Do you have a purpose?

Does your organisation have a Purpose?

In other blogs I started to look at the ideas and drivers of a robust culture. 

After talking about vision and mission I concluded with the following: 

This is not the purpose of the organisation. The purpose of the organisation needs to be something greater, something that allows all team members to identify and take as their own.

What is your purpose?  

Continuing on this theme, I will be focusing on certain fantastic success (and failure) stories. 

A software company that has as its purpose “practical genius delivered”. The beauty of this purpose statement is that the team of software engineers and support staff all see themselves as part of this “practical genius“.  The motivation that this imparts to the team where each person’s level is elevated to the status of “genius”. 

This is a great example of where on a macro level each team member sees themselves as part of something greater than themselves.

But on a micro level the three words have very different meanings.  In the words of the Managing director and founder:

“Practical "is that we can take wonderful designs out of magazines that are textbook beautiful but impractical to maintain.  We altered these to be practical.

"Genius" is that the designs are clever and innovative, easy to maintain and modify.

And then the third element "delivered". At the end of the day you get great research institutes that never ever get anything out the door. We have viable commercial clients for whom the delivery of a clever practical working solution is key.

Hence practical genius delivered."

Does your organisation have a simple purpose that resonates with the whole team?

The picture of the railway tracks was taken by myself one morning whilst running in a small town called York - East of Perth.

There are many symbolic ideas ideas around railway tracks - from the horrific holocaust images to the reason I took the picture.

The tracks to me symbolise the idea of potential, of moving forward - all the time whilst seeing our short term goals and being conscious of the distance. However - we try and focus on what is achievable - leaving the future to build on the solid foundations we create now.