Why well intentioned purposes can fall short

We have seen a lot of well-intentioned work on purpose falling short in meeting its aim of unleashing human creativity to contribute to human betterment and a sustainable ecosystem. As can be seen from the UK FRCs 2020 review of corporate governance reporting about half of their sampled UK FTSE 100 companies provided a purpose statement, however, the quality of the statements and the consideration of culture, strategy and stakeholder engagement was insufficient, “with many substituting slogans or marketing lines for a clear purpose”. This is a potential issue for companies of all sizes.

Often people point to the purpose statement as the issue, whilst this may be the case, a variety of other reasons could also be at play.

Here are some of the issues we have seen in organisations we have worked with, with references to other parts of this knowledgebase where you can explore how you might address or think about these issues further:

Shared understanding and commitment

• A lack of clear intent and shared understanding about what it means to be purpose-led and what the purpose means in practice is leading to confusion, mixed messaging and lack of commitment. For a discussion on how to help address this see: Challenging assumptions & beliefs
• A wavering belief among the leadership team about the potential of the purpose, a lack of belief that what is better for society and better for people, is also better for the business. This is explored further in the course: Engaging the leadership – exploring questions and dilemmas
• A lack of personal commitment due to a lack of recognition that becoming purpose-led is not only an organisational challenge but often a deeply personal challenge. For more on how to think about this see: Your role as a Changemaker
• Change in senior personnel who associate the purpose articulation with previous leadership rather than being core to the company. We explore the role of leadership in more detail below: The vital role of leadership commitment and shared intent

Articulation

• The purpose statement and narrative is too vague and general, or poorly articulated, failing to offer any practical guidance for action or to unify the company and its stakeholders in pursuit of a common good. This is discussed further in: Answering the question ‘what is our purpose?’
• The process by which the purpose was articulated failed to engage key stakeholders and therefore lacks legitimacy. For more on how to think about effective dialogue see Blueprint’s blog: Navigating dialogue in business

Bringing purpose to life

• The company’s purpose has made little impact on how it treats its employees and stakeholders, in how the core business operates and in how it is structured, run and measured. Purpose is seen as new ‘wallpaper’ creating cognitive dissonance both within the organisation and its stakeholders. We discuss different aspects of how to bring purpose to life in: Bringing purpose to life
  The importance of continuing dialogue to explore a business’s underlying views about people and the role of business are discussed in: Challenging Assumptions and Beliefs and Engaging the Leadership – exploring questions and dilemmas

Too much focus on the statement itself…

In all this work it is important to keep in view what can be expected of any purpose statement. It is a mistake to think that somehow the right sentence or form of words will of itself be the ‘magic bullet’ to transform the business. The statement is important, and it needs to be good enough, but as made clear above it is only ever one part of the story. What is far more important than the wording of any purpose statement is the shared understanding and commitment about what it means for the business in practice, and what is going to be done differently. The real prize is the enduring mindset shift about becoming purpose-led, not the quality of the statement itself.