In this podcast, Julia and Andrew turn their thinking towards purpose. What is purpose and how has this changed with the impact of Covid-19. The discussion was sparked by a McKinsey quarterly article about purpose shifting from why to how. Julia was really inspired by this article, because she has been talking for a long time about purpose, and why it’s important for companies to have purpose, and we often talk about purpose before profits people have started to reevaluate what their own personal purpose is, and how they want to contribute to society.
Business is a force for good. But the more that organisations can get clear on their purpose, and collectively with their team members get clear on the purpose of the business, I think it absolutely gives people that NorthStar, you know people know where they’re going. And that gives them the safety and security and certainty that many of us have been lacking over the last few months.
The duo also touch on the impact of Covid-19 on the corporate social responsibility agenda. Andrew talks about the recent documentary on the planet with Prince William and how young people are changing their attitudes. They delve into John Mackey, Conscious Leadership to look at purpose along with Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game where he clearly sets out the difference between a finite and an infinite mindset. They then discuss companies that practice what they preach.
Purpose is about that beating heart in the organisation, pushing blood and oxygen, that excitement, that infectiousness that it talks about in a positive infectiousness around the organisation. It is about creating win-win situations by getting your teams galvanized behind your purpose.
Show Notes:
Here are the highlights from this episode
- 00:46 McKinsey Quarterly: Purpose: Shifting from why to how April 2020
- https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/purpose-shifting-from-why-to-how#
- 01:44 Why it is important to have purpose
- 03:47 It’s more than just ticking boxes it is about hard wiring it into the DNA of a business.
- 04:33 A few years ago, Unilever came up what they called a massive transformational purpose for each of their different brands. And the brands that are totally have fully embraced this.
- 05:21 Ethical and moral dilemmas related to Covid-19 volunteering
- 07:00 How young people are changing attitudes.
- 10:25 the significance of what it means to write about issues in company reports
- 12:36 Conscious Leadership John Mackey
- 13:35 The Infinite Game Simon Sinek
- 13:56 https://www.zappos.com/
- 19:44 ”… when stakeholders so for stakeholders, we could read customers, employee shareholders anyone participate in and help evolve an organization’s higher purpose, it can be infectious. The whole company receives an extra boost of alignment. There are a few things More powerful than a shared commitment to a higher purpose among all relevant stakeholders, this allows everyone to feel connected to the beating heart of the organisation, at least to some degree…” Conscious Leadership John Mackey.
- 23:00 “When stakeholders see important decisions being made in ways that are aligned with the company’s core values. And when they see leaders actually engaged with that higher purpose. It has enormous impact, for lack of a better word, it gives people faith.” Conscious Leadership John Mackey
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.