Getting purposeful about purpose – exciting news (well, nearly)

For many years we've talked about our mission as helping organisations small and large bring purpose to life and put values to work. Never has this work been more important.

Purpose and a pandemic

As people and tasks become more distributed, it's easy to create unintentional silos between roles and teams and to reinforce those that already exist. Much has been written on the neuroscience about why this happens and how to avoid it (see Amy Edmondson on psychological safety in the hybrid workplace). And we're running a workshop on just this with our friends at PeopleLab (Hybrid by Design - How to create a great hybrid working experience).

So purpose matters now more than ever. A clear and relevant purpose (not one that's been shoehorned in to fill a space on the website), can help to unite and unify, not just work, but people. It helps join the dots between seemingly disparate tasks and teams.

A lived purpose also helps to create a sense of belonging and meaning for people at work – especially when they're not 'at' work. Both are critical elements to having a positive employee experience – one that helps people perform, grow and stay. Emma Bridger talks about connection and meaning extensively in our book EX by Design – How to Create a Compelling EX for Competitive Advantage.

Pinpointing the power of purpose with data

For the last year we’ve been working with a global logistics organisation who, after nearly 60 years, took the pandemic crisis as the impetus to rediscover its purpose and explicitly and intentionally talk about it for the first time.

As the programme lead explains: "In 2020, the turmoil of the pandemic led us to closely scrutinise the business from many perspectives. Not least it caused us to pause and rediscover our ‘why’ – our purpose. Like many companies, in the early stages of the pandemic we just reacted to what was happening around us. However, we soon realised we needed to get on the front foot. And we needed to start a different conversation. Our purpose was the answer – a way to re-connect our people and encourage them to reflect on why we do what we do."

Recently shortlisted for three major awards (more to come on this), this powerful purpose discovery and activation programme has used data to track the trajectory of its purpose journey. The insight generated from this innovative evaluation approach demonstrates the impact purpose is having on the work, employees and customers. It's ground-breaking stuff and we can't wait to share the whole story – coming soon.

For now, know that this unique and innovative evaluation solution is allowing the business to see, on a detailed level, not just how employees are getting to grips with the purpose, but how it is impacting key metrics around employee engagement and customer satisfaction.

If you'd like to know how we can help you discover or bring your purpose to life get in touch.