The Role Of Purpose In Our Emerging Future

Although I’ve written on purpose before, I thought I’d approach the topic again given the focus on stakeholder capitalism at the annual World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos and the Business roundtable’s new definition of the purpose of a company. I see purpose playing a crucial role in the future of business and being paramount in how we navigate some potentially catastrophic societal scenarios. So, here are my thoughts on the role of purpose in our emerging future.

Purpose and Human Motivation

In his book “Drive”, Daniel Pink cites purpose (i.e. – being a part of something larger than oneself) as one of the three fundamental elements of intrinsic motivation. And yet, in a world that’s increasingly connected, convenient and personalized, loneliness and a yearning for purpose are on the rise. And while we’ve all come to expect convenience and personalization, it is connecting with others in purposeful endeavors that most motivates and fulfills us. As such, purpose has increasingly become a primary factor in driving people’s behaviors and decisions, including career, consumption and how they spend their discretionary time. This is especially true of the Millennial generation who want to make a difference in their lives and align their careers with their personal interests and values.

Purpose in Business

In Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why”, he states that most businesses focus on communicating what they do and how they differentiate themselves and miss an opportunity to endear themselves to customers by articulating their purpose or why they do what they do. He shares Apple as a powerful example of creating a culture around its Why in their “challenge the status quo, shift power to the individual and design elegant products” mantra which has enabled them to disrupt multiple industries and grow exponentially. Likewise, in “Hit Refresh”, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recounted the task he faced in redefining Microsoft’s Why as its new leader: “we needed to discover what would be lost in the world if Microsoft just disappeared.” Under his leadership Microsoft went from a mantra of “a computer on every desk and in every home” to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” A focus on purpose has been proven to drive superior results. In the book “Firms of Endearment”, authors Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth and David Wolfe note that purpose-driven companies outperformed the S&P index by an astounding 1,681% to 117% over a 15-year period.

Purpose in Emerging Ecosystems

In his book Exponential Organizations, Salim Ismail explains that a primary characteristic of the fastest growing organizations is Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP) – a statement that “declares with sincerity and confidence that it intends to accomplish near-miracles and it generates a cultural movement so inspirational that a community forms around it and spontaneously begins to operate on its own.” These spontaneous communities personify an emerging decentralized ecosystem movement where highly fluid, self-organizing, loosely coupled cooperatives spawn, create value, combine, recombine and disband in a continuous cycle of open innovation. And while most ecosystems to date have focused on removing friction from global value chains via interoperable networks of independent platform businesses, MTP is the unifying factor that fuels intrinsically motivated open innovation in decentralized ecosystems. Hence, organizations with an authentic commitment to purpose are likely to enjoy many opportunities for impact and growth by endearing themselves to purpose-driven communities in decentralized ecosystems.

Purpose in Society

There is no shortage of societal issues whose resolutions require a commitment to purpose. Chief among them are the United Nations sustainable development goals, which are a blueprint for achieving a better and more sustainable future for everyone. I view two goals, SDG #10 Reduced Inequalities and SDG # 13 Climate Action, as the most challenging existential problems of our time. The exponential pace of innovation in digital technologies and their related platform business models could propel society forward or if left unchecked, exacerbate inequality in markets as well as individual lives. Climate change, meanwhile threatens to cause a global systemic collapse of Earth’s ecological ecosystems and usher in a sixth mass extinction of species. It seems never before has society so desperately needed purpose driven leaders to emerge.

The repetitive need for purpose throughout human history

And yet, in studying human history, The Fourth Turning authors William Strauss and Neil Howe found countless examples of the need for purpose which has consistently emerged in an eerie cycle that recurs approximately every 80-100 years. That cycle occurs in four generational turnings (i.e. – phases), starting with a “high” period where values are stable, followed by an “awakening” of new thinking that challenges the status quo. This leads to a period of “unraveling” as tensions mount, which then causes a “crisis” that climaxes and culminates in a resolution (e.g. – war) after which a new cycle begins. According to Strauss and Howe, we are currently in the midst of a fourth turning – a crisis which will climax and culminate some time over the next ten years.

Approaching mankind’s momentous leap

In psychologist Clare Graves’ 20-year study of human development, he found that humans have an infinite ability to develop more advanced values, beliefs and world views in response to increasingly complex problems. He developed a model of how our belief systems have evolved throughout history that correlates closely with technology and societal advancements. He found that our species is on the cusp of a momentous leap in values – to a highly cooperative mindset – but that it might have to be catalyzed by an existential threat to the survival of our species.

Both of these works point to our current times as an inflection point where an existential crisis catalyzes new ways of thinking that facilitate new political, economic and societal structures that allow us to endure. Those with the courage to change and that act with purpose to create these structures will emerge from this crisis as leaders in the world of tomorrow.