On our most recent Reset Show we heard from Tom Nagy about the work he has been leading at Crown Worldwide on purpose – how to unearth it, embed it and crucially measure the impact. If you want to hear more about this award-winning case study catch up here.
Over the last few years, we have seen more and more focus on purpose within organisations. But what makes a compelling purpose? And where do you start when developing your company purpose? To answer these questions we thought we’d share a great piece written by Chris Crofts for Emma’s book – Employee Engagement. Chris has a personal and professional passion for ‘Purpose’ and has published and spoken about the topic and the important role Internal Communications can play in creating purpose-driven organisations.
What makes a compelling purpose?
The modern concept of organisational purpose is multidimensional and humanistic. But what does that really mean? It means that your purpose should:
- Aspire to make something about the world or society better
- Inspire a call to action
- Create value for employees
- Maximise shareholder value
- Bring value to customers
A compelling articulation of the above should evoke an emotional connection to your brand.
An example of such a purpose is Whole Foods:
‘With great courage, integrity and love – we embrace our responsibility to co-create a world where each of us, our communities and our planet can flourish. All the while, celebrating the sheer love and joy of food.’
Much is written about this successful organisation, but if you read their annual report and accounts, or visit their website, you will get a strong sense that it is indeed, driven by a strong sense of purpose.
If purpose is so great, why isn’t everybody using it?
In a Harvard Business Review paper entitled: ‘The Business Case for Purpose’, a great question is raised. If almost all the CEOs and executives HBR interviewed said that purpose would improve employee satisfaction and success of transformation efforts, what is stopping them? The research found one key differentiator between those who had embedded purpose and those who hadn’t: poor leadership communications was preventing them from ‘activating’ purpose in their organisations.
Top Tips to develop Purpose
So you now know that most CEOs are thinking about this, and maybe you already know this because you’re already working on the Purpose of your organisation.
Here are my 5 top tips to develop purpose:
- Step up and own the ‘purpose opportunity’ in your organisation. Initiate the conversation with your CEO. Spend time thinking about your own purpose and values and then work on your teams’.
- Help articulate the company’s purpose – make it compelling, positive and customer-focused.
- Communicate it awesomely. And keep doing it.
- Develop ways to help leaders inspire through purpose. Provide them with tools and opportunities to talk to their teams about their own purpose and values and how they connect to their organisation’s. And continue this by proving regular hooks for them to keep the conversation alive (this shouldn’t feel like a campaign).
- Work closely with marketing and PR to align purposeful messages externally and internally. Employees feel the organisations purpose everywhere, in their dealing with managers, in the advertising they see, and in how the media talks about company.
In summary, I’d say that Purpose is not going to go away, it is only going to be amplified. By our employees, by our customers, by society and increasingly by mainstream investors. Like it or not, your organisation will at some point in the future, if it isn’t already, be thinking about how it can be more purposeful. And if it isn’t, then perhaps you should start the conversation!
If you’d like to know more about how we can help you to develop your company Purpose, get in touch for a no obligation chat.
