Here’s How to Create a Purpose-Driven Organization

This is not, yet another, post on the importance of an organization's purpose. Everyone seems to be writing about it. In fact, it’s the most discussed topic in transformational leadership since every organization should have a purpose of “being”. Talk to any employee and he can either recite his organizational purpose and values statements or remember its key words. In my school, some  of our teaching faculty know it by heart, most memorized its buzz words: Well-rounded, Interdependent, Social skills, Robust educational program. WISE they call it. We even have a mission week where our purpose statement is  displayed everywhere, football matches are played, and  prizes are won. Some banks even force their employees to memorize their vision and mission statements.  But in order for an organization to get employees to bring their brainpower and vigor to work, it needs to be purpose-driven not purpose-ostensible.

Robert Quinn and Anjan Thakor, both prominent researchers and academics in business schools, write in the latest Harvard Business Review that most executives and leaders work under the premise that employees are self-driven, because it is based on the common economic logic that everyone is a self-interested agent. Therefore, most executives design their organizational practices and culture accordingly, and that hasn’t paid off as they’d hoped. Consequently, they would double down on the approach, on the assumption that they need more or sterner rules and supervision to produce the desired impact. Or, the researchers propose based on their extensive empirical research, they can align the organization with an authentic higher purpose that intersects with one’s business interest and helps guide one’s decisions. If one succeeds in doing the latter, they say, people will try new things, move into deep learning, take risks, and make surprising contributions. They propose 8 ways on how to connect the organization with a higher-purpose.

1. Envision and Inspired Workforce:

According to economists, every employer faces the “principal-agent problem”. Here's how it goes. The principal (the employer) and the agent (the employee) form a work contract. The agent is effort-averse. For a certain amount of money, he or she will deliver a certain amount of labor, and no more. Since effort is personally costly, the agent underperforms in providing it unless the principal puts contractual incentives. Sounds familiar? The problem in this view, however, is that it has discarded the notion of a entirely engaged workforce. We have all encountered employees who take ownership of their labor. They use first person pronouns when they refer to fixing a problem or tackling an issue. The fact that these people exist is important. If you can find one positive example-a person, a team, a unit that exceeds that norms- you can inspire others. Look for excellence, study the purpose that drive the excellence, and then imaging it diffusing your entire workforce.

2. Discover the Purpose:

When we visit schools, we are presented with a document representing months of work; it articulates a purpose, a mission and a set ]of values. We tell them it had  no power-their analysis and devotion had produced only banalities. They had used only their heads to invent a higher purpose aimed to enamor employees’ hearts. But you do not invent a higher purpose; it already subsists. You can discover it through empathy-by feeling and understanding the deepest common needs of your workforce. It involves asking provocative questions, listening, and reflecting.  

3. Recognize the Need or Authenticity:

As I said above, purpose has become a popular topic. Even leaders who don’t believe in it face pressure from board members, investor, employees, and other stakeholders to articulate a higher purpose. When a company declares its purpose and values but the words don’t govern the behavior of senior leadership, they echo hollow. Everyone recognizes hypocrisy, and employees become more cynical. The process does harm. If your purpose is authentic, people know, because it drives every decision and you do things other companies would not.

4. Turn the Authentic Message into a Constant Message:

When a leader communicates the purpose with authenticity and constancy, employees recognize his or her commitment, begin to believe in the  purpose themselves, and reorient. The change is signaled from the top, and then it unfolds from the bottom.

5. Stimulate Individual Learning:

Conventional economic logic tends to rely on extrinsic motivators As leaders espouse higher purpose, however, they acknowledge that learning and development are potent incentives. Employees actually want to think, learn and grow By helping employees understand the relationship between higher purpose and the learning process, leaders can strengthen it . One way to help employees grow is to give them challenging tasks. This does not only give them the message that you trust them to take on the challenge, it also helps them learn and grow as they tackle the challenge.

6. Turn Midlevel Managers into Purpose-Driven Leaders:

To build an inspired, devoted workforce, you’ll need middle managers who not only know the organization’s purpose, but also deeply connect with it and lead with moral power. That goes way beyond what most companies ask of their midlevel people.

7. Connect the People to the Purpose:

Once leaders at the top and in the middle have internalized the organization's purpose, they must help frontline employees see the connection with their everyday work. But a top-down mandate does not work. Employees need to help drive this process, because then the purpose is more likely to pervade the culture, shaping behavior even  when managers aren’t right here to watch how people are handling things.

8. Unleash the Positive Energizers:

Every organization has a pool of change agents that usually goes untapped. The authors refer to this pool as “network of positive energizers”. Distributed arbitrarily  throughout the organization are mature, purpose-driven people with an optimistic orientation. They naturally inspire others. They’re open and willing to take initiative. Once enlisted, they can assist with every step of the cultural change. These people are easy to identify, and others trust them.

So purpose is not just an exalted ideal; it has pragmatic implications for your company’s effectiveness and efficiency. People who find meaning in their work don’t hoard their vitality and commitment. They give them freely, defying conventional economic assumptions about self-interest. They grow rather than stagnate. They do more-and they do it better. By tapping into the power, you can transform an entire organization.