Purpose

What allows us, as human beings, to psychologically survive life on earth with all of it's pain, drama and challenges, is a sense of purpose and meaning" 

Barbara De Angelis

Time to set sail

In 2015 a global survey of 474 executives published by Harvard Business Review, and sponsored by EY Beacon Institute   (a research/think tank run by Ernst & Young), showed that while most executives believe organisational purpose is important less than half said their company runs in a purpose driven way.

They define purpose as “an aspirational reason for being which inspires and provides a call to action for an organisation and its partners and stakeholders and provides benefit to local and global society”. 

Their research suggests that purpose driven organisations enjoy better financial performance than others alongside other benefits. 
(You might like to look at figure 3 on page 4).

A simpler way of thinking about purpose is as ‘the fundamental reason for existence (beyond making money)’ and that was the view of Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in ‘Built to Last’. They say the function of purpose is not necessarily to differentiate but to guide and inspire.

Here are some examples of purpose statements from other places:

Disneyland                  “to use our imagination to bring happiness to millions’

Southwest Airlines      “to connect people to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable and low cost air travel”

Kelloggs                       “nourishing families so they can flourish and thrive”

IAG Insurance              “to help people manage risk and recover from the hardship of unexpected loss”

Staffordshire Police     “keeping our communities safe and reassured”

The following example of purpose is one I had the privilege of facilitating 

“influencing the journey so that people with cancer live a good life”

and it is the purpose of a local volunteer led and managed cancer support centre on Merseyside.

Purpose is different to vision – which is about the future we are heading into. Vision often contains elements about status or size or reputation or reach and is frequently “idealised” so the vision of BAE Systems for example is “to be the premier global defence aerospace and security company”.

Purpose is different to mission which is about what the organisation is currently embarked upon doing to get to the visionary place of the future. BAE follows its vision with a mission to “deliver sustainable growth in shareholder value through our commitment to Total Performance”.

Purpose is simply the point of it all – the bottom line – the thing that if we have made some kind of progress/delivered on that experience then it has been a worthwhile day.

So before I can settle on the final question for my PhD I need clarity on the purpose of it. For my business - Magma Effect - I am very clear, I work to "create insight for meaning and motivation". For the PhD I am finding it a bit more complicated. I don't want to end up doing a vanity project which gratifies no one but me and I do want to do something useful which others can put to work (which aligns with the purpose of my company) but that still isn't the whole story. It isn't going to be easy to hit this particular nail on the head and it is going to take some courage to get really naked intellectually - the wonderful Brene Brown puts it best

"If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives,                               vulnerability is the path."