Happy Holidays 2018

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Because all of you let us into your lives in a very real way, we’ve created this card to offer you a sneak peek into the reality that underlies the annual creation of the AVP holiday card.

Much of our work at AVP is focused on process, technology, protocols, workflows, and making neat little boxes out of large, wonderfully complex scenarios. We look for patterns and themes where seemingly there are none. We squeeze the exceptions and caveats and asterisks that accompany beautifully messy realities into orderly cells that live within highly structured, color-coded spreadsheets. We take ground-breaking ideas and record them in bracketed, cryptic languages that seem to overly simplify the concepts contained therein.

All of these things are necessary to quantify, articulate, advocate, strategize, and execute. We do truly enjoy diving deep and cranking up the analytical side of our brains. But they are merely a visual representation of the processes driven by a living, breathing organization.

The most critical thing that we do, and the thing that we love most, is to observe and celebrate the humanity that abounds within every organization with which we are so lucky to work. We treasure the relationships that are formed. We cherish the opportunity to positively impact people that we come to know and care for who work within organizations with missions and visions that we believe in. It is our love of the people and organizations that we get to engage with on a daily basis that inspires our love for the work we are so privileged to do each day.

The illustration on the holiday card this year is a reminder of the importance of witnessing the humanity and quirkiness that lurks beneath our spreadsheets, diagrams, and narrative reports. We all must remember that technology is simply a tool; it is the people behind the technology that imbue it with utility and value.

Happy holidays from all of us at AVP!