Companies are looking for purpose
Companies are looking for purpose – or, in other words, „what is our right to exist“? What are the top questions for mankind we want to address? Why do we exist? How do we want to deal with our employees, society, this planet? Where (and how?) do we believe we can add value?
Such questions are not new. Every generation was interested to understand why they are here. What is the/our vision, the/our mission, the/our ambition of life? Humans are demanding: Why should I invest time of my life if I am doing well enough not to fight every day just for surviving?
Take a look to the purpose statements of companies in general and your employer in particular. Do you like the statements? Most likely yes or you might not work there. Purpose statements are written to attract, to be inspirational, to make you feel well. Not all statements work for all, and not all business fits into certain statements. In other words, you may even see in such statement whether you work in your personal (!) best place to be, and whether your work is for your employer as relevant as for you.
You will as well see if and how the management of your organization deals with purpose. Does your company fulfill its own purpose already? Probably not. Don´t worry – there is always work left for all of us, luckily. What happens if we take the purpose serious? Does management fill it with life, or is it just a statement? Does the purpose leads to action? Does it resonate with us, the organization? If it resonates – are we authorized to act? Do we have the same understanding of such statements like our managers, our peers, our team-members? Do we have the right tools to travel the journey? Do we have the right resources to supporting the journey? Do we have the right talent hired? Do we get the authority to trigger change? What do we have to change?
When you take a close look on the purpose it is telling about tasks, next steps – and how to manage them. It tells about communication, people, and human interaction. In other words, it is telling about some of the tasks you and your management got on the table. So be careful with the purpose statements: If taken seriously, they create a need for change. Purpose does not travel easy. Purpose statements are quite telling and trigger questions. They can even cause frictions if there is obviously a disconnect between purpose and actual behavior of individuals.
If your company walks the talk, there is a high probability to be successful.
