We recently ran our first evet Reset Show – a big thank you to everyone that joined us.
The Reset Show, happens every fortnight, and it’s a space where bring people together to think differently about workplaces, people, EX, engagement, culture, leadership and more. These are extraordinary and unparalleled times. There’s no best practice, or playbook for what happens now in the world of work, we’re all figuring it out together. There’s never been a better opportunity to collaborate to make sense of this all. The Reset Show was set up to bring together our amazing network of talented, passionate professionals to figure out what happens next and make the most of the reset opportunity.
And the first show did not disappoint. We kicked off with a conversation about ‘purpose in a pandemic’ and will share some of the outputs and discussion points here.
A recent article from Josh Bersin talks about recent research from Gallup and Quantum workplaces, showing a big uplift in employee engagement. In the article Josh hypothesis that this could be the result of employees who are grateful to have a job. But we believe it is much more than this: employees have more autonomy and flexibility, and also purpose which is where we started the conversation, asking ‘what role does purpose play in a pandemic?’
There are plenty of examples of brands who responded to the pandemic with a clear purpose. This blog from Good Agency shares some great examples:
- Pret offering free drinks to NHS employees
- BrewDog starting to make and giveaway hand sanitiser
- Uber Eats waiving delivery fees and commission for independent restaurants
- LinkedIn providing 16 online learning courses for free
- Jameson pledging £500,000 to support the Bartender’s Guild
- National Trust opening up parks for free to create more social space
PWC have also recently published a paper outlining the many ways different organisations are responding with purpose to the Covid-19 crisis. And of course there are also those brands who have received negative press, and taken a reputational hit, showing a distinct lack of purpose.
Purpose with a capital P can be invaluable in a crisis, providing much needed direction and meaning. The benefits of having what Dan Pink calls a ‘purpose motive’ are well documented, but what’s less clear is how this plays out in a pandemic? The relationship between purpose and engagement could become more complex:
- A company purpose may feel disingenuous if at the same time employees are not being treated well.
- The impacts of the crisis, such as lockdown, may have made your company purpose redundant, for now anyways.
- And of course there are many SMEs and other organisations that don’t explicitly have, or talk about, what we call purpose with a capital P.
It was really interesting to hear on the call from a large organisation that have just launched a fresh purpose. They’re currently engaging in conversations across their organisation about the new purpose, and how it resonates.
Purpose though is not solely about the big picture, company purpose. We also discussed the role and relevance of what we called purpose with a small p. That is our own individual values and purpose and the role this plays in a crisis. While there will always be differences in our individual purpose and values, in their latest Human Capital Trends report, Deloittes talk about our desire to belong at work. Their survey findings state that 79% of respondents said that “fostering a sense of belonging in the workforce” was important or very important to their organization’s success in the next 12 to 18 months. They argue that to achieve this “organizations need to optimize the power of individuals by connecting them with each other through their purpose at work”.
Our resident resilience guru, Justin McCarron has created this great handout with a couple of activities to help us think about our own purpose.
And finally, a great comment that was shared on the call:
“the reality of the purpose, no matter how lofty the statement, must be connected in actions, tone, language and behaviours”.
It was evident from the thinking and conversation on our first Reset Show, we have an opportunity to pioneer new ways of working as the pandemic plays out. We’re really excited at the chance to collaborate with our network in this space. So we’ve decided to take this one step further and set up ‘The Reset Lab’. This will be a space for our network to get together to develop ideas further and contribute to making the world of work better for our people. We want to involve you in this think-tank, using hackathons, virtual round-tables, research programmes and more. Watch this space for more info on how you can get involved coming soon.
The next Reset Show is on Wednesday 12th August at 13:00 (BST), we’d love for you to join us. If you can’t make the Reset Show but would still like talk, share, collaborate or ask questions then get in touch – we’re always up for a chat and very happy to jump on a Zoom or a Teams call anytime.
