Are you really purpose-driven?
A lot of organizations claim to be purpose-driven because they know it will galvanize everyone around a shared vision of the future.
But are they? The answer is "Yes" only if they have "intalled" the 6 essential pillars of purpose. If any one of the following 6 pillars is missing, your purpose plan is likely to fail.
1. Start with a clear, concise and compelling definition of your purpose
If you don't have your purpose expressed in a simple and inspiring way, you don't have a purpose. If people don't know what it is, how is it supposed to guide all of their thinking, decision-making and activities? If it isn’t top of mind at all times, how can your people live your purpose? If your purpose is well defined, you have arrived at the starting line. Its value is not in being able to express it. Its value is in how it guides the behavior of the organization.
2. A well-craft story of your purpose so that it motivates othersHaving a well-expressed purpose is a good start. But a purpose is only a single statement, like a headline. It is the underlying story of your purpose that breathes life into it by giving people a comprehensive understanding of its depth and breadth, and the full extent of its impact. People buy into your purpose and its story, and that’s what motivates them to willingly focus and elevate their efforts. Everything lives or dies in communication, including your purpose story. If you want your purpose to guide your branding, marketing, advertising and sales, you need to design a story about it that gives clear direction to employees and communications suppliers.
3. A detailed action plan describing how your purpose will guide all of the operational elements of your organization, including all of its day-to-day machinations
What is the purpose of a purpose if not to guide the behaviour of your organization? Once you know your purpose, you need to hold it up to all of the parts of the organization and ask, "Is this part aligned with our purpose?" If the answer is no, your operational plan needs to identify how that part of the business needs to shift in order to become aligned with your purpose. Your purpose-driven operational plan is how you get all of the parts of your business working in unison, not silos, towards a common vision of the future.
4. A detailed action plan that describes how your purpose will shape your culture
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” is Peter Drucker’s famous quote. If your culture is not intentionally designed to support your strategy, it is a good bet that your strategy will not fulfill its potential. Here's a secret few people know: Culture is the social extension of purpose. You use the principles embedded in your purpose to design a culture that actually elevates your strategy.
5. An action plan to sustain purpose
In steps 2 and 3 above, you design how your purpose is going to guide all of your communications (branding, marketing, sales, web) and operations (product/service development and delivery, manufacturing, inventory, sales). A sustaining plan answers the question, "How do we make our purpose thrive inside and outside our organization for the next five decades?”
6. A senior person with the responsibility and authority to lead your purpose project
I have saved the most important for last. As important as steps 1-5 are In the creation of a purpose-driven company, your purpose plan is guaranteed to fail if a senior person doesn’t have both the responsibility and authority to make sure it is being implemented effectively and consistently throughout the organization. A purpose plan with a senior leader tells your whole organization that you are serious about this and it is not a flavor of the month initiative.
Becoming Truly Purpose-Driven
As you can see, it is not easy to create a proper foundation for a purpose-driven company. But that shouldn't be surprising because any transformative initiative an organization initiates is difficult.
Are you contemplating becoming a purpose-driven company? Do you already have a purpose plan and are wondering why it has stalled? I would love the opportunity to talk with you about how to create a proven, comprehensive and sustainable infrastructure for purpose.
If you would like a PDF of the 6 Essential Pillars of Purpose, please email me at ian@7words.biz.