Collaboration in pursuit of purpose...

I came into 2024 with a single thought dominating my thinking.

Greater Impact.

I have a personal frustration that I spend too much time on activity that doesn't move the dial in a meaningful way, and not enough time focused on solving problems and achieving our purpose. Things that are important, but don't result in tangible movements towards our goals.

I think some of this comes from increasing expectation on for-purpose businesses to be commercial and competitive.

Commercial - I understand, but competitive - not so much. Competition can of course be good when it drives improved choice or quality, but too often I see the opposite.

In my world, this manifests as too many services competing for viability through attracting clients or customers. Service provides who do very similar things, but who often refuse to work together for fear of losing their share of funding available.

The craziness of this scenario is that sometimes service provides find themselves having to choose between viability and purpose. They might help achieve their purpose by helping other services but in turn damage their business by giving away intellectual intelligence. How ridiculous!

So, I entered this year, personally committed to moving beyond this. I have challenged myself to collaborate and share freely, to learn from others and to share my knowledge. To ask brave questions and to help others however I am able. To pursue purpose wholeheartedly using whatever connections or partnerships I can harness.

Already this is bearing fruit. I've had a few wonderful interactions thus far with other organisations or services where we have laid down any notion of competition and just talked about how we hunt purpose. What can we do better by harnessing our collective knowledge. Not only is that great for our customers, but it is also hugely motivating for me. It gives me hope for real impact and the change I aspire for.