Purpose and Humanity at work: What comes next as we grapple with a global pandemic and racial and social injustice and inequality?
It’s hard to tell where we are in the course of this pandemic and the reinvigorated movement to promote racial justice. And clearly, progress differs wildly from one place to the next — even in different parts of the same country.
But it does seem that economies are switching back on.
Your organization is probably past the initial stage of simply trying to keep your head above water day by day.
Hopefully, you have the time to reflect on the crisis and what you are learning — so that you can build a renewed, more resilient, and even more purpose-led organization.
In doing so, you may want to think about 3 important topics:
- New ways of working
- Renewing your purpose and values
- Embedding purpose and values more thoroughly into your culture and how you operate.
We dive into each of those in greater detail below, but first, we’d like to start with some cautionary notes because we are past the days when you could declare a lofty purpose, take a few half-assed measures to implement it, and then pat yourself on the back for your positive contribution to the world. That doesn’t fly anymore. If you go about this work the wrong way or with the wrong assumptions and expectations, your company may end up worse than when you started.
There is an inherent danger when you start or expand the work of purpose. As your organization explores what your purpose and values are, and especially once you’ve committed to them publicly, you will open a Pandora’s box for every cynic and doubter. You’ll be giving them reasons to criticize, to find fault, and to shine a light on every place where the company’s actions don’t live up to the standards. Managing this process requires deft leadership and diplomacy because it takes time for the results to be seen while the pain of change can be felt immediately. You have to convince the organization that bringing purpose to life is not another corporate initiative with a beginning, middle, and end. People have been conditioned to wait those out. Instead, you have to explain that purpose and values are a way of being and living — with no expiration date.
Let’s be real: operating a company from a place of purpose is extremely difficult.
Purpose isn’t about words. It’s about the actions that bring the words, and the ideas behind them, to life. Words without actions create well-earned cynicism.
But purpose is also not just about actions. It’s about living purposefully in a manner consistent with your unique character. Actions without foundational ideas behind them create chaos and lack of differentiation — you end up like everyone else chasing the same trends, fads, and causes of the day.
Many companies take the relatively easy steps of writing the pretty words and running a few training sessions; few go beyond and take the much more difficult steps of aligning culture, operations, strategy, product and everything else with the ideals conveyed by the pretty words. Most of those that do are small founder-led companies.
This is incredibly hard work for large, complex, non-founder-led organizations. Not impossible, but very difficult. Large organizations have a tendency to think of purpose as a marketing campaign or CSR. They often flail and fail when they have to choose between making meaningful substantive changes or just staying the way they are.
If the CEO — or equivalent executive-level general manager — doesn’t passionately believe in bringing purpose to life, don’t start the work. You will probably fail.
Hopefully that’s not the case. Hopefully you’ve got the right mindset and leadership in place to stick with this work for the long haul.
If so, let’s dive into how you might think about the work ahead.
1. New ways of working
Being more purposeful means working more purposefully.
You and your teams likely had to stop many “business as usual” activities — routine meetings, reports, tasks, etc. — because they were impossible to carry out. Rather than simply bringing them back, it might be worth thinking about whether you really missed them and whether they need to be reinstated at all. There might be an opportunity to work smarter and more productively.
Think about how much of people’s time really had an impact on the world in some way. What percent of time and energy was spent on something that a customer or other stakeholder actually got to see or experience? How much time was spent looking in the rear-view mirror? How much was about CYA? How much time did people spend preparing to prepare for a meeting versus actually doing work that mattered?
Even if you think you know the answer to these questions — but especially if you don’t — reach out to people in your organization to get their perspective. Not just to your direct reports, but several levels down. You’ll almost definitely be surprised by how much time is spent unproductively.
Now is a wonderful moment to reset all of that.
2. Renewing purpose and values
You will learn a lot about what your organization truly stands for from what mattered and how you all showed up during the crisis. Sit down with your team and reflect on what you learned.
Perhaps you’ll find that your existing purpose and values truly reflect who you are. Even so, you might want to add a few values as you seek to build a stronger organization. Or you might want to refine your purpose having experienced the need for an even greater connection to the communities you’re a part of.
Conversely, you might find that your purpose and values did not reflect the true uniqueness of your organization in a moment that mattered. In which case you may find it valuable to engage your team in a body of work to re-codify them almost from scratch.
Either way, this will be a moment to acknowledge our shared humanity, to take a more holistic view of your stakeholder ecosystem, and to re-commit to leading from a place of purpose.
3. Embedding purpose and values into your culture and how you operate
To be truly purpose and values-driven means that your purpose and values are at the heart of everything you do. They are not slogans or mottoes. They are not just fancy words you put on your website or on posters in your office. They are how you actually operate.
The elements of culture are inextricably intertwined. Great cultures recognize and design for this —aligning all elements of the culture so they powerfully reinforce the unique behaviors that bring purpose and values to life.
Every aspect of your culture sends a message. Too many organizations are sending conflicting messages. Their stated purpose and values don’t match their business model, which doesn’t match the behavior of their leaders, which doesn’t match their performance management system, or many other aspects of their culture. These mixed messages leave people confused, which causes organizational chaos.
The best organizations use purpose and values as design points for every experience they create. Each aspect of your culture should be explored to make sure it fosters the behaviors that are consistent with your purpose and values — so you’re sending one message, consistent with what you uniquely stand for as an organization.
The next evolution of purpose and values is not simply to say it, it’s to live it. Purely, powerfully, and consistently.
You might start by asking the following questions. Keep your purpose and values in mind as your north star as you consider them — not operational excellence or financial rigor — these are important too, but that’s a different exercise.
Training & tools
Are people trained and equipped with everything they need to excel?
Process & policy
Do your formal and informal methods of work foster the behaviors you value?
Rituals
Do you have unique and meaningful ways of doing things that bond people and instill a sense of organizational identity?
Physical & Virtual space
Do your physical and virtual spaces inspire and enable the behaviors you value?
Organizational structure
Does your structure place people who most need to collaborate in the same unit?
Performance management
Do people get the feedback and coaching they need to excel?
Employee selection
Do people see the company as a platform to be the best possible version of themselves ?
Metrics & analytics
Do you measure and analyze what really matters — and nothing else?
Rewards and recognition
Do you reward and recognize people for only the right behavior?
Communication
Do the messages you send consistently reinforce the behaviors you value?
Job design
Do you put people in roles that make the most of their talents and enable them to grow?
Sense of purpose
Do people feel deeply connected to what the company stands for and where you are headed?
Life conditions
Do you help people have rich, healthy, happy lives outside of work?
Leader behavior
Do managers at all levels model the behaviors you value?
Symbols
Do you reinforce your unique identity with a rich set of symbols?
Taking your next steps
Congratulations on your continued journey towards becoming a truly purpose-led organization. We wish you much success as you take the next steps and offer the following tips and words of encouragement.
Consider the image above with the 15 circles (kudos if you realized there are actually 16 circles—but I meant the little ones). Culture is a system — all of those 15 elements are inextricably intertwined. Ultimately, the power of your culture to foster the right behaviors is a function of how consistently the culture is aligned with your purpose and values. Mixed messages will weaken commitment.
That said, don’t let yourself get trapped by the complexity of the system. You cannot redesign the entire company all at once. And you’d be foolish to try.
Instead, use the 15 circles and the questions we’ve posed above to identify some priorities. You might choose to act first on the biggest pain points. Or you might choose some easy-to-implement quick wins. Or if you understand your culture really well, you can go for the jedi master move: pick a few elements of your culture that are connected to many others, so that a small change in one area can create disproportionate positive change in other parts of the system.
Regardless of how you start, make sure to communicate to the organization that this is a long journey. That even though you’re starting in some areas, the commitment is to have purpose and values reach every corner of the company. Let people know there will be bumps in the road, false starts, and failed experiments as you learn and discover. Make sure they understand that in order for this work to succeed, they must be active participants — not passengers and certainly not prisoners.
Don’t get distracted by the die-hard cynics. There will always be some. You will never convince them, and you don’t need to. Focus instead on identifying the people who are already passionate. Give them whatever they need to bring purpose and values to their own work. Use them to engage the majority of the organization that is willing to go along but needs to be convinced and enabled.
This is hard work, but we know you’ll find it’s worth it. Surely, if we are learning anything from this virus, it’s how interconnected we all are and how much good we can do for each other by recognizing and acting on our noblest human ideals.
So if you’re serious about truly living — not just declaring — your purpose and you need help, we are here for you. Our team has experience bringing purpose to life with a focus not just on the symbols but on the substance. We know how to truly build belief and advocacy within your organization, we are comfortable dealing with the cynics, and, having worked on the inside as clients ourselves, we know how to make this work succeed and have lasting impact.
Good luck!
