How Setting Goals Can Translate into Purpose

By Isabel Ganovsky

During one of my first days at Brunner as a Brand Engagement intern, I was challenged to
complete a goal planning document. Goal planning is harder than it looks but more important
than I anticipated. My goals included learning as much as I could about the specific day-to-day
expectations and tasks necessary to be successful in my internship, explore topics of interest in
the different departments at Brunner and to be prepared to support the industry as a whole.
Now at the end of my ten-week internship and as I updated my resumé, I looked at the list of
goals I once thought seemed impossible to meet. However, in one way or another, most of them
were achieved and in some instances, some surpassed. I realized having specific goals helped
me work towards something every day of my internship. It changed my attitude to always ask
myself; “What’s next?”. This mentality informed everything I did – from my daily activities to my
longer time planning to the collective Brunner internship project.

During my first few days at Brunner, all of the interns were briefed on a final project we would
complete during our internship and present to the full agency during our last week of the
summer session . The guidelines for this project were intentionally open-ended; we just had to
come up with a way to inspire Brunner employees and leave our legacy.

After brainstorming and research, the intern team kept landing on the topic of purpose. In our
research, we found a statistic from Inc Magazine that stated; “58% of companies with a clearly
articulated purpose achieved growth of 10%+ over the past three years. 85% of companies with
clearly articulated purpose showed some growth overall.”

We decided to build off of this notion, a notion that purpose and goals promote growth. Through
our project, we articulated the different ways purpose can be useful. We also got into broader
terms about values, passions, and how having a “why” can foster connection and bring growth
in personal life and in the workplace. We brainstormed ways purpose could make people
happier and feel more valued. We found creative solutions that delivered on what Brunner
promises: to create powerful ideas for business and life.

We created an event to help employees find their ‘why’. We researched having intention,
proposed a few ideas Brunner could adopt to help define goals, values, and foster connection
as a company and spent time with fellow B’s to bring it all together.

So while my resume is now flooded with impressive projects I got to be a part of at Brunner, I
also learned a lot about growth as a professional and as a person. Setting goals, purpose, and
intentions can be a strategic tool for accomplishing anything efficiently. Not only will I take these
ideas with me into future endeavors, but I will greatly value everything I have learned from my
past ten weeks as a Brand Engagement intern at Brunner.