What lies beneath
I’ve been wondering about purpose quite a lot recently.
It’s because I’m doing more work with groups in person than online. There’s something bubbling away underneath their purpose for getting together.
We are achieving much more than the ostensible, stated purpose. They are not ‘objectives’ that are measured through ‘outputs’ at the end of our time together.
It’s in the laughter, the comments on clothes and shoes, the lingering chats over teas and coffees. People seem to be listening a bit more deeply, helping each other understand the content they are working through.
What lies beneath is connection. People are connecting and re-connecting. New board members and team members are experiencing purposeful inductions. Old hands are discovering new things about themselves and each other.
It struck me that the underlying purpose is as just as important as the reason we’re in the room together.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m a fan of purpose. One of the biggest reasons for failure in any endeavour is unclear purpose. Mixed purpose is just as bad. It leads to mixed results. It’s like a meal with too many ingredients. There’s so much going on that the dish turns out bland and unsatisfying.
If the purpose statement fills up a whiteboard, I rub it out and start again. It’s just too long. It should be one sentence that starts with ‘to’ and can fit in the subject line of an email invitation.
I teach this to help people to help them break habits that are stopping them from reaching their potential – as a facilitator, a writer, a leader. You’ve got to break a habit to develop new ones.
But like any ‘rule’, my instructions for nailing purpose can be stretched. In the context of COVID and lockdowns, there is so much value in noticing and spending time on the underlying purpose. Things don’t fall apart if the original purpose is stretched a bit.
At the end of sessions, when people reflect on what they are leaving with or what they’ve learned, everyone has talked about how much they’ve enjoyed connecting and re-connecting. How much they appreciate each other’s views and opinions, as well as ticking off on the stated purpose of the session.
I LOVE helping people and groups nail purpose. If you’d like some help with purpose – yours or your group’s – just comment below or email me with ‘NAIL IT’ in the subject line and we’ll book a call.