The Death of Purpose

I hope not, but I am alarmed. Perhaps a better word is heartbroken. I really don't want to live in a world without purpose.

Lately, it feels to me that we are veering away from anything that's purpose driven and we are embracing a completely utilitarian approach, where everything is transactional and no other thing is considered of value.

As someone who has made a career on sound leadership and management practices, both from a frequently pragmatic point of view, I recognize the value of efficiency and understanding how every action, impacts the bottom line of the organization. Businesses, corporations are -to a large extent- entities that care about very few things. Shareholder returns is one, delighting their customers may be another one, and creating any societal value or personal development for their employees seems optional at best.

THE INFINITE GAME

This transactional nature of business is especially true when considered through a short time-span.

We want to make quota. Increase the bonus. Reach the objective. That's all fine, but as James Carse characterized It, business, and work, is more of an infinite game. If we empty the pipeline one quarter, we'll start the next one with zero prospects. If we burn all the budget now, we'll have nothing to spend in a month. Yet we will still be here.

We'll start it all over again. At the same desk, with the same coworkers, and sometimes, with the same boss. Over and over again, for at least eight hours of our day.

This is why for many workers, a job is not only a source of income. It is not just transaccional. It is not just “I'm here for 40 hours a week, you pay me this”. A job can be a source of dignity, but even better, a source of purpose and belonging.

And then, there’s purpose, and there’s Purpose. For the janitor at NASA who famously engaged in a chat with JFK back in the sixties, his purpose could have been to sweep a particular floor's hallway. But his Purpose, as captured in the story, was “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”

PURPOSE DRIVES, HARD

At first, having a clear objective like sweeping a particular area, painting a wall, executing on a campaign, can be rewarding and good enough to get you out of bed. But that motivation can quickly disolve in the face of diversity. Florida, where NASA has most of its operations, has legendary thunderstorms. I can imagine a scenario where “need to sweep the 4th floor” doesn't feel that important when lightning is striking left and right. But for “putting a man on the moon”, lightning is nothing.

A deep sense of purpose leads to more satisfied employees, who will face the hard times better

LEADING (AND MANAGING) WITH PURPOSE

For owner-operators, this is even more important. Not only are they in it for the long haul, but all of them have some people they lead. Some of them have lots of people, and as organizations become larger, it becomes more and more difficult to have direct control over what each person does, and therefore how each of them creates value for the organization. The answer is to create processes that help us repeatedly succeed at what we do. Over and over again. Consistently. Efficiently. It even allows us not to overthink things, “Trust the process", we say. Processes are great for capturing known input-output relationships. They are the “If this, then that” of any organization. They are also a pre-requisite for one of the biggest cost-saving measures: automation.

However, it is very hard to create a “then that” for something that has high variability or that is unpredictable. In these cases, the owner-operator (or one of their designees) has to step-in, and make a decision. So we keep pushing the decision lower and lower through the decision tree, until there is no supervisor available. This is where we “hope” someone will make the right decision. The way to stack the odds in our favor is to have a strong sense of purpose and company culture that guides decision making.

Now, instead of running on the “If this, then that” software, we upgrade the organization to a “if for this there is no that, then do something that ultimately achieves this”. It's a better software. More resilient. Rarely breaks down, and most of the time provides the best answer. Better yet, it scales to NASA size organizations.

Purpose, Values, and Company Culture are what drive decisions when the boss is not in the room

INNOVATE TO SURVIVE

Finally, there is the impact of Purpose on innovation. In a recent work, Dr. Mark Hatch, the author of the “The Maker Manifesto”, demonstrated that clear purpose contributes to companies to be more innovative, to the tune of being responsible for 39% of the success of innovation projects. And if we also buy the work of consulting giant McKinsey, for their survival.

39% of the success of innovation projects can be attributed to Enacted Aspirational Purpose

It doesn't serve much anybody to ask people to list what they did during the week. Reporting actions has its place. In particular, every Business Operating System establishes some method of reporting. That is, to the immediate supervisor, and usually during a live meeting where the nuances can be talked over and find avenues for progress. Moreover, in an innovative, fast-moving organization that prouds itself for “failing fast”, something like this quickly loses meaning as the answer may invariably be “I tried 5 different ways, none worked”.

A much better question is to ask if they understand what's the ultimate purpose of the organization, if they feel committed to it, and if they feel they have been given the opportunity to contribute to it.