ISMs — Book &
Digital Experience

The Situation

For over 40 years, Rocket's cultural identity has been shaped through founder-led publications: the ISMs — cultural philosophies guiding the company's behavior at scale.

As the organization evolved, the ISMs needed a full authorship reset — regrounded in the founder's original voice, restructured for a global workforce, and extended beyond print into a living system.

My Role

Strategic and editorial partner to the Founder and Chairman and CEO — translating executive thinking into a storytelling system the whole organization could carry.

Editorial Direction  ·  Facilitation  ·  Story Translation  ·  Digital Strategy

The Approach

1. Origin-Centered Research

Archive research and interviews to understand where each ISM came from. When people understand origin, the philosophy carries weight.

2. Facilitated Authorship with the Founder

These sessions were centered on the Founder and Chairman — designed to draw out his voice, his intent, and his POV on each ISM directly. High-energy and dynamic, not passive interviews. I structured the environment so he could come in with clarity — grounded in the material and ready to make real decisions about the content. Each session was structured around three content decisions: what to keep, what to add, and what to transform.

Central to this process was bringing real team member feedback into the room — surfacing where people were looking for more direction and where they felt tension with the ISMs. The founder's responses became embedded guidance woven throughout the program, ensuring the work addressed what the organization actually needed, not just what leadership assumed it did.

3. Digital Experience Strategy

The print publication needed an extension — something accessible on the go, at scale, and across a global workforce. The digital experience isn't a replacement for the book — it's built to carry the same voice, depth, and intent further, while opening the door for more voices, interaction, and active participation in the culture.

The Work

• ISMs Book — Reauthored publication capturing the origin and intent of each ISM
• AI-driven content system — A scalable, intelligent framework for surfacing and activating the ISMs across channels and contexts
• ISMs Digital Experience (In Development) — Interactive platform for global scale

The Impact

This reset was about going back to the core — returning the ISMs to their origin, grounded in the founder's authentic voice and the original intent behind each philosophy. The reset laid the foundation for a digital platform reaching a global workforce for the first time, extending culture from something people read to something they actively engage with.