TALKING HEADS
T
Bring purpose to life in your organisation
A
Michael Chavez
It’s time we made
purpose a reality for
people at all levels
of our organisations.
mid all the evangelism
around the concept of
organisational ‘purpose’,
there is very little in the way
of guidance about defining and
leveraging it for transformation. It’s time
we moved towards making purpose a
reality for people at all levels. Three
lessons have emerged from our
research about what purpose is and how
it should be managed.
Purpose has limits and constraints.
It isn’t ‘blue sky’, it must be firmly rooted in
a business model, and realistic in scope.
If purpose is overreaching or inauthentic,
companies run the risk of losing touch
with, or alienating, customers.
McDonald’s fell into this trap before
correcting its course. Initially, it identified
its purpose as serving “honest food”.
This was new territory and represented
a stretch to answering the public’s
concerns about ingredients and
healthy eating. But this purpose failed
to recognise why most customers
visit McDonald’s.
The company’s amended purpose of
“making delicious, feel-good moments
easy for everyone” does a better job
of translating McDonald’s principles of
service, value and convenience into a
more aspirational, human experience.
As Deborah Wahl, former head of US
marketing for McDonald’s, told us:
“Purpose should help you get back to
your core, not away from it.”
Purpose exists at all levels. Much of
the conversation about purpose so far
has been about corporate purpose
at a strategic level, neglecting two
other critical areas where purpose
exists: individual employees’ sense of
purpose and the collective sense
of purpose shared by teams.
“Purpose must be
a living, breathing
idea, demanding
the engagement of
leaders at all levels
of a business”
It’s vital to build organisations where
individuals can realise their ‘small p’
purpose, as business author Daniel Pink
calls it. Even if we are not in our dream
job, we still need to feel we are making a
useful contribution. This individual sense
of purpose has to fit with the broader
corporate purpose.
Creating purpose is an ongoing task.
Companies with an effective purpose
recognise that it is not a one-off event
where purpose is defined, added to the
corporate brochure and then allowed to
fade from memory. Purpose must be a
living, breathing idea, demanding the
engagement of leaders at all levels of
a business. We identified the following
elements for keeping purpose alive and
relevant across the organisation.
• Translate and narrate purpose: effective
leaders refer back to purpose in internal
and external communications. They
regularly connect the dots between
purpose and key business decisions.
• Start conversations about team purpose:
it’s incumbent upon leaders to talk to
teams about how they contribute to
corporate purpose. Define it in one
clear sentence.
• Help unlock ‘small p’ purpose: Helping
employees to understand and fulfil
their personal purpose is powerful.
Intrinsic motivation trumps extrinsic
motivation when it comes to improving
performance. A sense of personal
purpose correlates with employee
engagement and satisfaction.
Identifying, communicating and
keeping purpose alive at all levels is not
easy, but pays dividends, improving
per formance by giving direction
and motivation to employees, while
enabling greater innovation and agility
by providing clear guardrails to support
faster, smarter decision making.
Brands that authentically connect to
human values through organisational
purpose will outperform those that
don’t. Rehumanising leadership, and
remembering that we are purposeful
beings, is at the heart of success.
Michael Chavez is CEO of Duke Corporate
Education.
February – May 2020 // 41