The Knowledgebase

Inspiration

Shared understanding

Bringing purpose to life

Why creating a shared understanding is key

Actively engaging with leaders at all levels of the organisation, and from the various different functions, the C-Suite, L&D, organisational design, HR directors, internal coaches, coaches and consultants to the business, regional managing directors, wider leadership etc. can help in creating a shared belief about what being purpose-led really means and what it implies for the future of the business. It is also helpful to build a shared aspiration of what the business could become and a shared appreciation of the barriers that may lie in the way.

There may be a visionary CEO, or another member of the leadership team who is passionate about being purpose-led, but one person’s passion can inadvertently silence others and hinder an open and honest dialogue. How the leadership team themselves behave is a crucial aspect of this.

A risk otherwise is that there is purpose compliance – people go along with it but without a desire or belief that this can or should shape how the business thinks and acts.

Deep and sometimes difficult challenges can emerge further down the line, and when that happens deep differences of belief and approach are exposed. That is why it is critical to create space for dialogue early on, and throughout the process, so that people can openly share their views and that any ensuing differences are brought into the room at an early stage.

Two learnings from our engagement with businesses:

  • It is both an organisational and personal challenge and an opportunity
  • Purpose cannot be forced on an organisation or on people

We, therefore, believe it is important to create space for people, and leadership in particular, to reflect, explore and talk about what matters and why.

Workshops – are one way to create space to do this. We have reflected on our learning from running workshops with leadership teams and have shared some of the workshops we have used in the Resources section: Engaging the leadership – Workshops. These have been designed to be reflective and at times they may feel uncomfortable to run and participate in. In order to help you to design and run your own workshops, we share the thinking behind how we design and facilitate our workshops and what we are learning from them in: Using workshops to enable better quality dialogue

Bringing in external provocation – inviting external experts and stakeholders to share their perspectives and insights on megatrends and their implications for the business can also help. This is particularly important in organisations where there is a tendency to be inward-looking. Some organisations need more agitating than others and external perspectives are often needed to raise the awareness of changing expectations and help to develop an ambition for change. See the resources section of this and other courses in this Knowledgebase for examples of some possible external speakers, reports, webinars and other resources which could be helpful to share with participants.

Asking the question: How is the world a better place as a result of our success? – Following external provocation, it can be helpful for the leadership team to consider this question. An honest look at the changing social and environmental context, unmet needs or problems which the business could potentially address (or harms that could be reduced by innovation) can be a powerful stimulus to challenge the status quo and expose possible limiting assumptions.

In this context, it is very powerful to offer an opportunity for people to think in the longer-term about what their aspirations and ambition for the business are.

  • What would they like their legacy to be?
  • What contribution do they really think the business at its best could make to positive change in society? How could it change? 
  • What unrealised potential is there in the business which could be harnessed for good?

Very often these deeper convictions are not voiced and shared, and senior colleagues can be simply unaware of what deeper emotional commitment and personal investment each other have in the long term success of the business.  Offering the opportunity and space to allow personal perspectives to be heard is itself an important element in our experience.

Create space for people to speak openly about the concerns they may have and to surface these explicitly – it is also helpful to create space for people to say what needs to be said and hear what needs to be heard, we often ask people in our engagements and workshops the following questions:

  • What questions are you holding?
  • In making the choice to become purpose-led what dilemmas come up?

While a wide variety of questions and dilemmas emerge, there are common themes and some of the ones that typically come up are explored below to provide a helpful framing and help you to enable a deeper dialogue.

Finally, while we don’t believe purpose can be forced on people or an organisation, the odds of purpose taking root can be increased if people believe they can shape and influence it and are truly engaged in the process with respect and dignity. If strong resistance emerges stay curious and seek to understand why there is resistance, remaining open to and challenged by what can emerge.

It is also necessary to have in mind the need for cognitive diversity in an effective team. Reaching a shared understanding about what becoming purpose-led means, and a shared belief that it is a necessary and desirable aim is essential. But the goal is not bland uniformity. Rather it is a continuing healthy and robust dialogue based on a collective commitment, recognising that the best collective decisions are made by high performing teams where challenge is welcomed and which bring in a range of perspectives in conditions of psychological safety.

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