Blog

HighGround's Theme for 2021

March 4, 2021 - Each year, HighGround develops a strategic theme to help guide us and grow us. The theme is a simple phrase that reminds us of an important idea to be applied to our work.

When we unveiled our 2020 theme, Flexible Focus, at our all-staff vision meeting last year, we discussed the importance of pursuing our goals with adaptability, with a willingness to adjust and recalculate as needed along the path to success. Little did we know just how fitting this theme would prove to be.

We could not have predicted the health crisis and economic volatility that lay ahead. We didn’t foresee the lockdown, the mass transition to work-from-home environments, the virtual schooling. The pandemic was unexpected. Since March of last year, we have all lived with an increased measure of uncertainty. 

Difficult seasons can be the most revealing and the most shaping though. 2020 showed us what we’re made of and pushed us to grow. There is story after story after story of how our client partners innovated and creatively problem-solved to continue to advance their missions. Likewise, at HighGround, we were indeed flexible in our focus and adapted to continue to serve our client partners with excellence.

In January, as we considered a new theme for a new year, we acknowledged there is no magic in simply turning the pages of our calendars. We did not suddenly have all the answers or immediately return to pre-pandemic “normal” just by moving from December to January. No, the uncertainty remains. 

It can be trying to journey through the unknown and unfamiliar, to adapt to an evolving situation, to be forced off-trail to forge new paths. But it can also be exhilarating. It can be an opportunity to push past the constraints of the expected to reimagine how we accomplish our missions.  

Stepping into 2021 not knowing what to expect, we wished to trust our Guide who knows all, to consider the possibilities, and to dream big. So with that in mind, at our all-staff vision meeting earlier this month, we unveiled our theme for 2021:  

Beyond the Expected 

  • Beyond the Expected means expecting more than the "expected," the typical, the norm. It means asking, "Is there a better way" or "Could this be possible?" It means pressing into our core values of innovation and visionary thinking.
  • Beyond the Expected means expecting the UNexpected, whether positive or negative. On one hand, 2021 may throw us all some curveballs (like the Texas power grid going down for a few days in a winter snowstorm), and we want to be as prepared as we can for those possibilities. On the other hand, we want to expect big things for HighGround developments in 2021, like the roll-out of our new Donor-Advised Fund Program portal and the hiring of our new CIO. 
  • Beyond the Expected means understanding that while we don’t know what the future holds, God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can imagine, for His glory.  

As we support you and your goals in 2021, we will be keeping this theme in mind: Beyond the Expected. Your mission is important; our mission is to serve yours. And we hope immeasurably more than we can imagine for both.