Blog
Sharing insights with the purpose community
Last week we had the privilege of speaking alongside Vodafone, Grant Thornton, Centrica, BAM Nutall and Relume at the Blueprint for Better Business ‘Purpose Share Fair’, hosted at Grant Thornton’s offices in London.
The half-day brought together consultants, leadership coaches and sustainability leaders from blue-chip corporates to share experiences of building purpose-led enterprises through short “TED-talk” style presentations. Our business head Graham Massey spoke about the ups and downs of working with leaders of organisations to craft purpose-led vision and values-led culture.
The event was conducted under ‘Chatham House rules’ so we can’t go into too much detail about what was said. But there were three themes that really struck us.
#1 Implementing purpose-led vision is daunting, but great strides can be made
We firmly believe that the future belongs to businesses with purpose, and we are seeing more and more evidence to support this. However, we know from experience that the individuals who try to inspire purpose-led change within their organisations can end up feeling isolated – even CEOs.
So it was inspiring to hear that even large, well-resourced corporations face bumps on the road to purpose. And it was equally inspiring to hear the success stories that come from perseverance – for example, how a major telecoms company with over 100,000 employees scattered across the world can introduce a global maternity leave guarantee.
Great leaps can happen no matter the size of the company, and consultants have an important role to play in making the journey feel a little less lonely.
#2 Measuring purpose and culture is tricky, but vital
“If you can measure it, you can manage it” – this was the core insight from Phil Clothier of the Barrett Values Centre, which offers a range of tools to measure personal and corporate values and culture.
We’ve always believed that purpose needs to be lived everyday through workplace culture, and that it’s constant hard work to maintain a healthy environment where employees and enterprises can thrive. Part of that hard work is being able to measure and monitor – to make sure that what is “said” is also “done”. We have used the Barrett Values Centre’s tools in the past, and it was fascinating to hear the organisation is developing new approaches to values assessment.
As a possible counterpoint, however, Rowan Gray of Relume argued that purposeful leaders should be careful about fixating too much on particular outcomes. The journey towards purpose is not necessarily smooth and linear – purpose-led leaders will have to learn to “dance, prod and shuffle”.
#3 The ‘Purpose Movement’ is growing and maturing
The event further confirmed that we are past the ‘proof of concept’ phase when it comes to recognising the tangible impact of purpose.
On the one hand, it was genuinely heart-warming to spend time with fellow supporters of the cause. But this was far from a cheerleading rally – in the presentations and over lunch, we asked each other tough questions. When does purpose-led business lapse into “conscience laundering”? Is it down to the individual or the organisation to drive change towards purposeful enterprise? What is the link between corporate purpose and the common good?
All heady questions, and we embrace the fact that the movement towards more socially-minded enterprises has matured enough to ask them.
One thing is for sure: there was simply too much to talk about in just half a day. We look forward to the next Blueprint for Better Business event, and will continue to reflect on how the Blueprint’s “Five Principles of a Purpose-Driven Business” dovetail with the way we help our clients transform their enterprises using the power of purpose.