Community Values & Guidelines

Creative on Purpose Vision & Mission

Creative on Purpose envisions a world where everyone is encouraged to explore and develop their potential through fulfilling work done with and for others.

Creative on Purpose is a compass helping advancing difference-makers live their legacy.

Thank you for reviewing our community values and guidelines.

This is a living document. You may notice updates and improvements to these principles and practices. Revisit them often.​ Creative on Purpose reserves the right to terminate your membership from this community if these terms are violated.

Community Values and Guidelines

Who we are and what we do.

We are advancing difference-makers living our legacy through endeavors that matter. We believe we enhance our own lives through endeavors that serve others.

We are curious, courageous, considerate, and compassionate.

Our community is a safe and brave space where everyone is invited and encouraged to explore and develop their potential. Every member's freedom to thrive extends until it inhibits others’ ability to do the same.

We don’t instruct. We inquire. We don’t advise. We ask.

Certainty and value judgments limit everyone’s ability to learn and grow. We practice curiosity, courage, consideration, and compassion in all of our exchanges.

We hold space.

We create and leverage generous tension that encourages leaning in and learning by doing. We also hold space for pausing, reflecting, and rethinking.

We trust ourselves and each other. We extend the benefit of the doubt to ourselves and each other. Caring for others begins with caring for ourselves.

If we tend to speak often, we practice silence so that others may speak. We practice active and deep listening.

We speak from our own experience.

No one knows everything. Together we know a lot.

We do not generalize about groups of people or presume anything about someone else’s experience.

We speak with “I” statements and questions (I believe, I wonder, I struggle with, I was hurt by, etc.), and we reflect on the identities we carry that impact our own and other’s experiences.

We are inclusive, celebrate diversity, and cultivate equity.

Our community welcomes people of all genders, sexual orientations, and faiths. 

We treat everyone with dignity and respect at all times.

This is an anti-racist community. We actively interrupt racist systems and seek to build a safe, fair, and equitable world for Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, and other communities that have historically experienced exclusion or oppression.

We can disagree without being disagreeable.

Disagreements are natural and can foster learning and growth. We share assertions and welcome counter-assertions. We recognize that multiple realities are possible and practice “both/and” thinking and statements. 

Unresolved disagreement doesn’t mean we can’t stay connected or remain on good terms.

We do not tolerate language that is blaming or shaming toward ourselves or others.

We name and own when there is a disconnect between intent and impact.

We recognize that everyone stumbles, misspeaks, and doesn’t always express themselves as clearly as they would like. We know there is often a disconnect between intent and impact and work together to bridge the gap when it occurs. 

We assume good intent and help each other acknowledge and apologize for a negative impact, no matter how unintended.

We honor confidentiality.

Personal stories and experiences shared here remain here. The lessons learned here are shared everywhere.

We ask for permission before we share anyone else’s ideas, insights, or information anywhere.

We Zoom.

We attend events in Zoom meeting rooms. We show up on mic, on camera, and prepared to participate in breakout rooms. We contribute to discussions in accord with our community guidelines. 

We attend events live. We allow recordings and images to be used to promote our community. and attract more of the right people to join us here.

We allow everyone to define what success is for themselves.

Success means different things to different people. In this community, we encourage you to define what success looks and feels like for yourself.

We honor our own and each other’s definition of success and support each other’s pursuit of success as often as we are able.

We acknowledge our agency.

None of us are guaranteed outcomes or results. We recognize that effort engaged with intention and integrity is its own reward.

We take responsibility for our perspectives, decisions, and actions.

We practice gratitude and generosity.

Expressing gratitude and extending generosity boosts our mood, lifts our spirits, and positively shifts our mindset and posture. We practice gratitude and generosity in all our endeavors and exchanges.

We are all fascinating.

This reminder helps because it’s true. People are fascinating. They are, and so are you. Each of us is complicated and conflicted–capable of heroism and villainy, kindness and cruelty, selflessness and selfishness. None of us is an absolute saint or outright sinner.

Accepting this complexity creates space to hold ourselves and each other with a bit more compassion and grace. Holding this tension opens the door for a healthier response rather than an unhelpful reaction. On the other side of that threshold lies equanimity, understanding, and a better way forward.