How to facilitate a team purpose workshop
Agreeing a purpose gives your team a reason for being and gives their work greater meaning than simply doing what they do. Here’s how to define one for your team…
What is a team purpose?
Purpose, quite literally, is “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.”
In the context of a product team we can understand this as the ‘why’ behind the work being done and the reason that the team was formed in the first place.
Purpose is sometimes confused with the team vision or strategy — but it’s more like the mission. So if vision is the end goal and strategy is how you’re going to get there, then purpose is the ‘why’ you’re even aiming for the end goal in the first place.
Why purpose matters
Often I see teams who are dutifully going about product development work with little idea of why they doing it — it’s not much fun coming to work every day without a sense of purpose!
Companies normally have mission or purpose statements but in my experience it’s also important for teams to have their own individual purposes defined — it helps people to understand how what they do fits into the bigger picture and gives them a sense of meaning.
