Why bother?
Because “Why” is foundational. It lives as a question until it’s resolved as a purpose. I often express purpose as the answer to the question, “For the sake of what?”
Hang out with any toddler. They have a hardwired, relentless need to understand why things are the way they are. But it’s not because they’re toddlers. It’s because they’re human. Adults may not verbalize it as incessantly, but the questions remain. They just tend to go underground and haunt your organization until you do the work to get very clear about your purpose, and turn your “Why’s?” into “Why!”
Getting to “Why” is rocket fuel for your organization. Getting clear about your purpose and making it operational, streamlines decisions across the board - expanding, divesting, streamlining, investing, hiring, marketing. Every aspect of operations. If you aren’t there yet, take stock of your meetings and your internal dialogue. When your “what” conversations take a “why” sidetrip, how long do you stay there? How do you resolve it? Do you ever resolve it? How often do you revisit the same “should we?” questions?
When you’re clear about your why, and operate from there, your market, your employees, all stakeholders, are also clear about why you do what you do. And it’s from there that they buy into you and buy from you, be it products, services, employment, or investment.
A Note to Founders and CEOs
If you are leading an organization, and you’re wondering if it matters that you are crystal clear about your Purpose, about WHY you do what you do, consider this.
You are on stage. Eyes are on you 24/7/365. Employees and their spouses. Customers and clients. Prospects. Shareholders. They are asking themselves, and probably others:
Why should I follow you?
Why should I buy from you?
Why should I invest in you?
Open your board room and invite them in. Now give one answer to these three questions that will satisfy and resonate with everyone in the room. Could you do that? Could you unite these potentially conflicting interests under one umbrella answer? Great compensation. Competitive prices. Maximum returns.
When your business is purely opportunistic, so are your stakeholders. They will come and go at the same pace of your opportunities, lagging by however long it takes them to discover you and then, when you are no longer relevant to their needs, realize that and leave. And that’s fine if that’s your intent. But more often than not, this dynamic isn’t planned. It just happens and you scramble to keep up in this transactional world.
But what if you could answer these three WHY questions with one answer. An answer that spoke to something deeper within these questions? That’s the intent of the Higher Purpose. A purpose that transcends and covers the special interests of every stakeholder who values this reason for being because it speaks to something they care deeply about, and is grounded in beliefs they agree are true. That was the genesis of this model and the reason for this approach.
The Model - A Structured Approach
This model is structured as it is for a reason. The deepest signaling of what truly matters to us is non-verbal. It shows up most immediately through involuntary physiological responses and corresponding sensations in our body through a visceral motor response. The autonomic nervous system releases neurotransmitters, particularly norepinephrine and acetylcholine, that can trigger many responses: change in heart rate and blood pressure; redistribution of blood flow throughout the body; slowing or cessation of gastrointestinal motility (digestion); piloerection (goosebumps); sweating. This happens before we’re cognitively aware, and long before we translate that awareness into language. Tapping into that is key to getting to:
Our Deepest Care (Our Passion)
What we care about most deeply, leads to...
...the passionate concerns that fuel collective felt purpose and inspire our action.
Caring about something, and believing it is a) possible, and b) worth pursuing, are two very different things. Getting to the latter is a discernment process filled with assertions (statements of fact) and assessments (held opinions). The challenge with beliefs is getting them right, or at least not getting them so wrong that you either pass up a grand opportunity, or dive headlong into a venture that is doomed to fail. Grounding our assessments in truth, to the best of our ability, is key to good decision making. This is always a blend of cognitive (thinking) and intuitive (feeling) discernments. So we get there by spinning back and forth between Our Deepest Care and our so-called reality, Our Beliefs:
Our Beliefs (Our Reality)
What we believe to be true about what we care about most deeply, leads to...
...unifying and directing our thinking and action in service to what we care about.
This process is not as a linear journey to a destination. Rather, it’s a circular, yin-yang dance between the heart and the head on a spiral path converging on a real world need. As this passion and reality gain clarity together, they circle closer to the need they can practically address and serve, leading to a truly actionable Higher Purpose:
Our Higher Purpose (The Need)
The need we must address to impact what we care about most deeply, leads to...
...clarity about why we must exist in our world and do what we do.
With these three foundational truths in place - what we truly care about most deeply; what we believe to be true about that; and the aligned, true need in the real world that needs attention - we can be specific about the work our organization will focus on to meet that need. If you’re coming at this from a functioning organization that has been circling this need for some time, this next step is a clarifying one. If you are blue-skying opportunity purely on the basis of inspiration and opportunity, it’s a clean slate. Either way, this clarity will ultimately inform operational focus:
Our Organization Purpose (Our Work)
What we do to address this need, leads to...
...the specific impact we wish to have on the world by addressing this need.
Of course, organizations don’t do any work. People do work. So until this becomes relevant and applied to the individuals doing the work, nothing will happen. This is where the energy and power of this model lives when you achieve this alignment. But what is alignment in practice? Alignment is abstract. It must be defined. In this context, I define it as agreement:
Agreement with what we care about most deeply.
Agreement with the beliefs surrounding that.
Agreement that our Higher Purpose matters.
Agreement that our Organization Purpose is worth pursuing.
And finally, agreement that my individual contribution is worth my effort:
My Individual Purpose (My Work)
How I contribute to what we do to address this need, leads to...
...me focusing on the value I bring to help create this impact.
The Discovery Process
Entrepreneurs often embark on journeys sparked by serendipity - inspiration meets opportunity. Inevitably, if they stay at it long enough, the challenges and competition they face will draw on their reserves. If they haven’t already connected powerfully to their “why,” they can run out of fuel. This is why we recommend that all startups explore and cultivate this early on, and as an ongoing practice of renewal, throughout the life of their enterprise.
As you’ve seen, this is not a linear process. It is iterative and reflective. You alternately turn inward to focus and feel what matters to you, then open outward to see your potential impact on the world. Many entrepreneurs get their inspiration from something in their personal life story. Tapping into that is powerful, but there are as many paths to this as there are entrepreneurs. The truth remains, no matter the source, whatever matters most to you is what you will apply yourself to most energetically.
Articulating your Higher Purpose is a linguistic exercise. In truth, you probably already know what it is emotionally, even without the words to clearly express it. Finding the words can be difficult. It takes time and attention and dedication to the task. But it’s worth it. It fuels the further development of your operational strategy, the framework under “WHAT” and “HOW,” topics to follow.
An Example
While professional facilitation is often the most effective means for developing this, if you study this and faithfully apply it while watching for your blindspots, you can make a lot of progress on your own. To help you, here’s a sample thought process to get you into the flow.
Deepest Care
1st pass
We care most deeply about the environmental quality of the world’s oceans because of their impact on all forms of life, both in them and impacted by them, including human life.
Commentary: It’s natural to focus on the organization’s competencies, but we must go deeper and rise higher to find the core of the Higher Purpose.
Beliefs
1st pass
The degradation of ocean environments is created by humans, and humans must, and can, end it.
Taking no action will have devastating future consequences.
Plastic waste is a major contributor to this and one that is possible to remove from the oceans and raise awareness to keep them free of it in the future.
There is enough support for and belief in this to be able to fund it and do it.
Technologies exist, and we can create all others necessary, to make this possible and make this happen.
Deepest Care
2nd pass (focus shifted to higher view with deeper care):
We care most deeply about being good stewards of the natural world, a gift provided by our home planet, Earth.
Commentary: This is closer to the passionate core that is central to what inspires action without limiting the response. It’s high enough now to allow for a broader range of responses, one of which can be addressed through this organization’s competencies, which will yield its Organization Purpose.
Beliefs
2nd pass: ADD to the top - inspired by the 2nd pass for Deepest Care
Earth is a gift, be it defacto by cosmic chance, or through intentional creation by the divine. Either way, it is here, it supports our life, and we can’t survive or thrive if we disregard its environmental health and choose policies and behaviors that damage it.
Taken together:
Deepest Care
We care most deeply about being good stewards of the natural world, a gift provided by our home planet, Earth.
Beliefs (about this Deepest Care)
Earth is a gift, be it defacto by cosmic chance, or through intentional creation by the divine. Either way, it is here, it supports our life, and we can’t survive or thrive if we disregard its environmental health and choose policies and behaviors that damage it.
The global ocean environment has been damaged, and continues to be damaged by humans, and humans must, and can, remediate it.
Taking no action will have devastating future consequences.
Plastic waste is a major contributor to this and one that is possible to remove from the oceans and raise awareness to keep them free of it in the future.
It is technically possible to clean up the oceans and keep them clean.
It is politically possible to clean up the oceans and keep them clean.
There is enough support for and belief in this to be able to fund it and do it to completion.
Technologies exist that we can employ to begin to have an impact.
We can invent, create and fund new technologies to make this happen.
Enough political will exists to get started.
We will be able to garner enough political will in the future to complete it.
Higher Purpose
We are called to the Higher Purpose of freeing the Earth entirely of man-made pollutants that are damaging the natural world.
Organization Purpose
Our organization exists to serve this Higher Purpose by removing every pound of plastic waste deposited in our oceans.
My Purpose
CEO
I do my best to oversee and help garner every resource required to remove every pound of plastic waste deposited in our oceans to help free them entirely of these man-made pollutants that are damaging this natural world.
CFO
I do my best to provide the financial oversight required to make the most of every penny we have at our disposal to remove every pound of plastic waste deposited in our oceans to help free them entirely of these man-made pollutants that are damaging this natural world.
CMO
I do my best to lead the crafting and delivery of the most effective messages possible to all of our stakeholders in order to garner support for the removal of every pound of plastic waste deposited in our oceans to help free them entirely of these man-made pollutants that are damaging this natural world.
Executive Assistant
I do my best to support my executives and teams so we can remove every pound of plastic waste deposited in our oceans to help free them entirely of these man-made pollutants that are damaging this natural world.
Engineer
I do my best to design and implement the most technically and cost effective solutions possible to remove every pound of plastic waste deposited in our oceans to help free them entirely of these man-made pollutants that are damaging this natural world.
Summer GIS Intern
I do my best to learn, take direction, and apply my mapping skills to remove every pound of plastic waste deposited in our oceans to help free them entirely of these man-made pollutants that are damaging this natural world.
Boat Captain
I do my best to manage my craft and crew to remove every pound of plastic waste deposited in our oceans to help free them entirely of these man-made pollutants that are damaging this natural world.
Crew Member
I do my best to perform my duties to remove every pound of plastic waste deposited in our oceans to help free them entirely of these man-made pollutants that are damaging this natural world.
Reflections on this process
This process is valid for blue-skying with a blank slate; adding a new dimension to an existing enterprise; or grounding, refocusing and reenergizing an existing one. When applied to an enterprise where existing competencies and resources will be utilized, typical of founders in early stage startups, these domains of experience and expertise provide a landscape of context. This context will likely tether your thinking to its practical application. I mention this because you may be challenged to go deeper and broaden your thinking to expose your Higher Purpose. In this example, the 1st pass deepest care centered on their existing context of ocean health. The 2nd pass put that in a broader context of the health of the natural world in general. They care about the oceans because they care about the state of the natural world in general. This puts them on a much larger playing field which gives context to their current Organization Purpose focused on ocean health and plastics pollution. Because their Higher Purpose covers their Organization Purpose, they have the opportunity to pivot or expand within it as opportunities arise that align with it.
Getting to Your “Why”
Note the wording of Individual Purpose above. It is intentionally repetitive with references to the statements of organization and higher purpose. Every statement of Individual Purpose has the same structure:
Personal declaration of my role
“I do my best to _______
to support our organization’s work
to remove every pound of plastic waste deposited in our oceans
for the sake of our Higher Purpose
to help free them entirely of these man-made pollutants that are damaging this natural world.”
Again, organizations do no work. People do. Organizational alignment is nothing more than the collective effect of having every individual in agreement about: the role they’re playing | in support of the organization’s work | for the sake of a higher purpose that is meaningful to them.
Are you ready to try? Let’s take a pass.
CONTEXT
What’s your dream?
Where did it come from?
DEEPEST CARE
Why do you care about this?
Why might this matter to those who may be impacted by it?
BELIEFS
What do you believe to be true about:
your offering?
your ability to bring it to the world?
those who may be impacted by it?
HIGHER PURPOSE
Now, what is your first pass for a statement of the higher purpose you are serving? Wander back up and down this list of questions and add others that come to mind. Ponder. Journal. Take a walk. Note any clarity that shows up. Sleep on it. Let it sink in and seep out.
ORGANIZATION PURPOSE
You and other members of your organization, now or in the planned future, have skill sets and perhaps a reputation in a market.
How can this be applied most effectively in service to the higher purpose you’ve indicated is most meaningful to you?
Where would you focus your work?
What are you most interested in, passionate about, curious about, invested in because it resonates with you and your interests?
Play with this to see what arises as the primary focus for your organization’s work.
INDIVIDUAL PURPOSE
Now that you have that focus, see how that feels in practice. Start with your role and your Individual Purpose. Then add key positions, filled or anticipated, to declare the Individual Purpose for each of your team members to see how they resonate.
Place no stakes in the ground until you're ready. And don’t worry. You can always move them later. They’re your stakes. Have fun with it. When you're satisfied with WHY, you can take a stroll down WHAT and HOW to see what else shows up. Remember, this is a discovery process, not a waterfall design. Not only is the operational paradigm of this model Agile, it’s development and evolution is as well. The world doesn’t stand still. And you neither can you.