The Psychology of Cornerstone’s 2019!
As today is the last Friday before Christmas, most people in our industry are beginning to wrap things up for the year. There is something about the 2-week break where things genuinely slow down, coupled with the fact that when we return it will be 2020, which provides us with an opportunity to take stock and reflect on what has been achieved.
It would be fair to say that 2019 has been a significant year for Cornerstone. It has also been a year with ups and downs, but we are glad to say that it has been a year that has set us up for 2020, and after the turkey and trimmings have been digested we can’t wait to get going again!
In order to summarise what has been going on, I want to introduce a concept from psychology, and more specifically ideas grounded in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Don’t worry this isn’t going to get deep, but on a very basic level, the CBT model suggests that when you change your thinking, that changes how you feel and ultimately what your actions are. That is a very basic explanation of a complex idea but you get the idea!
Thoughts
The analogy is useful because that is where Cornerstone started, by changing our thinking, by challenging why we do things and by building a strategy that reflects our vision. Cornerstone painstakingly created a plan that would allow it to grow as a business whilst creating the social impact that motivates us.
Feelings
That leads us to feelings. Once we established the direction of travel and how we were going to do things, we got busy speaking to people who could help us get there. Our first feeling has been one of excitement, as we have consistently been blown away by the enthusiasm and encouragement shown to us by so many of you. If you are one of the people that have given Cornerstone your time, support and ideas this year – Thank you!
When mentioning feelings, it would be impossible not to mention our journey with Wilton House. Over the year we have worked tirelessly alongside our Development Partner, Ciaran Toman, to get planning approved on Wilton House, a beautiful listed building on College Square North that we want to see brought back to life. This has not been an easy process but we delighted to say that, as of last week, we have secured planning and we look forward to moving this project forward in the New Year.
Actions
With the plan in place, there is no substitute for action. This year amid the change of strategy we have kept plugging away. A great example of this has been in building 2 beautiful homes in Crossgar which we are very proud of. We have also expanded the team to include Rachel Gray who offers invaluable administrative support to the team and also Andrew Wallace who has been focusing on creating our ‘impact investment’ -around the idea that by investing in Cornerstone, you are creating tangible social impact whilst also getting financial returns.
Another highlight was when our MD, Daniel, got to be part of New York-New Belfast event where he got to spend time with so many individuals that have been able to help Cornerstone progress on its journey to see 'light brought to the dark corners' of Belfast!
Now that you have had a chance to understand our ‘psychology’, I think you’ll agree that it’s been a great year and we hope that yours has been too!
