dedicated to providing to others including clients.
The best brand positioning provides a strong emotional connection.
Finding your Purpose naturally guides development of your value proposition.

Source

PurposeToProfit.com.au

Comment

The six points of this manifesto present a clear and simple statement of why purpose in business is important.

This is a crucial point for business people presenting their ideas to the marketplace: you need to make it really clear why your clients need what you offer.

And I don’t mean: sell, sell, sell. Instead, through your manifesto you can educate your audience about what they might need in their business. In this case, Suzanne believes every business needs purpose.

The six statements claim this space well.

The first is strong, clear and definitive: purpose is everything. In other words, without purpose you have nothing. That’s bold.

Also, I like that they are a mixture of statements.

Sure, they all start with the word ‘purpose’ – this gives a consistent rhythm to the message. Most are only 3-5 words in length – short, sharp declarations.

There is also a ‘not’ statement here: ‘Purpose is NOT a bandaid’. When you’re dealing with something that everyone knows something about (eg purpose), you need to be strong and clear about what you believe it is and what you believe it is not.

This is part of claiming your territory and leading people through you view of the world.

More

Studio Co-Creative: The Anti-Marketing Manifesto

Apple: We Are the Crazy Ones

Sister Corita Kent – Ten Rules for Students and Teachers

Studio Co-Creative: The Anti-Marketing Manifesto

Creator

Studio Co-creative is a Canadian based ‘anti-marketing marketing agency’. Robyn Hounjet is the Founder and CEO, Mikayla Grace is the Creative Director and COO, and Lexie the Westie is their littlest Co-Creative.

Purpose

“We believe that the best brands are built from the soul up.” That’s the slogan for Studio Co-creative and this sums up the purpose behind their manifesto.

Studio Co-creative

Manifesto

Everywhere you look, you’re seeing the product of marketing. In a world where you’re constantly encouraged to buy more, we believe there is a new way, a way that’s rooted in connection and co-creation.

Entrepreneurs are faced with an interesting challenge in today’s technology-based world. It’s never been easier to create a business, but all of the tools and platforms that we have access to can be overwhelming. There’s always a new trend, a new strategy, a new tip to try.

Heart-centred entrepreneurs have an even harder challenge to overcome. How do we allow our gifts – our light – to translate into the online sphere? How do we balance traditional “marketing strategy” with nontraditional business?

We won’t argue that mainstream marketing strategies work. But even with the most technically perfect strategy, if it doesn’t resonate with the heart and soul of your business – let’s find a different way. Through being more real, less perfect, more relatable and approachable, we find our purpose and impact.

We believe in energy. vibration. resonance. We believe in what we call the lighthouse effect: your tribe will arrive in your harbour, so long as you are authentically shining your light. And ultimately, we believe in co-creation (in case you couldn’t tell). Co-creation means not only collaborating with each other and others to help you shine, but also co-conspiring, if you will, with forces seen and unseen. The earth. The cosmos. The seasons and cycles. The true source of inspiration.

So, what does this mean for you? It means that we want to uncover the best and truest version of your brand. The best and truest version of you. Chisel it away, polish it up, and put it out in the world so that those who need you can find you.

We won’t promise you perfect, but we can promise you beauty. Because beauty is found in truth.  In purpose. In service. And in great Instagram grids.

We are an anti-marketing marketing agency.
We are the ones who do things differently.
We are inspired and we are inspiring.
We are spiritual AND bad-ass.
We are beauty-makers and visionaries.
We are co.creative.

Principles

  • Empowerment
  • The Heart + Head
  • Spirit
  • Unfiltered You
  • Working Smart
  • Co-Creation

Source

https://studiococreative.com/about

https://studiococreative.com/begin-flash-sale

Thanks to Suzanne Mercier for sharing this one

Comment

While this is a good manifesto, my feeling is that it’s merely a starting point for an ongoing deeper exploration of the issues facing marketing today.

It starts with the bold statement of being ‘the anti-marketing marketing agency’. Being the ‘not-this’ in your category is a useful starting point but only until that new alternative emerges. What is the new thing that replaces that old one?

The classic example is the ‘horseless carriage’, which was an early term for the ‘motorcar’ or ‘motor carriage’. It describes the new thing in words that reflect the old thing. Now it is simple ‘a car’ and has nothing in the name to hint of its evolution from horses.

I’d love to know what the new marketing agency is – the one that goes beyond current thinking. An anti-marketing agency simply suggests something has begun but we’re not sure what that new thing is just yet.

There are some strong clues though in the Co-creation manifesto. Their tag line “the best brands are built from the soul up” offers three potential ideas:

  • A soul-marketing agency
  • A soul-branding agency
  • Or simply, a soul agency.

These ideas start to present a new concept – a new something. They are not simply ‘an anti-marketing agency’.

Another option is a ‘Co-creation Agency’. What would that look like if we took it all the way to its likely conclusion? It doesn’t speak marketing but it does say, ‘we work differently’.

I also love the ‘lighthouse effect’ concept – How about ‘a lighthouse agency’. What would that look like?

One of my benchmarks for a good new idea is to be able to say your concept to people and create intrigue and interest.

If we were at a networking event and I told you that I run ‘a lighthouse agency’, your curiosity would almost definitely be piqued and you would simply have to ask ‘what is that?’ Tell me more… thus engagement begins.

A crucial part of all manifestos is the new context you are creating and sometimes this takes courage and boldness to claim it, name it and declare it: this is that new thing.

More

The Laws of Cricket

Creator

The earliest known laws of cricket were created in 1744 but not actually printed until 1755 by members of the London Cricket Club.

The Marleybone Cricket Club (MCC) was founded in 1787 and a year later presented what is now adopted as the modern laws of cricket. They called it ‘The Law of the Noble Game of Cricket’. Many updates and revisions have been adopted since.

The MCC remain the custodians of the Laws of Cricket and are responsible for the debating, decision making and drafting of the Laws.

Purpose

The laws of cricket define how the game of cricket shall be played.

The Laws of Cricket

Manifesto

There are 42 Laws of Cricket. Many are quite detailed. Here are the headings for the 42 Laws:

  1. The players (how many people per side)
  2. The umpires (the people who apply the laws)
  3. The scorers
  4. The ball
  5. The bat
  6. The pitch
  7. The creases
  8. The wickets
  9. Preparation and maintenance of the playing area
  10. Covering the pitch
  11. Intervals
  12. Start of play; cessation of play
  13. Innings
  14. The follow-on
  15. Declaration and forfeiture
  16. The result
  17. The over
  18. Scoring runs
  19. Boundaries
  20. Dead ball
  21. No ball
  22. Wide ball
  23. Bye and Leg Bye
  24. Fielders absence; Substitutes
  25. Batsman’s innings; Runners
  26. Practice on the field
  27. The wicket-keeper
  28. The fielder
  29. The wicket is down
  30. Batsman out of his/her ground
  31. Appeals
  32. Bowled
  33. Caught
  34. Hit the ball twice
  35. Hit wicket
  36. Leg before wicket
  37. Obstructing the field
  38. Run out
  39. Stumped
  40. Timed out
  41. Unfair play
  42. Players’ conduct

There are also five appendices that provide further details to the rules.

Source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_Cricket

https://www.lords.org/mcc/the-laws-of-cricket

Comment

Cricket is a rare sport that presents its ‘how to play instructions’ as ‘laws’. The majority of other sports call them ‘rules’.

While the exact reason for this is not clear, the Wikipedia page points to a possible explanation.

Cricket was first played as a boy’s game. The rules at this time varied based on who and where the game was played and they passed on by word of mouth.

Later, as adults began to play, high stakes betting on games became the norm. There were even instances of teams being sued of non-payment of lost wagers.

This connection to betting and legal cases is a likely prompt for the ‘laws’ to be created.

Today the ‘laws of cricket’ sounds very formal and serious compared to mere ‘rules’.

As is typical of sporting rules they define:

  • How many people play,
  • How you score and win
  • How you play,
  • The equipment they used and
  • The conditions in which they play (including the details of the wicket size).

Many of them are very specific to cricket such as: what defines an innings and when a follow-on can be enforced.

What you call your manifesto is important as it will set the tone for how it will be interpreted. Do you need laws or rules?

More

James Naismith – The 13 Rules of Basketball

Royal Yachting Association – Guiding Principles

The Tough Mudder Pledge

Sister Corita Kent – Ten Rules for Students and Teachers

Creator

Sister Mary Corita Kent was an American Catholic religious sister, artist and educator.

Note: While this manifesto is attributed to musician John Cage, Brain Pickings suggests it originated with Sister Corita Kent.

Purpose

Corita Kent created the manifesto as part of a class project. It later became the official rules of the art department at LA’s Immaculate Heart Convent and was popularized later by Cage.

Sister Corita Kent - Ten Rules for Students and Teachers

Manifesto

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student — pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher — pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined — this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

RULE EIGHT: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: “We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” (John Cage)

HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything — it might come in handy later.

Source

Nick Lovegrove on Pinterest

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corita_Kent

Comment

It took a while for me to track down the true source of this manifesto. While it has John Cage’s name on it both in the title and in Rule #10, surprisingly he is not the originator.

This points to how things evolve as they are created and shared. From the humble beginnings as a class project, it was adopted by the school itself and then shared more widely when a renowned figure like John Cage becomes involved.

This manifesto also shows the variation possible in a set of rules. They are mostly not specific rules like ‘no running’ that is common at a public swimming pool.

Instead, it has a set of more general guidelines such as (my favourite) “consider everything an experiment”.

This reflects the different tight (no running) or loose (experiments) rules that you can have in your manifesto.

I like to think of this as flavours – you can have a spicy or sweet meal and a tight or loose set of rules.

More

Geoff McDonald – Seven Rules of Done (loose rules)

James Naismith – The 13 Rules of Basketball (tight rules)

MCA Creative Learning Manifesto

Don Miguel Ruiz – The Four Agreements

Creator

Don Miguel Ruis is the author of The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. This book has sold more than 8 million copies in the US and has been translated into 46 languages worldwide.

Purpose

Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the Four Agreements offers a code of conduct to help you transform your life and bring happiness and love. These agreements are the ones we make with ourselves, with others, with God and with life itself.

Don Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements book cover

Manifesto

1 Be impeccable with your word
The most important and most difficult agreement to honor – Choose your words carefully and be responsible for what you say.

2 Don’t take anything personally
This agreement helps to limit the impact of hurtful treatment by others in life.

3 Don’t make assumptions
Instead of assuming what you belief, ask questions to avoid suffering.

4 Always do your best
Bring the first three agreements together to live to your full potential.

Source

https://www.miguelruiz.com/the-four-agreements

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Agreements

Comment

I love the simplicity of this – four agreements – four simple things to do each and every moment of each and every day.

The great challenge with simplicity is that it takes time and effort to distill your idea down to its core principles.

As Mark Twain once said: ”If you want me to speak for an hour, I am ready today. If you want me to speak for just a few minutes, it will take me a few weeks to prepare.”

Worth the effort!

Also, notice the word ‘agreement’. These are not laws, rules, guides, commandments, principles or pillars.

What you call your manifesto is crucial – it sets the tone and flavour for how to relate to it.

In this case, ‘agreements’ is totally consistent with a manifesto with the intent of promoting ‘personal freedom’.

It says, ‘you are free to agree to this, or not’. It just wouldn’t work or have the same meaning if they were commandments.

More

Yvonne Collier – Manifesto for Life

Chris Guillebeau – The Art of Non-Conformity

Todd Henry – Die Empty

Five Pillars of Islam

Creator

The Five Pillars of Islam are an adopted set of practices and beliefs that evolved over many years. While they are alluded to in the Quran, it is believed they were not formally in place during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad.

Purpose

The Five Pillars are the ritual obligations for living a Muslim life. They are considered to be the duties of a Muslim.

While the Sunni and Shia agree on the essential details for the performance and practice of these acts, the Shia to do not refer to them by the same name. (Wikipedia).

Five Pillars of Islam - The Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca
Photo by Adli Wahid on Unsplash

Manifesto

The first pillar is Shahada or the expression and declaration of faith. This is said five times a day during prayer. Muslims recite: “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God”.

The second pillar is Salat or prayer. Five times a day a Muslim faces Mecca and performs a physical type of prayer known as a prostration which involves having the forehead, nose, both hands, knees and all toes touching the ground together. The prayer includes silent or spoken versus from the Quran.

The third pillar is Zakat or alms giving to charity. Muslims give a certain amount of their income to support the Islamic community. This is a purification process that acknowledges that all things belong to God.

The fourth pillar is Sawm or fasting. Ramadam is the holy month in the Islamic calendar and is when fasting takes place. A Muslim fasts between sunrise and sunset and it includes abstaining from food, sex and smoking. The purpose is to remind Muslims that all individuals equally need the assistance of Allah.

The fifth pillar is Hajj or pilgrimage. At some point during one’s life, a Muslim is expected to travel to Mecca during the 12th month of the lunar cycle. The hajj is to express your devotion to God.

Source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Pillars_of_Islam

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sujud

Comment

Religions are something you do.

This manifesto reinforces this viewpoint with a series of rituals – practices with meaning.

While the Quran is the written form of Islam, it is through these practices that Muslims are able to live their faith.

Each of the five pillars has a specific meaning that link the action to a celebration of their faith.

Notably, it starts with a five times daily declaration of your faith through Shahada. You might like to compare this to forming a daily habit – practicing it regularly builds the emotional and neurological connection.

The Five Pillars also has rituals expressed in different timeframes in different ways. For instance, Shahada is daily, Ramadam is once a year and the pilgrimage to Mecca is once in a lifetime.

More

The Bible – Ten Commandments

Wikipedia – Five Pillars

Michael Pollan – Food Rules

Michael Pollan – Food Rules

Creator

Michael Pollan is an American journalist and author who explores the intersection between nature and culture. He has written widely on the food we eat.

Several of his books have been turned into TV shows, including the Netflix documentary Cooked.

Purpose

“Eating in our time has become complicated – needlessly so, in my opinion.

…But, for all the scientific and pseudo-scientific food baggage we’ve taken on in recent years, we still don’t know what we should be eating.

…A few years ago, feeling as confused as everyone else, I set out to get to the bottom of a simple question: what should I eat? I’m not a nutrition expert or a scientist, just a curious journalist hoping to answer a straightforward question for myself and my family.

…The selection of food rules below are less about the theory, history and science of eating than about our daily lives and practice. They are personal policies, designed to help you eat real food in moderation and, by doing so, substantially to get off the western diet. I deliberately avoid the vocabulary of nutrition or biochemistry, though in most cases there is scientific research to back them up.”

Michael Pollan - Food Rules Manifesto

Two Principles

“There are basically two important things you need to know about the links between diet and health, two facts that are not in dispute. All the contending parties in the nutrition wars agree on them. And these facts are sturdy enough that we can build a sensible diet upon them.

The first is that populations that eat a so-called western diet – generally defined as a diet consisting of lots of processed foods and meat, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of refined grains, lots of everything except vegetables, fruits and wholegrains – invariably suffer from high rates of the so-called Western diseases: obesity, type 2 diabetes. Eighty per cent of the cardiovascular diseases and more than a third of all cancers can be linked to this diet.

Secondly, there is no single ideal human diet; the human omnivore is exquisitely adapted to a wide range of different foods. And there is a third, very hopeful fact that flows from these two: people who get off the western diet see dramatic improvements in their health.”

Manifesto

Eat only foods that will eventually rot.

Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature.

Get out of the supermarket whenever you can.

Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans. (not corporations)

Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.

Treat meat as a flavouring or special occasion food.

“Eating what stands on one leg [mushrooms and plant foods] is better than eating what stands on two legs [fowl], which is better than eating that which stands on four legs [cows, pigs, and other mammals].” (Chinese Proverb)

Eat your colours.

Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.

Sweeten and salt your food yourself.

“The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.”

Have a glass of wine with dinner.

Stop eating before you’re full.

Do all your eating at a table.

Break the rules once in a while.

Source

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/michael-pollans-food-manifesto-5541498.html

Comment

This is a beautiful example of a rules based manifesto with the two most important parts on clear display.

First, the context: what should I eat? (I probably would have called this the ‘What should I eat?’ manifesto)

Second, the rules: 15 personal policies that Pollan offers.

What I particularly like here are the word choices in the rules. They are casual and informal which make this manifesto accessible and they support the view that he is not trying to present science, theory or history – instead something practical. They are also a healthy mix of clarity and intrigue.

Some rules are very clear:

  • Get out of the supermarket whenever you can.
  • Stop eating before you’re full.
  • Break the rules once in a while.

Others force you to stop, think and ask: what does he mean by that? For instance:

  • Eat only foods that will eventually rot.
  • Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature.
  • Eat your colours.

While the goal in this second group is to prompt engagement, the true test here is: once they are explained, do they add value? Are they easily understood and applied?

For example, ‘eat your colours’. As soon as you know that Pollan is talking about eating a wide range of fruits and vegetables that come in a wide range of colours, this becomes a clear, obvious and easy rule to use in your daily life.

More

Nutiva – Real Food Manifesto

Gary Nabhan – A Terrorists Manifesto for Eating in Place

Andrew Castronovo – Superfood Manifesto

Microsoft Carbon Negative Pledge 2030

Creator

Microsoft is a US based international technology company that produces both software and hardware. They are best known for their Microsoft Office software suite, Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface touchscreen computers.

Purpose

“The scientific consensus is clear. The world confronts an urgent carbon problem. The carbon in our atmosphere has created a blanket of gas that traps heat and is changing the world’s climate. Already, the planet’s temperature has risen by 1 degree centigrade. If we don’t curb emissions, and temperatures continue to climb, science tells us that the results will be catastrophic.”

Microsoft Carbon Negative Pledge 2030 launch with the senior leadership team
Microsoft President Brad Smith, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood and CEO Satya Nadella preparing to announce Microsoft’s plan to be carbon negative by 2030. (Jan. 15, 2020/Photo by Brian Smale)

Manifesto

While the world will need to reach net zero, those of us who can afford to move faster and go further should do so. That’s why today we are announcing an ambitious goal and a new plan to reduce and ultimately remove Microsoft’s carbon footprint.

By 2030 Microsoft will be carbon negative, and by 2050 Microsoft will remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975.

We recognize that progress requires not just a bold goal but a detailed plan. As described below, we are launching today an aggressive program to cut our carbon emissions by more than half by 2030, both for our direct emissions and for our entire supply and value chain. We will fund this in part by expanding our internal carbon fee, in place since 2012 and increased last year, to start charging not only our direct emissions, but those from our supply and value chains.

Taking a Principled Approach

Whenever we take on a new and complex societal issue, we strive first to learn and then to define a principled approach to guide our efforts. This has been fundamental to our work around the protection of privacy and the ethical development of artificial intelligence, and it’s the approach we’re taking to pursue our aggressive carbon goals as well. We’ve concluded that seven principles, or elements, will be vital as we continually innovate and take additional steps on an ongoing basis.

  1. Grounding in science and math. We will continually ground our work in the best available science and most accurate math, as we describe further below.
  2. Taking responsibility for our carbon footprint. We will take responsibility for all our emissions, so by 2030 we can cut them by more than half and remove more carbon than we emit each year.
  3. Investing for new carbon reduction and removal technology. We will deploy $1 billion of our own capital in a new Climate Innovation Fund to accelerate the development of carbon reduction and removal technologies that will help us and the world become carbon negative.
  4. Empowering customers around the world. Perhaps most importantly, we will develop and deploy digital technology to help our suppliers and customers reduce their carbon footprints.
  5. Ensuring effective transparency. We will publish an annual Environmental Sustainability Report that provides transparency on our progress, based on strong global reporting standards.
  6. Using our voice on carbon-related public policy issues. We will support new public policy initiatives to accelerate carbon reduction and removal opportunities.
  7. Enlisting our employees. We recognize that our employees will be our biggest asset in advancing innovation, and we will create new opportunities to enable them to contribute to our efforts.

Source

https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/01/16/microsoft-will-be-carbon-negative-by-2030/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft

Thanks to Carolyn Butler-Madden for sharing this with me.

Comment

This is a great example of a manifesto in action – and a good model to follow.

It starts with the motivation: “The world confronts an urgent carbon problem.”

Next is the declaration that says – this is what we are going to do about this: “By 2030 Microsoft will be carbon negative.”

Then to turn the idea into a plan, Microsoft have identified 7 key principles to follow.

The principles are the strategy for how Microsoft will become carbon negative by 2030.

This includes the key point of who is going to be involved here and what we need to do to engage and support them – empower customers, enlist employees and importantly use their voice to lead the conversation.

Finally, they point to big opportunity as impacting their entire supply chain. It’s not just a ‘we’ll look after our own backyard’ approach. Instead, it’s a holistic and ultimately collaborative approach.

This is leadership!

More

Renewable UK – Cymru Renewable Energy Manifesto

UN – Sustainable Development Goals

Qantas Customer Charter

MCA Creative Learning Manifesto

Creator

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) is Australia’s leading museum dedicated to exhibiting, collecting and interpreting the work of today’s artists.

“We celebrate the work of living artists, bringing exceptional exhibitions of international and Australian art to as many people as possible – welcoming over a million visitors each year – in the belief that art is for everyone.”

Purpose

Context Statement

Contemporary art matters. It stimulates the imagination, creatively engages our senses and has the power to transform lives.

Vision

Our vision is to make contemporary art and ideas widely accessible to a range of audiences through the presentation of a diverse program of exhibitions and special events, both onsite and offsite. From major thematic exhibitions and solo surveys of established artists, to new work by emerging artists, touring exhibitions and community-led projects through C3West, we strive to cover the range and diversity of contemporary art.

Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA)

Manifesto

Our creative learning manifesto is a set of values and concepts that guide the development and delivery of all learning programs that we offer.

Art is for everyone
Art does not discriminate. Art reaches beyond age, ability, experience, education, gender, culture and language.

Artists at the heart
Artists are experts in their field. When it comes to imagination, risk-taking, skills and ideas, an artist’s practice makes a remarkable model for creative learning.

Look and think in new ways
Artists invite us to be creative and critical thinkers, to understand art, ourselves and our world in exciting new ways.

Colour outside the lines
Contemporary art gives us an opportunity to step outside of our comfort zone, to rethink the rules, take risks and imagine the impossible.

Play with process over product
Art-making is a space for playing and experimenting with materials, techniques, ideas and possibilities. The process itself can be more engaging than the final outcome.

Bring your own story, take fresh meaning
Everyone brings their own story to art, making connections to their own life experience.

Source

https://www.mca.com.au/learn/creative-manifesto/

Comment

I’ve called it a ‘Context Statement’ and it’s a reason the MCA exists: Contemporary art matters’.

I believe all businesses should have this.

Why do we matter? We matter because Contemporary art matters.

It also says, given ‘contemporary art matters’ we then need this… Which in this case is what MCA provides: ‘Contemporary art matters’ therefore we need to ‘make it widely accessible’.

I also like the language of their values statement: colour and play are two strong evocative words that fit the palette of educating people about art.

Word choice is like spices in cooking. They can turn a dreary dish into a taste explosion.

Choose your manifesto words wisely because they have meaning and add flavour.

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