DEFINING AND ARTICULATING PURPOSE
How savvy leaders are connecting people with their work and the organisation.
For leaders, purpose is fundamental to a great employee experience — building the crucial connections between people, their work, and the organisation.
Research by KPMG discovered a strong correlation between leaders who actively communicate purpose and their team engagement and morale. They found people are three times more likely to consider leaving a company when leaders don’t discuss purpose, with double the turnover rate. And it’s time to give the poor old Millennials a rest from the relentless purpose-bashing, as these findings were consistent across all generations.
Quite unsurprisingly, increased engagement also goes hand-in-hand with better business performance. Professor of Global Business Raj Sisodia found purpose-led companies outperformed the S&P 500 by ten times the financial returns between 1996 and 2011.
So purpose matters, but how do we define and articulate it effectively?
Well, we begin by understanding how humans experience meaning.
Throughout history there have been numerous theories about what it means to be human. These have typically sought a single, collective purpose, and were highly influenced by the social themes of the time.
Today, the post-modern understanding of meaning is comfortably ambiguous. It’s widely accepted that purpose is a narrative humans are inherently compelled to derive and embody.
Simply: our purpose in life is whatever we make it.
Family; religion; conservation; exploration; creativity; work — whatever it is, we hold an unwavering belief we exist on earth to do this one thing. It’s a reason to live; our enduring legacy — making it a fundamental part of our identity.
From the new mother changing her social media profile photo to her child, to a gang member tattooing their affiliation into their flesh, to a CEO working twenty hours a day, our purpose defines us. It shapes our values and behaviours. It influences our goals and motivation to achieve them. It drives decision-making and priorities. It even determines our social network.
Our sense of purpose is so strong and deeply ingrained, it can blind us from seeing life could be any other way. Forget politics as a conversational faux pas, try challenging someone on their purpose and watch them fight tooth and nail to defend it.
Wherever we individually find meaning, it tends to be bigger than ourselves. We talk about existing to serve the greater or higher purpose, serving the community, providing for our family, standing up for the under-represented, or saving the world. We share information, but we evangelise purpose. And the more we feel our contribution matters in the wider context, the more fervent our belief.
This sense of purpose makes even the most unbearable hardships tolerable. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl observed the people most likely to survive concentration camps during the Second World War were those who felt their lives had purpose.
As powerful as meaning is, though, it certainly isn’t set in stone. Like any narrative, it can be rewritten depending on our circumstances, external influences, and prevailing social perspectives. It’s the convicted criminal discovering religion in prison, or the mining magnate becoming a campaigner for conservation.
And it’s particularly evident in its absence. A lack of meaning in our lives leads to boredom, apathy, anxiety and depression. Without it, we float empty and directionless.
It’s no surprise then, that purpose plays such a critical role in the performance of individuals, teams, and organisations at work. And by applying this knowledge to a business context, we can build better connection between people, their work, and the organisation.
Not big necessarily, but meaningful
Purpose doesn’t need to be monumental, it just needs to be meaningful. We want to believe we’re contributing towards something bigger than ourselves.
What are we working together to achieve? Does it make a difference? Is it worthy work for a worthwhile cause? These are the considerations that motivate people over the pursuit of profit. And when comparing two jobs with similar wages, the one with greater purpose will have greater appeal.
Research shows we’re more inherently motivated when we’re aware our work helps others.
Psychologist Adam Grant conducted a study in which university students who’d received scholarships spoke to operators from the call centre which had raised the funds. A month later, operators were spending 142 per cent more time on the phone with a revenue increase of 171 per cent. Simply hearing the impact of their work was enough to make a massive difference.
Similarly, a survey by Work for Good found 93 per cent of people working for nonprofits are engaged — an incredible number, and almost three times the national average.
If we’re motivated by seeing the impact of our work, we’re similarly demotivated when we feel it lacks purpose.
In an oft-cited experiment on motivation, psychologist Dan Ariely had participants built Lego characters for money. One group’s finished creations were stored under a table and deconstructed later, while another group’s work was torn apart in front of them. Participants in both groups were paid a decreasing amount for each character they built.
The first group finished an average of 11 items before quitting, while the second group only made it through an average of seven. The results showed a clear difference in effort, based on whether participants saw their work as meaningful.
Never shy from challenging
The common fear when articulating purpose is that it will seem unachievable or unrealistic. As a result, it tends to be watered down until comfortably tepid.
But this isn’t the time to be realistic — it’s an opportunity to be idealistic. Purpose should inspire. It should challenge. Because the more effort we invest towards realising it, the more likely we are to perceive it as being worthwhile.
Ariely conducted another study that found people tend to feel more pride in work that’s challenging. He had participants follow origami instructions, and on completion, the builders, as well as a group of observers, were asked how much they’d pay for it. He then repeated the process, this time without instructions.
Congruent with the ownership effect (where people overestimate how much things they own are worth), the builders priced their initial work at five times the cost as the objective observers. However, the difference was even more exaggerated when valuing the crude efforts fumbled through without instructions. While — unsurprisingly — the observers offered less, the builders valued their monstrous creations even more.
There is no one-size-fits-all
So how do we encourage everyone to adopt our vision and mission?
Quite simply: we can’t.
Just as we all have our own individual purpose in life, not everyone seeks the same meaning in their work. And that’s ok.
All that matters is our purpose resonates with the people who matter, and inspires them to strive towards it.
Everything drives the narrative
Like any good narrative, everything should exist to support the story. Purpose should be singular and coherent, filtering from vision statement, mission, values and behaviours, to strategy, structures and the way things work.
If the vision describes a certain outcome, but leaders’ actions contradict it — belief wavers. If the mission involves innovation and people are hampered by clunky technology — conviction falters. It isn’t about perfection, it’s about congruence in the things that matter.
Emotions also play a significant role. Purpose isn’t driven by logic, otherwise we wouldn’t see people chain themselves in front of bulldozers or pass up six-figure executive wages to work with people they like doing jobs they love. Reason only takes us so far, it’s emotion that compels us to commit everything.
Support purpose with structure
While purpose provides the evocation, we need to support it with structure to help people work towards it.
Communication is a crucial component. KPMG’s findings on team engagement and morale didn’t relate to organisations that had purpose, it related to organisations where leaders communicated purpose.
People need to know the purpose — the vision and mission — understand it, and be able to easily articulate it to others. However, it’s just as important they know the behaviours required to get there, what it looks like to achieve it, and the individual and collective reward.
Research on motivation, including Ariely’s lego experiment, shows the value of making people’s efforts visible. We don’t necessarily need massive advances to stay motivated, but tracking progress against our objective and sharing it regularly helps people feel their work is making a difference.
Looking to develop and articulate purpose for your organisation or department? We’d love to help.