Which one of these is not like the others?

The assignment was to take five words and turn them into a statement of a company's culture. The five words were performance, people, leadership, connections and collaboration. Here's what we came up with:

We are a company that believes in performance as a foundation, leadership as a differentiator, people in their uniqueness and their commonalities, connections that unite us and collaboration as a way of life.

Which of these phrases is not like the others?

It's the "people" statement.

In the other four, the key word is linked to its usefulness to the company. Performance is a foundation that the company can build on. Leadership is something the company can use to set itself apart in the marketplace. Connections are important to help unify the company. And collaboration is how the company does things. But people? The company believes in their uniqueness and their commonalities -- how they differ and how they fit together. Are people a foundation to build on, or a differentiator? Maybe. But the statement of culture doesn't say anything about that. It just says we believe in you, in the ways you are different, and in the ways you are alike.

I wrote it that way on purpose and submitted it without any explanation. No one has said, "Hey, I see what you're doing there!" I like to think of it as a little treasure waiting for someone, someday, somewhere along the line, to sit down and seriously contemplate what kind of company they work for, and to stumble across this little discontinuity of syntax and suddenly feel better about everything.