The PEAK Fleet was conceived as a purpose-driven, triple bottom line company from its inception in the Fall of 2016. It was always the intention of the founders, Jen Coyne and Brian Stinson, to show organizations how they can better accomplish their goals by focusing on people.

Our Mission and Manifesto

We believe that the future of work belongs to people. Our Mission is to help organizations succeed by creating an engaged workforce that thrives together. We want to help create people-first organizations that foster inclusion, enable authentic interactions within teams, and an environment of trust. 

We believe by doing this, we will enrich the lives of, and provide improved opportunities to, more members of the community. We want our organization to role-model that type of organization. We share our experiences and approach with the community in an affordable way that also supports a living for us and our consultant Fleet.

The foundational values of the company, or PEAK Values® are incorporated into our name using the acronym “PEAK,” which stands for Persistence, Empathy, Authenticity, and Kindness.

Persistence

• We are dedicated to creating a new renaissance where creative, inclusive environments abound
• We like solving difficult problems
• We are for purpose, not just for profit

Empathy

• We create an inclusive environment that fosters diverse thought
• We are conscious of our bias and take action to counter it
• We actively take on other perspectives

Authenticity

• We create an environment of trust through vulnerability
• We create a safe space for risk-taking and innovation
• We embrace the opportunity to learn and grow through success and mistakes

Kindness

• We assume good intent
• We practice kind and caring confrontation
• We strive to not take things personally

How We Serve Our Clients

Our clients span a variety of industries, governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, and educational institutions. Our aim is to provide affordable solutions to all of our clients and provide free and reduced-cost services to schools and non-profit organizations.

We feel that engagement is fundamental to organizations operating effectively and providing the best experience possible for their members. Companies that increase employee engagement also reap financial rewards for doing so, which contributes to business stability. 

Our approach is not prescriptive or one-size-fits-all. We seek to understand the unique challenges that each organization faces and recommend customized solutions that meet both their goals and their budget. We work with our clients to define realistic cultural goals and measures of success. Based on where a client is currently at, we design a strategy that fits their abilities and pace of change as well as their budget.

Being honest and ethical is a baseline foundational principle of us doing business. We are upfront about our capabilities and what we can deliver; we are transparent about our pricing and margins and strive to be consistent about the discounts we offer. We are clear in setting expectations for engagements, including how and when we’ll communicate and when our clients can expect to see results. Because much of our work takes months if not years to become fully embedded in organizations, we are upfront about what a customer can expect to see happen and don’t set unreasonable expectations for change. 

Our Benefit Corporation Journey:

The PEAK Fleet‘s values, philosophy, and purpose align extremely well with Benefit Corporation for Good’s standards. We believe in the triple-bottom-line philosophy that making the world a better place should be inextricably woven into making a living. We applied for and gained BCFG certification in February 2019. 

The PEAK Fleet operates in keeping with the values and standards of the Benefit Corporation for Good. First and foremost, we operate with the highest standards of honesty and integrity. 

We let our clients know they should expect full candor from us about the challenges they face. While we maintain our integrity of arms-length independent consultants, we also immerse ourselves to be exceptionally strong partners that go beyond a transactional relationship.

We are always open and honest with our clients about our capabilities, and meet the commitments we make. We set clear expectations with our clients. This allows us to put our efforts into exceeding expectations. We don’t wait until the end of a contract to see if our clients’ needs were met. We check in throughout the process to see if we’re making progress and to make sure our clients understand and approve of the changes we’re assisting them to make.

We communicate to our audience in a clear, easy-to-read, manner. Our website, and everything we publish, is checked for ease of understanding. We ensure that our content is tagged properly to support accessibility for all capabilities. We avoid jargon and wording that is culturally exclusive. We strive to be concise in our communication with customers to keep things as clear and easy to understand as possible. 

We also strive to ensure that we’re easy to reach, whether someone wants to reach us by phone, email, or in person at our office location. We want to connect with people, and we want to make it easy for people to reach us, especially when they have feedback or concerns.

The PEAK Fleet has an open door, and the effort has been made from the start to create a culture that allows for risk, mistakes, and healthy conflict. Resolving problems in a healthy way sets the basis for the kind of positive, engaging work environment we’re helping our clients create for themselves.

Finally, we are a majority woman-owned business that continually strives to work with a broad spectrum of people, representing a diversity of backgrounds and identities. Fleet partners include people of color, people with different gender identities and sexual orientations, people from a variety of generations, and mentally and physically differently-abled people.

Our 2021 Year-In-Review

In 2021, our year started off under a cloud of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. We slowly started to recover from the depths of the downturn in our business that we experienced in 2020. Our donation of services and reduced fee services provided to schools and non-profit organizations continued to scale with our business, but our commitment to preserving our free or reduced-fee services remained.

We expanded our role with the Tempe Chamber of Commerce, going beyond the Tempe Sustainability Pledge (http://tempe.pledge.green) to take steps to reduce our environmental footprint. Jen joined and now co-chairs the Tempe Chamber of Commerce Sustainability Committee. In this role, Jen is taking a lead role in organizing their Sustainability Summit.

We continue to operate according to the One Community Unity Pledge we signed that commits us to advance workplace equality and equal treatment in housing and public accommodations for LGBTQ+ individuals and their families.

Our Community Investment (Partnerships and Reduced Cost and Pro Bono work):

In 2021, we provided discounted or free services valued at over $25,000 to: 

• Public schools and non-profit organizations in the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area
• Public schools and school districts in the Phoenix metropolitan area
• The Tempe (AZ) Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Tempe Authority, and Tempe Tourism Office

Jen and Brian continue to work at Arizona State University as Venture Devil Mentors, working with entrepreneurs and new start-ups to guide them to establish solid business foundations and compete for venture funding. Jen also teaches workshops at Clark College, in Vancouver, WA. Both of these engagements are provided at a reduced rate as an investment in the communities where The PEAK Fleet does business.

We believe very strongly that discovering personal and organizational values is something that everyone should be able to do. Each year we allocate resources to volunteer with various non-profit organizations and schools. In 2021, these volunteer efforts exceeded 400 hours.

Values workshops were conducted with: 

• The Oregon State University Men’s Rowing Team
• Empowerteen: Events and retreats to help teens and tweens build self-esteem, confidence, and wellness skills.

Community Leadership:

• Brian has continued on the leadership team at House of Genius PHX,  a non-profit that brings together a diverse mix of collaborators from the community for a monthly evening of disruptive thinking, authentic feedback, and creative new ideas.
• Brian is the Director of Fundraising for the Flagstaff to Grand Canyon Bike charity mountain bike ride, which benefits the Marine League Charities of Northern Arizona. His efforts have increased fundraising exponentially over the past 5 years

Charitable Giving and Volunteer Work:

• We’ve continued volunteering and increased our time commitment to Neighbors Helping Neighbors in Portland, OR, helping homeless residents
• Jen and Brian, and their families, made a large number of charitable gifts to organizations that directly supported PEAK Fleet values and those that did good in our communities, both locally and nationally. 

Community Radio

In June 2019, Jen Coyne started a monthly radio show, “Authenticity Matters,” which airs on KXRW FM Vancouver and KXRY FM Portland and is also available online at xray.fm. Each episode of Authenticity Matters focuses on a different facet of authenticity and how it plays out in both personal life and professional organizations. Jen welcomes guests each episode who have transformed their lives and/or organizations with authenticity and intention being at the forefront. The show is a way for The PEAK Fleet to reach out to the local community and listeners around the country, and beyond, to spread the message of one of our core values, Authenticity. 

As well, we’ve expanded our roles at both stations, adding production of a new show, “Tribal Conversations,” which focuses on Indigenous voices and issues, and helping to get other shows to air

Our Commitment to the Planet

As a company, we’re committed to reducing, reusing, and recycling. We make sure this is an ingrained mindset that informs our decision-making every day. Some of the ways we focus on sustaining and improving the environment:

• We developed a web-based version of our Core Values exercise, which allows a greater reach of our product and company mission without additional resources necessary for production and distribution
• We provide reusable dishware for our team and our customers at our offices. 
• We make every effort to reduce paper use and print double-sided whenever possible. 
• We recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, and other renewable resources .  
• We recently redesigned our flagship product, our PEAK Values® card deck, so that the box is more durable. This makes the product reusable for far longer and requires less packing material for shipping to customers around the world. 
• We leverage technology to reduce our carbon footprint by reducing our need for travel and commuting when possible
• When we have to travel or be on-site with a client, we encourage our team and partners to use public transportation and carpool whenever possible. We have procured Transportation Wallets from the Portland Bureau of Transportation to enable economical public transportation use. 
• We recently signed up for a recycling service in Portland, called Ridwell, that will expand our ability to recycle and expand the materials we’ll be able to keep out of landfills. The service is also a stark reminder to renew our commitment to shop for products that reduce packaging and/or are reusable.

Looking Ahead

2019 was a year that highlighted the increasing need to create a world that is more inclusive.  In 2020, we experienced the murder of George Floyd, the resurgence of the Black Lives Matters movement, and the immediacy of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 2021 was a year that was largely defined by focusing on self-care and carrying on, personally and professionally, in the context of a seemingly endless COVID-19 crisis. The underlying theme that colored our view of the world was the idea of trauma. So many of us have experienced or are continuing to experience trauma and we have started to discuss how kindness, to ourselves and others, it so critical at this time.

Jen and Brian routinely discuss amongst themselves, and with other Fleet members and partners, ways to raise awareness about inequity and exclusion and how to put in place practices to identify and rectify problems. As we grow as a company, we are committed to working with and hiring a more diverse group of people. We understand the value of diversity and inclusion in making any organization stronger and we want to ensure that our company culture reflects that as we grow. 

Our biggest environmental challenge ahead continues to be trying to get our PEAK Values® cards made closer to us, from a vendor we feel confident is environmentally responsible, and without shrink wrap. We seek to continue to grow our business and expand our reach with the activities we’re already doing, like “Authenticity Matters.” We hope to explore new opportunities to engage in our communities as we raise our visibility. We’re looking to earn spots on boards of directors to extend/expand our reach and champion the triple bottom line philosophy.