PURPOSE 1.0
We may have read countless articles about the importance of articulating teams around a purpose, but still find the concept esoteric and hard to scale down and embed in our daily context.
Sam Spurlin from The Ready just put it in a very actionable way in their last newsletter: “If your team doesn’t have a clearly articulated purpose yet, then pull everyone together and talk about how the world will be different if your team is successful.”
How will the world be different if we are successful?
In the example of my Operations role at Sketchfab, people will be trusted and supported to do their best work. They will feel safe and free to be brave and express their true-self. We would reach a point where the administration of the organization seems effortless.
I feel it's fair to consider that this statement reflects Sketchfab's Operations team purpose. Also, it honestly felt quite easy to came up with using Sam Spurlin's prompt.
What are the benefits of articulating our purpose upfront and refine it as we learn over time? Because it gives us a powerful tool to:
- Communicate to the rest of the organization about the work we are doing
- Prioritize decisions
- Trust people to take any creative and meaningful action that moves the team or organization closer to its purpose
Source: https://medium.com/the-ready