Why is It So F#%king Hard to Define Deep Purpose?

As promised, from time to time I will openly and authentically share an update on the cultural transformation at NorQuest. This includes the good, the bad, and the ugly. What follows shares another step.

What It’s About: Defining a meaningful “deep purpose” is just plain hard. Finding the combination of words to really capture the soul and “why?” of an organization is a longer journey than most institutions are willing to take. CEOs are people who are used to getting things done, and are not very patient. And the mining to find the vein of gold to capture the essence of a place of work, is more like an anthropological dig. It’s involves a lot of sifting and discovery. Some of the questions to answer include: “Is our stated purpose meaningful to a set of customers or users?” “Is it clear whose lives we are improving in some way?” “Is our purpose unique?” “What hole would be left in the marketplace if we disappeared?” “Are we the rightful owner of our purpose?” “Does our purpose differentiate us from others who provide similar products or services?” “When people read it, do they see us in it?” “Would our members spring out of bed in the morning to make the purpose more true?” No wonder a leader may end up saying to someone: “Just write the damn thing up, we’ll kick it around at an exec meeting, and email it out. I’m tired of talking about it.” And that’s why so many purposes and mission statements are hollow. Unfortunately, it literally just doesn’t work that way if you want purpose to be alive within the walls, rather than simply painted on them.

What We’re Doing About It: We started with an inventory of all the historic work on both purpose and values to date. (If the organization has been around for awhile, there is usually a lot of old “inventory”). We organized residual content into themes and engaged leaders on a refresh and development process. We built draft prototype models and tested the thinking. We opened up new avenues of consideration based on a comprehensive listening campaign conducted by culture champions. We took all our draft progress and held more conversations with leaders from all levels. We are now going into another version of testing and listening. Sometime in the next couple of months we will take a draft to our board. And one day, early in the new calendar year, we will DECLARE. The listening will conclude and the infusion process will begin. In our case, this will be about a seven month process. And it still won’t be perfect. However, if we’ve done our work right, our stated deep purpose will serve as a resonating ping for all stakeholders. Then the relentless work of making it come alive in the heads and hearts of all will begin.

The paragraph above doesn’t adequately cover the depth of work involved, and it is not a recipe. We believe it works for us. The key message is that there is no shortcut. It’s messy and hard. It is also perhaps the most important work to do. When done well, it inspires, anchors, differentiates, guides and propels. It is the core along with the organization values. I wish it was faster and easier. You can try to differentiate exclusively by business model, strategy or products/services. Those are usually easy to benchmark and copy. A well developed, and defined deep purpose on the other hand is unique and belongs to no one else.

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now.

Lorne

One Millennial View: It’s as if the “mission statement” or “deep purpose” for some organizations is a product of liposuction. It appears great, but the end result is fake. There’s no diet pill for it, there’s no easy fix, it’s a lot of hard work and meaningful dedication to achieve the true result worth believing in. However, when we see companies who wholeheartedly embody their purpose, they clearly stand out and are supported accordingly.

- Garrett

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Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Why is It So F#%king Hard to Define Deep Purpose?

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