Articulating Purpose: Why we start with this?

How We Work #5: Articulating Purpose

As part of our alignment building projects, the first thing we do is get the top leaders to (re-)articulate the purpose of their organization. We understand that not every organization starts off with a grand purpose like SpaceX (making humans an interplanetary species) or Google (organizing the world’s information). Some purposes are more down-to-earth. Yet, we insist on articulating this purpose.

This exchange from Alice in Wonderland explains it well:

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked. ‘Where do you want to go?’ was his response. ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.’

There is no right or wrong in the choices that organizations and leaders make—whether it be strategy, values, the people they hire, how they operate, or what they encourage. These choices are better in a certain context, defined by the “Why” of the organization. In our book Hope is Not a Strategy, we give the example of someone training to become a champion tennis player at the local club level versus someone training to become a Grand Slam champion.

We also acknowledge that not every organization starts with a clear Why. That’s perfectly fine. Even Nike took years to identify its Why. But once you do, all subsequent choices become easier, and you can more easily check if the choices are helping in furthering your progress towards your Why or not.

Articulating the purpose gives direction to the organization and serves as a rallying cry for everyone. When the purpose is bigger than oneself, it helps people get out of bed even when they are tired. The components of Drive (what motivates us to do anything) are Autonomy (how you do your work), Mastery (how capable you are of performing your job), and Purpose (the Why). The purpose cannot just be “I want to make a lot of money”—humans are not wired to get motivated by this. Even those who claim to be motivated by money have some other innate driver that they may not have articulated well and lazily assume it’s just money. It’s always good to understand the real driver or Purpose because eventually, that’s what will drive actions, behaviors, and thoughts.

Sometimes, organizations have a stated purpose. Asking them to re-articulate it helps them evaluate whether it is still true, does it still drive them, and intuitively understand if their actions lately have been in service of their purpose or not. If the purpose is still relevant and drives them, it’s a good time to recommit to it. If not, it’s a good time to change it! Having clarity on the purpose helps leaders decide on the stance they want to take on the dilemmas faced by people.

It goes without saying that we’re fans of Simon Sinek’s Start with Why.

References to the Series:

• How We Work #1: Introduction to Our Approach
• How We Work #2: Who We Work With
• How We Work #3: You Do You
• How We Work #4: Insights by Design