The Reciprocal Relationship between Inspiration and Aspiration

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At Équité Association, we are on a journey to defend against insurance crime and fraud and to reduce, significantly, its impacts on Canadians within the next decade. It is an ambitious goal and one that we do not take lightly. I believe Équité is primed to succeed and we are all passionate about our purpose.

We also have a roadmap. Our vision and values keep our teams, members, and partners focused on where we are going as an organization and what we are trying to achieve. This is how we inspire people to be a part of what we are creating and spark the desire to achieve our aspiration: to be world class at reducing and preventing insurance crime and its impacts on honest, hardworking Canadians.

Inspiration and aspiration are two words that we often use but with important distinctions. Aspirations are the big goals that are aligned with our values; they represent the core of who we are and what we want to achieve. Inspiration is what drives us toward our goals. In other words, aspiration is the goal and inspiration is the motivation to keep moving towards it.

According to Scott Kaufman, cognitive scientist and humanistic psychologist, “inspiration propels a person from apathy to possibility, and transforms the way we perceive our own capabilities."[1] The journey involves both inspiration and aspiration; the relationship is reciprocal and, when we have all three working in harmony, we are poised to succeed.

At Équité, we have established our vision and values in order to inspire and motivate our teams, partners and members.

     - Vision and mission statements provide direction, focus, and energy to accomplish shared goals. A well-constructed vision statement clearly articulates an organization’s aspiration, that is, what it hopes to achieve in the future. Inspired goals are aspirations.  

     - Our values underscore what we care about most as an organization. They set standards to which we hold ourselves accountable; they inspire us to bring our best selves to work; and they act as a rallying point for our teams.

In order to become inspired, the best we can do is set up optimal circumstances for self-motivation. As an organization, the optimal thing we can do is to support our employees and provide tools for motivation. Équité Association has an exceptional group of individuals who form our teams; our people are passionate about reducing the devastating impacts of insurance fraud and crime. Passion and drive are contagious, inspiring our people to become brand advocates and inciting them to take part in what we are creating.

As an employer focused on results rather than routine, we empower our teams to work toward achieving our shared goals while checking in with themselves for health, learning and work/life integration. Lastly, we aim to inspire by creating a diverse and inclusive culture, having achieved gender parity at the senior leadership level and the board of directors.

Our aspiration to eradicate insurance crime in Canada over the next decade is rooted in social purpose. If we raise and nurture our aspirations, we can create opportunity to enact meaningful change. Fraud is not a victimless crime; insurance crimes result in vast inequalities both financially and socially, and often disproportionately victimize our most vulnerable populations. Personally, I am inspired by the opportunity we have to contribute to creating a more just, more socially responsible community. I also draw inspiration from our members who, despite being competitors in the marketplace, mobilized around a common purpose to launch Équité Association in order to turn the tide in the fight against fraud.

We accomplished some phenomenal things in our foundational year, but we have more work to do. Drawing on our many sources of inspiration and remaining focused on our aspiration, we are poised to provide even greater results together in 2022 and beyond.  

[1] https://hbr.org/2011/11/why-inspiration-matters?registration=success

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