What's the point in purpose?

It’s not often I have an insight when I view a sewage treatment works from the window of a moving train.

Yet, on the morning train from London to Lancashire, pondering the conversations from the night before, that’s when it hit me.

Is purpose something we claim? Or something we create?

Can we decide our “purpose”, the way we decide which product to build, or which prose to paste across a promotional pamphlet?

Let’s back up a little and I’ll give you the context…

Why.

I’m doing quite well scoring invites to things at the moment. It would be nice if the gods of fortune wanted to roll me some high-scoring dice in other areas – a bit of help with my house renovations, or a hot night out with a well-adjusted and eligible batchelor would be nice – but, we make the most of the gifts we are given, and I am mostly being given free tickets.

So it was, that after a much-delayed train journey and frantic dash across London, I found myself listening to an “…in conversation with” hosted by Holly Branson.

Her interviewee was Simon Sinek, leader of The Optimism Company and author of “Start with Why”, amongst other best-selling non-fiction.  

Simon’s TEDx talk from 2009, where he draws a bullseye on a flipchart, has, at the time of writing, attracted almost 12million views. And I don’t mean to be flippant about the flipchart; he’s a great communicator and the core of his message has captured the imagination of students and business leaders alike for very good reasons: it appeals to our better natures.

We’ve probably all heard the cliché “people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”, or to update it to Simon’s language: “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”.

The timing of this TEDx invite was perfect: M&S had debuted their Plan A in 2007 – the first big company, as far as I’m aware, to release a sustainability strategy in public.

This not only brought cheers from a young G, full of fresh-faced idealism, and also about to graduate so delighted by the increase in new “sustainability” roles, it also kicked off a wave of Corporates making big commitments.

By the time the 2009 global recession was causing governments, businesses and householders alike to tighten their belts and purse-strings and prepare for austerity, flashy was out and purpose was in.

What’s wrong with why?

I’d never quite been able to put my finger on what was missing for me in the “Start With Why” concept. I’ve read the book, I believe what Mr. Sinek believes, and having met him in person, he strikes me as a genuine fellow who really cares about building good businesses.

Then, as I sat on that train the morning after, wending my way up to St. Annes-on-Sea, it hit me: it’s not that’s there’s anything wrong with “Why”, it’s that it’s incomplete.

So many purpose statements are, frankly, laughable.

There’s the grandiose. Like Ford Motor Company’s “To help build a better world, where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams” – I drive a Ford, it’s a great car but I can’t say that I feel I’m experiencing the freedom of my dreams come true when I hand over money to FMC for parts or service.

There’s the statements that seem to misunderstand either the zeitgeist of the times, or worse, their own product, like Mondelez promising to “empower people to snack right”, then listing their best-selling chocolate bars and biscuits – I guess the wellbeing movement hasn’t yet reached Mondelez HQ.

There’s the bizarre, such as bp claiming “Our purpose is reimagining energy”. Energy has – for centuries – been defined as the capacity for doing work. I’m no physicist but I think we’re still good with that. Maybe they mean “reimagining generation of energy”. Less snappy, I suppose.

And then there’s the willfully blind.

Like British company, United Utilities, who want “To provide great water for a stronger, greener and healthier North West”. A great sentiment, until you read in a report presented to Parliament last month, that there were 464,054 recorded sewage discharges in England last year, of which 97,537 came from UU infrastructure – the highest of any water company.

United Utilities have even been accused by the BBC of specifically downgrading incidents to make pollution stats look better. An accusation which the company strongly refutes and which I have no proof either way.

In fairness to UU, the most recent Environmental Performance Assessment for the water sector rates them as having “good” performance – 3 stars out of 5. Of the nine water companies included, only three managed to score this highly.

Regardless of whether UU are best in class, or lagging behind, there’s still a lot of work to do before they can claim to be supporting a “stronger, greener and healthier” North West without people pointing to sewage outflows in Lake Windermere and asking whether that’s healthy.

So that takes me back to the start.

Is purpose something we claim? Or something we create?

I don’t believe that I was put on this earth with a purpose. I believe I can choose what I do with my time here. And those choices can help the communities of which I’m part, or harm them.  

If we want to build a good business. One that has purpose beyond profit. One that contributes in a meaningful way, we need first to take inspiration from Hippocrates and Do No Harm.

Whilst the “why” principle can be used for clever and compelling ad campaigns, telling people why we’re in business is only part of the story. We can’t just claim a purpose.

It’s far more useful if we create the conditions for positive outcomes to occur. I don’t always get decisions right, but I always try to take the path of least harm to those around me.

How do we find our purpose?

By doing the right thing.

I’m sure you are.

Cheering you on as you make an impact, and wishing you both love and profit,

 G

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