O
ON TOPIC
the people involved with an organisation are making
a difference, gives them a sense of meaning, and draws
their support.”
Quinn quotes from DTE Energy’s former CEO Josue
Robles who delved deeper with all levels of the
organisation to conclude that “a leader’s most
important job is to connect the people to
their purpose”. DTE Energy developed purpose from
the ground up, asking teams what it meant to them,
and making videos of their responses. Quinn notes that
“the first group of professional employees to see the
videos gave them a standing ovation. When union
members viewed it, some were moved to tears. Never
before had their work been framed as a meaningful
contribution to the greater good.”
H
ow about the how? Our extensive research
has enabled us to develop interventions
that help organisations and teams to clarify,
align and act on their purpose. A
straightforward way to start is through a three-step
facilitated workshop to engage and create an energised
Having a strong sense of
purpose has been shown
to contribute to wellbeing
94 // Future Talent
feedback loop with your own teams and learn more
about your peoples’ purposes. Part of this could be
extended into an organisation-wide cascade initiative.
STEP 1
Test your organisation’s espoused
purpose, with no prompting or pre-
reading. Ask the team to describe the essence of your
purpose on sticky notes. This provides feedback on
alignment of stated purpose and what teams
really think.
STEP 2
Ask team members to outline their
personal purpose. The late
American academic Clayton Christensen said that
“asking students to take time to figure out life purpose
is the most important thing they will have discovered”.
This is a simple written exercise, but allow 30 minutes.
Share outcomes and reflect on how many of the
individual purpose statements reflect the firm’s purpose.
STEP 3
Ask each team member to rate
how (on a scale of 0-100) their own
purpose aligns with the firm’s. This step will reveal what
the firm needs to do to create deeper purpose.
For organisations that have moved past this stage.
more advanced interventions help them to turn their
purpose into strategy, and into operating principles, that
leverage the energy and alignment that comes from
shared understanding and meaning at all levels.
For more information, contact Oxford University’s Saïd
Business School team at [email protected]