11 Words. 11 Years. Mapping the DNA of YellowSpark.
When YellowSpark began 11 years ago, it didn’t start with a grand manifesto or a perfectly articulated philosophy. It started with a simple but deeply held belief: workplaces can become more humane and effective at the same time.
Over the years, as organisations changed, people evolved, and the nature of work itself transformed, that belief sharpened. It was tested in boardrooms, during restructuring, in moments of growth and moments of uncertainty. What remained constant was not a fixed model of HR—but a set of values that quietly guided every engagement, every conversation, every decision.
Let’s look at these values through the lens of the Cofounders of Yellow Spark Deepam Yogi & Aparna Khandwala who have distilled these values into 11 words. Together, they map the DNA of YellowSpark – how we think about people, performance, and progress.
1. People-first
At YellowSpark, people were never a footnote to strategy. They were the strategy.
Being people-first doesn’t mean being soft or unstructured. It means recognising that organisations are not machines – they are living systems made up of people with emotions including fear, ambitions, limits, and immense potential.
Across 11 years, this meant designing HR practices that start with lived experience, not templates. Whether it was organisation design, performance frameworks, or leadership interventions, the first question was always: How will people receive this?
Because when people feel considered, they don’t just comply – they commit. Deepam Yogi shares that she’s seen firsthand how PoSH sessions can spark meaningful change, especially when CEOs and Directors champion the cause. By leading by example and kickstarting employee sessions with enthusiasm, they inspire their teams to commit to creating a positive work culture
2. Empathy
Empathy is often misunderstood as agreement or indulgence out of emotional pressure. For YellowSpark, empathy meant deep listening without premature judgment.
In complex workplace situations – conflict, burnout, resistance to change – empathy allowed us to see what sat underneath the expressedbehaviour. It helped leaders move from “Why is this so difficult to undertand?” to “What’s getting in the way?”
Empathy didn’t replace accountability. It made accountability fair, contextual, and dependable. Over time, this became one of YellowSpark’s quiet strengths: the ability to sit with discomfort long enough to understand it.
3. Trust
Trust is not built through policies. It is built through consistency of action.
Over the years, YellowSpark worked with organisations where trust had been fractured – between leadership and teams, between HR and employees, sometimes within leadership itself. Rebuilding trust required transparency, follow-through, and the courage to say what was difficult but necessary.
Internally too, trust shaped how YellowSpark showed up – with clients, partners, and teams. Advice was given with honestly to give a real picture, not to please. Boundaries were clear. Commitments were honoured.
Trust, once built, became the invisible infrastructure on which everything else stood. Today, both the Cofounders, Deepam and Aparna are first contact points and serve as extended management support to senior leaders from extremely well respected & recognised Indian as well as international companies to resolve senstive people related matters.
4. Clarity
Confusion is expensive. It drains energy, creates friction, and quietly erodes performance.
One of YellowSpark’s most consistent contributions over 11 years has been bringing clarity where there was ambiguity – about roles, expectations, decision rights, and success measures.
Clarity didn’t mean oversimplification. It meant making the implicit explicit. Naming tensions. Defining what “good” actually looks like. One of Yellow Spark’s projects involved revamping a performance management system that was being used for over 20 years. The complexity of the project was decoding the organisation’s values and keeping it at the very core of an objective evaluation process. The team takes immense pride in delivering it successfully and the client continues to use it for over 5 years.
When people know what is expected of them, they can focus their energy on doing the work – not decoding the system.
5. Consistency
Fairness is not about treating everyone the same. It is about applying principles consistently.
In many organisations, trust breaks down not because of harsh decisions, but because of unpredictable ones. YellowSpark paid close attention to this – helping organisations design systems that leaders could actually uphold.
Consistency showed up in how performance was evaluated, how feedback was given, and how consequences were applied. It ensured that values weren’t just articulated – but practised.
Over time, this consistency created credibility. And credibility created stability. It is no wondertherefore that over 80% of our work at Yellow Spark comes through repeat business.
6. Collaboration
YellowSpark never believed in “doing HR to people.”
Real change only happens when people are co-creators, not recipients. Collaboration meant working alongside leaders and teams – questioning together, designing together, iterating together.
This approach often slowed the process at the start. But it accelerated adoption, ownership, and impact later.
Collaboration also meant bridging silos – between HR and business, between leadership and employees, between intent and execution. It turned HR from a support function into a strategic partner.
7. Growth
Growth, for YellowSpark, was never just about scale or speed. It was about depth.
It meant helping individuals grow into leaders, teams grow into high-functioning units, and organisations grow into versions of themselves that were more aligned and resilient.
Sometimes growth looked like upskilling. Sometimes it looked like unlearning. Often, it required slowing down before moving forward. Aparna shares that her HR experience has shown her that driving growth and change in people-centric contexts can be complex, given the significant role emotions play. However, helping clients to organise and leverage key HR data points, Yellow Spark has been able to effectively navigate sensitive HR issues and achieve meaningful outcomes.
Across 11 years, growth remained non-negotiable – because static organisations don’t stay stable. They decay.
8. Accountability
Accountability without fear is a delicate balance – and one worth pursuing.
YellowSpark’s work consistently emphasised ownership over blame. Accountability was framed not as punishment, but as clarity of responsibility and consequences.
This helped leaders have braver conversations. It helped teams move away from excuses and towards solutions. And it reinforced the idea that being human at work does not mean being unaccountable.
In fact, clarity and accountability are often the most respectful things an organisation can offer.
Driving ownership in people is often a common ask when it comes to shaping workplaces through behavioural training. In Deepam’s experience of training teams for over the last decade, she feels that ownership and accountability can only be achieved when employees and leadership have a shared vision of the workplace and thats what she drives during her training sessions.
9. Resilience
Over 11 years, organisations navigated mergers, pandemics, market volatility, leadership churn, and cultural shifts. Resilience became less about “bouncing back” and more about adapting forward.
YellowSpark helped organisations build resilience not through motivational talks, but through systems – clear communication, realistic workloads, supportive leadership, and space for recovery.
Resilience was treated as an organisational capability, not an individual burden. And that distinction mattered. In her experience, Aparna says that teams become resilient when leaders show up and work alongside them on some of the most toughest days. Finger-pointing is the most common factor that breaks resilience during conflicts and hence leaders must be mindful of their approach during crises.
10. Enablement
Performance was never chased directly. It was enabled.
Enablement meant designing environments where people could succeed – through tools, processes, skills, and decision-making authority. It meant removing friction instead of adding pressure.
Over time, this philosophy proved powerful. When people are enabled, performance becomes a natural outcome – not a forced one.
This shift – from driving performance to enabling it – became a defining feature of YellowSpark’s approach.
11. Gratitude
Gratitude, for YellowSpark, is not a closing note—it is a recognition of interdependence. Every piece of meaningful work was shaped by clients who trusted us, leaders who stayed in difficult conversations, and teams who chose to engage honestly.
Success was never just about what was delivered, but how it was built—through partnership, openness, and shared responsibility. Gratitude acknowledges the effort, courage, and intent that sit behind every outcome.
It closes the loop between work and relationships, reminding us that the human side of organisations is sustained not only by systems and decisions, but by appreciation and trust.
Eleven years in, YellowSpark’s DNA is clearer than ever. These 11 words are not slogans. They are lived principles – shaped by experience, refined through practice, and tested in real organisational contexts.
As the future of work continues to evolve, the commitment remains the same: to keep HR human, effective, and impactful.
Because when people thrive, organisations do too.
If these 11 words resonate, ask which shape your organisation today – and which need strengthening. YellowSpark helps turn people intent into real impact. Write to us at contact@yellowspark.in
Author Profile: Deepa Krishnan is a former financial journalist with two decades of experience. She is now and independent content and communications consultant, and leads the content at YellowSpark.