What's your future story? ... finding more purpose by defining your legacy ... to leave the world in a better place
Peter Fisk
NEXT/NOW … futurist and strategist, author and speaker… helping business leaders to thrive in a fast-changing world ... with better strategy, innovation, brands, sustainability, transformation, and leadership.
Every business seeks purpose.
At its heart, purpose is about describing how the world is a better place with you. Or, alernatively, to consider how the world would be a lesser place without you.
Another way to describe it is legacy.
What will you achieve, what will you leave behind, what will you be remembered for? Or, as I call it, what is your future story? Defining the future you will create, the vision you have, and the impact you will make.
In business I see many generic, forgettable statements of intent.
Purpose, vision, or is it mission? Strategic pillars, horizons, imperatives? Values, principles. It's great to have them. But they need to matter. They need to change things. To drive choices. To create distinctiveness. To energise people. To deliver results.
Meeting the All Blacks changed me.
I live in Twickenham, often called the home of rugby. New Zealand's famed rugby team, the All Blacks, are frequent visitors, staying at my local sports club, the Lensbury. Mixing with them, you feel something special.
They are awesome, intimidating.
They stand tall as people, not just physically or famously, but with confidence and passion, and together. On the pitch, they are fearless and fabulous. From the moment of their Haka, their traditional Maori salute, they are different, and better.
I tell their story in my new book?"Business Recoded ". It's great inspiration for your own future story.
One person who knows them particularly well is James Kerr, who has spent much of his life as a business coach learning from the All Blacks and applying their magic to organisations.
Finding legacy is a great way to find more purpose, and to tell your future story.
Richie McCaw, the former captain of New Zealand’s “All Blacks”, is regarded by many as the greatest rugby player of all time.
His teams won a remarkable 89% of their 110 matches in which he was their leader, including two world cups. He even played through one World Cup final with a broken foot, knowing that he was a key component of the team. Whilst he recognises that the team is always more than any individual, he also believed that a leader defines a team, brings together and creates great individuals.
After lifting the World Cup in 2015, McCaw said “We come from a small Pacific island, a nation of only 4.5 million, but with a winning mindset. At the start of each game, when we lock together in our traditional Maori haka, we know that we are invincible”.
Create your “Kapa o Pango”
The All Blacks have a bold and unwavering ambition to win, working on a 4-year cycle with a common team, and setting mini goals along the way to retain sharpness and evaluate progress. They search out the best players who bring each technical specialism, but equally who will work best together, whilst also retaining a search for new talent and skills.
Being part of the team is everything, with a sacred induction, and commitment to the higher purpose.
As a team they constantly evaluate, challenge and stretch, themselves, whilst searching the world of sport and beyond for new ideas, ways to improve physiological fitness, mental agility or technical skills. Like most sports, whilst they have a coach to guide them and captain to lead them out, their approach once in the game is that every one of them is a leader, all equal, all responsible, all heroes when they win.
In?“Legacy”?Kerr describes some of their team beliefs
Richie McCaw talks about some of the distinctive beliefs which the team has embraced. These include many concepts from Maori culture, such as the “Kapa o Pango” which is the name of the haka, the traditional dance performed by the team before every match, and reflects the diversity of the nation’s Polynesian origins.?Such rituals become important in bonding the team, but also in creating its identity to others.
Another Maori concepts is “whanau” which means “follow the spearhead” inspired by a flock of birds flying in formation which is?typically 70% more efficient than flying solo.?And finally “whakapapa” which means leave a great legacy, or translated more directly,?plant trees you’ll never see by being a good ancestor.
Finding?more purpose
So why does your business exist?
Purpose defines what the business contributes to the world, or equally, why the world would be a lesser place if the business did not exist.
Purpose creates an enduring cause which the business is willing to fight for. For some this might be an urgent call to action, for others it might be a more personal inspiration. Saving then planet, or achieving your potential, with Nike, or seeking happiness, with Coca Cola.
Tesla exists to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”, Starbucks to “inspire the human spirit”, Dove to “help the next generation of women realise their potential”, Microsoft to “empower people to achieve more”, and Swarovski to “add sparkle to people’s everyday lives.”
Purpose creates a richer sense of meaning in your business, inspiring employees to raise their game, to transform and grow themselves and the organisation. It encourages a strategic focus, to rise above the distractions of today, to align on bigger goals and to innovate more radically. Productivity and performance typically follow.
It is a cause shared internally and externally, that investors want to be part of, partners want to align with, and customers want to promote through their consumption and loyalty.
Purpose goes far beyond the old mission and vision statements, which were largely internal mantras, about how good the company wanted to be – “the best”, “the industry leader”, “to maximise performance”. Purpose is much more altruistic and inclusive. It is about what the inside does for the outside world. It sits above other ambitions, and should probably replace them, as an inspiring, single-minded intent.
If purpose is “why we exist?”, then mission is more about “what do we do?” and vision is “where are we going?”. Or as Ashley Grice the CEO of Brighthouse says “When you go to bed at night and you are worried about something, that is generally your mission. But when you wake up in the morning and you are excited about something, that’s your purpose?”
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The power of storytelling
As a business leader you are a storyteller.
Not of fictional stories that go between truths, but stories of the future, stories of where the business is headed, and what it will be like. Stories that engage people in understanding those simplistic purpose statements in profound, human and inspiring ways.
Steve Jobs was a master of storytelling. In 2001 as the technology world was still in shock from the crash of the dotcom boom, Jobs mounted the stage for Apple’s annual meeting. He was in his prime. His new iMac computers had been a success, the company had been transformed under his renewed leadership.
Jobs talked about his passion for music. How music inspires him, and every one of us. It marks the great moments, it defines moments in our lives, it can change our worlds. The Beatles. Dylan and more. By now, it felt like Apple could be a music business. And then from his jeans pocket, he pulled out a small white device, and held it up.
“A thousand songs in your pocket” he said with a huge grin.
As a business leader you need a story.
What’s your future story?
Purpose statements, business strategies and brand slogans are not enough.
We need something more human and personal. A story can resonate with people today and explain how tomorrow can be better. A story can bring a future vision to life, inviting people to imagine it with you, exploring its benefits. A story evolves, and shows a path from where we are, to where we could be. A story is more memorable and can be retold from person to person. People seek hope and want reasons to believe in better.
Elon Musk doesn’t quite have the drama or fluency of Jobs, but he has become one of the best future storytellers of today’s business world.
His businesses are founded on future ideas, building for future possibilities. They start with an inspiring purpose, be it SpaceX’s desire to sustain life through a new civilisation beyond Earth, or Tesla’s drive to accelerate the shift to clean energy.
SpaceX might have created a satellite launch business that is around 10 times cheaper than NASA, but he uses this capability to tell a far bigger story. They are just practice runs, for a much greater mission to Mars. Who can forget the dramatic moment when he landed his returning Falcon 9 spacecraft back on an incredibly small platform in the middle of the ocean? Or when the much more powerful Falcon Heavy launched a (Tesla) car into perpetual orbit playing David Bowie’s “Life on Mars”?
Musk writes his Master Plan for his businesses, publishing them on his blog, and updating them every so often. His style is informal but informative, visionary but practical, combining scientific logic and technical facts. In 2006 he wrote his initial Master Plan for Tesla:
In 2016 he continued his future story, with Master Plan “Part Deux”:
Musk can appear quite humble, quite nervous, when he speaks in public, but his bold ideas portray a great confidence.
When he first talked about the Hyperloop, he explained the concept relative to what we already knew, the magnetic levitating Bullet trains that speed between Tokyo and Osaka, and then went further. Imagine if it was in a frictionless tube, at 750 mph, taking 12 minutes from downturn San Francisco to Los Angeles. And then he showed us the video simulation. It almost felt real. We believed in the possibility, and how it would be better.
Strategies are stories. Brands are stories. Business cases are stories. Project plans are stories. When people say “tell me your story” they are rarely asking about where do you, or your company, come from; more likely they are interested in where you are going.
Pixar and the hero’s journey
“Storytelling is the greatest technology that humans have ever created” said Pixar’s former chief creative officer Jon Lesseter, in my book “Creative Genius”.?He said storytelling involves a deep understanding of human emotions, motivations, and psychology in order to truly move an audience.
Luckily, storytelling is something we all do naturally, starting at a very young age. But there’s a difference between?good?storytelling and?great?storytelling. Great stories start with human experiences, feelings that people can relate to. They have structure and process, typically taking a character on a journey. They have moments of joy and despair, surprise and unexpected, appealing to our deepest emotions.
They are brought to life in words and pictures, polished in a movie or told one to one. But they are also incredibly simple and focused. Pixar’s former story artist, Emma Coates, defined 22 rules of storytelling are as relevant to business and its leaders as to Buzz Lightyear and his millions of followers.
Pixar always starts with a character, one who you admire, who want to achieve something great, typically overcoming adversity, usually making the world better in some way. Or to fill in the blanks,?“Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.”
?That “adventure” type of narrative reflects a popular structure which we can see in many stories from “The Wizard of Oz”?to “Star Wars”. The Hero’s Journey concept comes from Joseph Campbell's book?“The Hero with A Thousand Faces”?which tells how the character, the hero, faces a crisis, achieves a great victory and comes home transformed.?Campbell describes 17 stages in the journey, over three “acts” – departure, initiation, and return.
The future story of your business
For business, the “hero” is most typically the customer.
The future story for a business leader describes how we help the customer to overcome the challenges of today.?The purpose reflects a positive cause, how good triumphs over evil, how the customer lives a better life.
Whilst stories might seem simple, they require thought. Framing is key to the initial stage, the context and way in which the challenge is presented. Equally important are some of the small details.?A story is about emotions, hopes and dreams, love and friendship, fear and euphoria. It is about resonating with people.
There are many ways to tell the story. Some organisations turn to thought leadership, developing reports on the future of their industry, or maybe a letter to all stakeholders, like Larry Fink sends each year. Elon Musk is particularly fond of visuals and videos, creating sci-fi-like movies that simulate his visions. These might evolve in to “We imagine” type of concept advertising, like Microsoft famously did, in portraying the future of work, or education, or travel. Another way is to create a manifesto, like companies such as Patagonia and Lululemon have done.
The best way to tell your story, however, is to stand up and talk. Authentically, personally and naturally. And be ready wherever you go to tell your “future story” in ways that inspire people to believe, to want to be part of that future, and to join you on the journey.
Excerpts from?"Business Recoded "?by Peter Fisk
Peter Fisk is a global thought leader - bestselling author, innovation catalyst, strategic advisor - working with business leaders to reimagine their markets and strategies for a better future. He leads GeniusWorks, an innovative business accelerator based in London, and is professor of leadership, strategy and innovation at IE Business School in Madrid.
His recent projects include Adidas’ growth into new markets, Cartier’s redefined luxury, Coca Cola’s brand strategy, and Microsoft’s strategic innovation, exploring the future of food to fashion, travel to technology. He has written 9 books, including the new “Business Recoded: Have the courage to create a better future”, reviewed by FT with “Wow! The book you have to read now”.
More at peterfisk.com
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5 个月Peter Fisk: “Purpose, vision, or is it mission? Strategic pillars, horizons, imperatives? Values, principles. It's great to have them. But they need to matter. They need to change things. To drive choices. To create distinctiveness. To energise people. To deliver results.” Companies with strong social values prioritise building positive relationships based on the principles of decent work. This can improve reputation, and trust and adapt to society's need for positive change.
Storytelling at its best! This article has everything that would inspire you to think of your own "future story"
Consultant, Speaker & Super Connector I Israeli Innovation I Cultural Intelligence I Creativity I Intuitive Artist
2 年Great Article!! Thank you!
Idea Hunter & Innovation Observer ????????
2 年“Like most sports, whilst they have a coach to guide them and captain to lead them out, their approach once in the game is that every one of them is a leader, all equal, all responsible, all heroes when they win.”
This is brilliant.