Connecting People with Purpose

Article by Roy Mears

Ever wondered why delivering a dynamic training program or annual conference is such a tough project?

Maybe you’ve heard the old “ … had a great conference … most of sales team seemed motivated … lots of laughter … even some hugging … that’s got to be good for morale … the team exercises were great … it’s just that, here we are, two months down the track and all the old habits seem to have snuck back in … “

Why do some people struggle to remain motivated long-term? Get consistent results?

While we’ve all heard the hackneyed phrase about people being our most valuable resource, it is undeniable that the most critical investment a company makes is in its people. Frequently, the greatest challenge from an OD/L&D perspective, is how to get people connected at a deeper level where they naturally retain their motivation and enthusiasm.

How do you “capitalise” on the human capital? The answer? Connect your people with purpose.

Simple, but not easy. Imagine if you could find some solutions by reading a brief article like this! At the very least you’ll have some thought-provoking questions to address, using both your in-house talents and your external resources.

To connect your people with purpose, let’s first explore the company’s purpose. Typically the company’s purpose is defined as part of the vision, based on the values of the founder and outlining their goals. Or put another way, the vision can be split into three elements: purpose, values and aspirations.

The purpose is the reason for existence, the mission statement. The values are the timeless unchanging principles on which the business is based. It is the values that set the standards against which the policies, procedures and behaviours are measured. The aspirations usually focus on the goals – revenue, % growth, % share, ROI, dividends, etc.

Pity those organisations that focus only on the aspirations, at the exclusion of the first two and lose sight of their purpose. You know, off in search of the almighty dollar and losing sight of the improve-life-quality purpose. Be aware, having a vision statement does not a visionary company make!

Here’s a thought. How was your organisation’s vision created? No surprise – most organisations do not start out with mission statements/core values written. When they do get written down, the organisation’s values are founded on the founders’ core values. In other words the company depends on people. At the beginning, and all through its life.

Yes, that’s why the founder of the business rarely lacks motivation. Their values are exactly in alignment with the organisation. Their purpose is the organisation’s purpose.

For everyone else who comes after, the closer their alignment is with the organisational purpose the better the platform for motivation. Motivation is a complex area. It varies from person to person, situation to situation, and day to day. And motivation is firmly embedded in values. Values drive motivation. You can’t motivate someone; their values motivate them.

This energises the action taken. This forms the language with which they communicate. The style with which they supervise. The style with which they lead. This shapes the mechanisms that form the checks and balances. This forms the systems and procedures that drive operational efficiency and effectiveness. The values of your people form the response they make, and the action they take.

Of course in an ideal world, everyone who joined would have their values in alignment with the organisation. Well, we’ve all made mistakes in recruitment and that’s OK. Most of the time though, the choices are pretty good.

Who are the ideal people to join the organisation? Obviously they need the skills to carry out the tasks required of them. No matter how skilful they are though, they also need to have their values convergent. And for those who have lots of other fine attributes but not quite the skill – how well we develop those skills depends on our motivation in the training room!

Values develop over time, are deeply seated in our psyche, and it often takes a significant, even traumatic event to shift or modify them. Obviously having mechanisms in place doesn’t guarantee alignment – it only measures where it is out of alignment.

People don’t buy in corporate values, they don’t even catch them. You’re unlikely to always find a “perfect match”. The secret is to find people who are predisposed to your values and then keep them. The best we can practically hope for is to find people, where the alignment of their personal values and your corporate values is converging. Certainly not diverging!

How do you identify these people? How do you recruit them? How do you retain them? How do you recognise them in the first place?

You’ll recognise mis-alignment by the energy wasted in low priority tasks, when people are hiding their true feelings, putting up a façade. The trap for inexperienced supervisors is, to think this simply means more training is required. Sometimes that’s the case. Sometimes no amount of training will change the motivation for people whose values are not in alignment.

Maybe a call centre employee with low scores on first call resolution doesn’t hold completion and achievement as values like the organisation does. Could a sales executive, who doesn’t hold integrity as a value, make promises to deliver outside the practical production capacity of your organisation? Imagine an accounts team that didn’t hold fairness and honesty as values.

So how do you get your people motivated? Get action directed effectively and efficiently? Results up where they should be?

Organisation's results are merely an addition of the individual people's results. The results in turn are determined by what action is taken, and where that action is directed. The effectiveness of the action taken, and the action itself, depend on how well skills are developed.

And ultimately the quality of the skills, the effectiveness and direction of the action taken, will be determined by whether your people’s values are convergent with your organisational values.

Most companies have clearly defined KRA’s so that bottom line results are monitored. Monitoring KPI’s means the mechanisms are in place to see if the action being taken day to day is effective and efficient. Most have at least an annual review, or self-analysis, to identify what skills need to be developed and trained. Most have a vision statement that defines the organisation’s purpose and values.

The question is – what has your organisation in place to measure the convergence of organisational and personal values?

Maybe reading this has helped to stimulate your thinking. Here are a few questions to help you examine how your organisation is traveling, and help you determine the focus for future organisational learning and development.

What is your corporate purpose? What do your people know about it? What are the values that underpin this purpose? What do you know about your people’s values? What mechanisms support your supervisors, to know what unsupervised actions are being taken, what skills are required, and help them to recognise where there is a mis-alignment of values?

And perhaps most importantly, to what extent does your organisation measure the convergence of values so you can connect your people with purpose?

Roy Mears is a well respected facilitator and trainer with extensive experience in assisting organisations to strategically increase profitable sales revenue, tactically develop commercial business opportunities and leverage major account customer relationships.

Roy can be contacted through The Training Link 1300 88 44 33