Measuring purpose

Another very common question people have is “How do I measure for purpose?”. In exploring this question it is important to raise awareness as early as possible of the desire to want to ‘control’ or ‘solve’ for purpose through measures and metrics. It is of course important to assess progress and measures and metrics are important inputs but not the whole solution.

The truth is we are caught between two things which are both true and nearly but not quite contradictory: what counts is what gets counted but what really counts can’t be counted.

Purpose really counts and can’t be counted directly because in essence, it is about the mind-set about purpose and people.

Measures and metrics can be used to:

• Provide evidence of change, progress or impact
• Help understand what is happening, what is working or not working in order to inform strategy
• Send a signal of what is important in an organisation and so help to influence and drive change
• Benchmark a contribution to a wider specific measure or goal (e.g. the SDGs or climate targets)
• Provide information required by investors, regulators or other third parties
• Welcome and enable scrutiny of the company’s alignment to its purpose

The key to assessing progress is to use a range of data points, both qualitative and quantitative, accompanied by a narrative that puts the data in context and enables a conversation to understand what can be learned and to use this learning to inform strategy. To consider questions such as:

• How did we get here?
• Is it desirable or sustainable to carry on this way?
• What do we want to change?
• Where should we go next?
• How do we think about it?

Again Unilever’s USLP-summary-of-10-years-progress is a good example of how they used metrics to continually learn, evolve and challenge themselves.

For more see: Assessing progress in becoming purpose-led