What on Earth is Purpose?

00:00:01: Question.

00:00:02: If you were offered a job that you consider more meaningful, how much of pay cut would you accept?

00:00:21: Hello and welcome to this week's main episode!

00:00:27: This usually comes from putting a value like money on something that's hard to measure and even harder to define.

00:00:50: Please hold their attention in little longer, because when we talk about purpose – We rarely speak the same thing!

00:00:57: We mix individual with business perspective And many think Purpose is about idealistic missions reserved for non-profit organizations or founders with visionary ideas.

00:01:10: It's not.

00:01:11: The purpose of any business is the value it brings to people its serves.

00:01:16: Creating a product or service that solves problems, developing technology that extends our capabilities entertaining people and bringing joy into their lives.

00:01:26: These are real-business purposes not idealistic missions.

00:01:30: Profit is what a business usually makes when it serves its purpose well.

00:01:35: For company this means purpose has to be real And it has to be translated into work.

00:01:41: people can connect.

00:01:43: Of course, that's harder the bigger an organization gets.

00:01:47: complexity hierarchy and segmentation of work break connection between what they do and value create leaders have rebuild it and connect why company exists with how works get done and what is meant achieve.

00:02:03: That connections shapes whether word carries meaning or just tasks.

00:02:08: It brings purpose and direction together.

00:02:11: Because Purpose without Direction is like having a great idea, And no plan for how to bring it to life while Direction Without Purpose Is the execution of a task with No sense Of what its for.

00:02:24: So today's about both building The line-of-sight that makes purpose real?

00:02:28: And giving the kind of direction That guides people To do their best work Together, they're one of the most important but also challenging leadership responsibilities.

00:02:39: And looking at day-to-day work from many managers I'm wondering how much we really invest in this?

00:02:45: When i talk to people about their work... ...I often get a feeling that something's missing.

00:02:50: They can tell me exactly what they do But when asked how it connects with bigger picture and value company brings.. ..they often stumble.

00:02:59: The people who talk most about purpose tend to be founders, CEOs and people who turn their passion into a living.

00:03:07: Are they the only ones that care?

00:03:09: Psychology says no.

00:03:11: Seeking purpose is part of human nature – it shapes far more than how we feel our work on Monday morning!

00:03:18: People with strong sense of purpose are consistently found live longer.

00:03:23: This has been researched across large populations over decades.

00:03:28: Think about how much time we spend at work.

00:03:31: Whether that work drains us or sustains us, reaches into our health and into how long we live.

00:03:38: Organizational psychology explains the implications for business.

00:03:42: Purpose drives engagement.

00:03:44: Engagement drives performance.

00:03:46: so whether it impacts people AND business isn't really a question anymore.

00:03:52: And yet for many its still a philosophical buzzword Hard to define hard-to measure and even harder to translate.

00:03:59: Which is why it usually lives on posters & company websites, And rarely in the reality of how organizations work!

00:04:07: Maybe The following glimpse into management history explains Why?

00:04:11: Let's look at two its most prominent thinkers.

00:04:14: You almost certainly know first name Peter Drucker.

00:04:17: I talked about him before In The Lazy Human.

00:04:20: He often called Father Of Modern Management and credited with turning it into a serious teachable discipline.

00:04:28: What is less known, Is that although he presented himself as highly rational thinker He was strongly influenced by philosophy Ethics And humanism.

00:04:37: When Drucker looked at the company... ...he didn't see this machine for producing output!

00:04:42: He did not describe management As the discipline of squeezing efficiency & productivity Into every part of human work.

00:04:49: Instead saw an institution made up people and the work of management to be guiding them so they could do their best work.

00:04:57: His original idea of Management by Objectives, published in nineteen fifty-four reflected this quite well.

00:05:05: Connect each person's objectives to the purpose of the whole Help them see how their part serves a larger why And then trust him to manage themselves towards it.

00:05:16: He defined the concept as practices that give people clear objectives and allow for self-control.

00:05:23: But it never became known as management by objectives AND self control.

00:05:29: In Drucker's sense, Self Control wasn't about willpower.

00:05:32: It meant governing our own work Steering towards goals By ourselves.

00:05:38: Most call its self direction or self-management.

00:05:41: today.

00:05:42: Now one might think the second part was cut to make this concept sound better but that isn't about name.

00:05:48: How the concept got translated in business reflected the beliefs that most organizations held at that time, and many still hold today.

00:05:57: People need to be managed measured and controlled to perform.

00:06:01: if you were ever given any objectives with no idea what they are for.

00:06:05: That's where it comes from.

00:06:07: Taylorism With its separation of thinking and doing had shaped generations Of managers And The way They Were Trained.

00:06:15: So For Most Management by objectives became targets set from above.

00:06:20: Controlling output in people, performance measures placed wherever possible.

00:06:25: Management was turned into structures rules and mechanics so it could be applied to people the way it was applied to industrial production.

00:06:34: Why?

00:06:35: Because It gives us a sense of control And its easier part Easier to teach To learn and deliver.

00:06:41: The part that got left behind is harder one the relational and translational work.

00:06:47: The ongoing effort of building an environment where people can see how their work connects to a bigger picture, and steer themselves towards it.

00:06:56: Self-direction is not a character trait or something you can order.

00:07:00: People only manage that when they understand what its for What their responsibilities are And when they feel capable doing so.

00:07:09: It's what makes self management possible.

00:07:12: Drucker gave a clear warning that management isn't just tools and techniques for execution.

00:07:18: He stressed self-direction as an integral part of management by objectives.

00:07:23: Still, it was left aside And the concept turned into control tool.

00:07:28: Now here's the second part of this story.

00:07:30: Around the same time A Second Man Was Working On The Same Question What Does Good In Effective Management Look Like?

00:07:37: His Name Was William Edward Stemming.

00:07:40: Unlike Drucker, he was mostly ignored in the US.

00:07:43: Around nineteen fifty when American companies weren't interested in his thinking He went where people would listen post-war Japan a country rebuilding from almost nothing.

00:07:54: There he taught a generation of managers that quality wasn't an outcome Of control but something to achieve through how an organization Was run and how the people inside it were treated?

00:08:07: The Japanese listened.

00:08:08: What followed became one of the great industrial transformations of this century.

00:08:13: Japanese products became known for their great quality and value-for money, especially cars which explains why Ford was first US company to reach out to Deming.

00:08:23: after Japanese carmakers had taken a substantial market share By early eighties The Company lost billions.

00:08:30: Poor quality And high fuel consumption made customers look for alternatives.

00:08:35: When they consulted him Ford managers were surprised that Deming barely mentioned quality.

00:08:41: He talked about management, and he told them the overwhelming majority of their problems.

00:08:47: by his estimate around eighty-five percent weren't caused by workers on production line.

00:08:53: He said they are caused by environment that management had built around them.

00:08:57: Now think last time something went wrong in your organization.

00:09:02: Where did management look first?

00:09:04: By adopting Demings principles Ford became the most profitable car company in America within five years.

00:09:11: So what were these principles?

00:09:13: When you read them today, all fourteen are still highly relevant but there are five I want to highlight removing fear working towards continuous improvement cultivating the value and results of cooperation and collaboration creating opportunities for continued lifelong learning And The Most Telling One transforming managers into leaders.

00:09:38: That transformation for him meant seeing the role of leadership as a responsibility towards people, and serving them to do their best work!

00:09:47: When Deming's principles finally reached Western audience.

00:09:51: some read him as Drucker's opponent because by then he openly rejected management by objectives.

00:09:58: but what he rejected wasn't Druckers original idea – He rejected what it had become The hollowed version of management by numbers.

00:10:07: Interestingly, the two men were never on opposite sides.

00:10:11: Drucker's management by objectives got stripped off an essential part.

00:10:15: Deming was ignored until the value of his work became visible in a entirely different country and culture.

00:10:29: and measurable.

00:10:35: They did so by continuing to treat us like cocks in a machine, but let's move past the history and look at the state of work

00:10:42: today.".

00:10:43: What are reports saying?

00:10:45: Engagement is an all-time low across the globe!

00:10:49: We hear every day how replaceable we are – trust in leadership is in decline.

00:10:54: Does this say that we've become much better at connecting with meaning or giving people guidance instead?

00:11:01: For many, work feels transactional because we still make it transactional.

00:11:06: Despite people seeking meaningful work wanting to be appreciated for the value they bring and not just paid for their time We're still treating them like any other resource something to be used a cost-to-be optimized and managed efficiently And for some companies ideally replaced by AI.

00:11:25: That's the extraction logic running entire industries.

00:11:29: Consulting company McKinsey asked people whether they're finding purpose in their day-to-day work.

00:11:35: Only fifteen percent of front line managers and employees said yes, among executives an upper management it was above eighty percent.

00:11:45: doesn't this read like purpose is just another benefit for the top one that thins out further down the line?

00:11:52: In the beginning I asked how much a pay cut you would accept.

00:11:57: Did you come up with the number?

00:11:59: Most people do.

00:12:01: When researchers asked this question, People said they would be willing to give up close-to a third of their salary for work that felt meaningful.

00:12:09: A THIRD!

00:12:10: Just think about that.

00:12:11: We can name a price for purpose although we cannot measure it which is why It keeps getting ignored.

00:12:17: Yet we all know how it feels when its gone... ...when our work starts to feel meaningless.

00:12:22: Shouldn't this finally tell us that purpose was never a nice to have or luxury reserved for few?

00:12:29: When most people seek meaningful work and say it's big part of where their personal sense of purpose comes from.

00:12:35: The key questions are, why our fewer employees finding at-work?

00:12:40: who in what is supposed to carry through an organization?

00:12:43: how do we build the connection between business and individual purpose?

00:12:48: certainly not by announcing it in town halls or printing it in employee handbooks.

00:12:54: Individual purpose differs from what an organization is aiming for, but that doesn't mean they don't connect.

00:13:02: and That connection can be made at most jobs not just a few.

00:13:06: Adam Grant gave us one of the best examples.

00:13:09: In two thousand seven he studied a university call center.

00:13:13: The people there called alumni to ask for donations that fund scholarships.

00:13:18: highly repetitive work with constant rejection.

00:13:21: the kind of job that drains people fast.

00:13:24: So what did he do?

00:13:26: He split people into groups and for one, he only changed a small thing... ...and called it a purpose intervention.

00:13:33: Grant let the callers in this group spend few minutes with his student who had received one of those scholarships.

00:13:40: That was the whole change.

00:13:42: They weren't given any new tactics No new targets or incentives.

00:13:47: All they got were connection to someone their work served.

00:13:51: And what was the outcome?

00:13:52: Weeks later, people in this group were spending more than twice as long on phone and raising far-more money.

00:13:59: You see even for a highly repetitive call center job building that connection had significant impact.

00:14:06: Raising money is just to go!

00:14:08: Helping people who couldn't afford tuition was purpose but he's an important distinction.

00:14:13: Adam Grant didn't hand those callers their purpose.

00:14:16: He built connections by giving them something make sense of.

00:14:21: The intervention helped them to find meaning in what they did, which means we can't project purpose onto someone.

00:14:28: The important part a leader has to understand is that there are two different acts coming together.

00:14:33: the first is leadership work taking the organization's purpose and translating it into something.

00:14:40: people can connect their work too.

00:14:42: researchers call this sense.

00:14:44: giving leaders aren't handing people purpose.

00:14:48: We're giving them the line of sight to who and what their work is for.

00:14:52: The second act, Is the individual's work?

00:14:55: It's there responsibility To take that information And build Their own meaning from it.

00:15:00: That is called sense-making!

00:15:02: No leader can do this For someone else.

00:15:04: But part we can provide Is the translational and relational Work.

00:15:09: Carrying purpose through our team is translational.

00:15:15: Connecting with people and their desire to find meaning in what they do is relational.

00:15:20: McKinsey also looked at where people find meaning, In Their Work.

00:15:24: They found five key sources And People can draw from more than one.

00:15:29: For some it's serving customers well.

00:15:32: for others It's the team they work With!

00:15:34: People Also connect To The Mission Of The Company.

00:15:37: Others Look For Social Impact.

00:15:42: The different sources tell us that we cannot guess which one matters for the person in front of us.

00:15:47: We have to talk to people to find out!

00:15:50: Now as mentioned earlier, purpose is only half-the work – direction is the other half.

00:15:56: Purpose and direction are meant go hand-in-hand but many organizations don't….

00:16:02: And direction often continues to live in command & control.

00:16:06: Only now it's done through KPIs and dashboards targets set from above, reporting cycles and numbers to hit.

00:16:13: Unsurprisingly that's not meaningful direction for most

00:16:17: people.".

00:16:18: And both Drucker & Deming warned about Metric's obsession.

00:16:22: Peter Drucker never said what cannot be measured can't be managed.

00:16:26: It is a false quote turned into business myth A misreading of his work Because he actually argued was almost the opposite.

00:16:35: He said many of the things that matter for success in a business, like people development and health of an organization are exactly those we can't really measure.

00:16:46: The father-of-modern management –the man who warned us not to let measurable crowd out meaningful– got turned into the face of Measure Everything Management.

00:16:58: And today some companies take this logic about as far it goes Recording every keystroke and every action people take on their computers to capture exactly how the work is done, And use it for training AI instead.

00:17:15: Think about what that means?

00:17:17: Everyone's works reduced to a pattern of actions detailed enough to be copied.

00:17:22: Humans turned into the blueprint for their own replacement.

00:17:26: Deming equally warned about this logic.

00:17:28: He said not reduce people with what we can count.

00:17:33: Giving people direction is something different.

00:17:35: It's the leadership work that serves employees' self-management, helping them see how they can achieve their goals—how to set the right priorities, agreeing on what good outcomes look like, matching their strengths and what they care about —to the

00:17:50: work.".

00:17:51: That's leadership work –and it clearly requires time!

00:17:54: If leaders spend most of day in meetings have run reports or produce slide decks…that It's why so many managers default to command and control.

00:18:05: None of this is a personal failing, it simply what most we're trained to do!

00:18:11: That's the efficiency bias of management because it costs us less time to set a target than to guide someone towards achieving it….

00:18:19: …it's less effort to track what a person produces then know them well enough build their capabilities... ...and its easier to pass a report up-the chain than to translate the direction of a company into meaningful work.

00:18:34: But just because we can do management efficiently doesn't mean it's effective leadership.

00:18:40: Setting targets, tracking output passing reports all of it can be done without really seeing and leading a single person.

00:18:49: It is the work that should worry any manager today Because thats definitely something AI can take over.

00:18:56: but before we get to AI There's one more reason for the connection between purpose and direction.

00:19:01: Edward DC & Richard Ryan spent decades studying what people need to be motivated from the inside.

00:19:08: Their work on self-determination theory explains how people do their best when three needs are met.

00:19:15: First, we need to feel capable that can actually do our job And know how get there.

00:19:21: Second, We need to connect it with others and something larger.

00:19:25: Third We need a sense of ownership over how we do our work.

00:19:30: It still strikes me, How much we invest in hiring smart people and then treat them as if they don't know how to deliver their work?

00:19:53: Guidance is the part that requires us to focus on people.

00:19:57: It also starts with translation, taking bigger goals and turning them into doable meaningful work that matches the skills of your team.

00:20:06: When everyone has a clear understanding of The What we can leave the How To Them Clarity On The Destination Freedom On The Path People often fail to understand that micromanagement isn't just bad management style or personality flaw.

00:20:22: It's a symptom of fear.

00:20:24: Just picture the following requests, please copy me on that email.

00:20:28: Let's add a quick check-in tomorrow morning.

00:20:31: send Me The Deck before it goes out just to be on the safe side.

00:20:35: none Of those requests is unreasonable On its own but taken together and done continuously They read like the manager can't tell whether the work Is going well unless they Check what's happening.

00:20:47: most people would say?

00:20:50: Almost nobody thinks they are that person.

00:20:53: A lot of the people who micromanage do it, because they either have no time or don't know how to give direction.

00:21:00: They haven't translated The Bigger Goal.

00:21:02: There's no clarity on what good looks like... ...they didn't explain where People Are Free To Decide and Where They Need To Align With Others And They Haven't Matched The Capabilities Of Their Team Well Enough with The Work They need To Deliver.

00:21:15: This Is How Managers Lose Their Sense Of Control.

00:21:18: They check on everything, and everyone to get it back.

00:21:22: If they invested that time in giving direction... ...they wouldn't need the level of control!

00:21:27: They would have built a trust that lets people manage themselves.

00:21:31: Purpose & Direction are Trust Building Practices.

00:21:35: They're kind.

00:21:36: leadership work can be substituted by any management framework.

00:21:41: Dashboards don't establish that trust.

00:21:44: People do.

00:21:46: Now, with AI we're given the most powerful technology to actually free humans from meaningless work.

00:21:52: But here's where I see the biggest risk.

00:21:55: Drop such a powerful tool into an organization that already runs purpose as statement on this slide.

00:22:02: That gives direction through metrics and dashboards only And AI becomes management mechanics on steroids.

00:22:09: A faster way set targets in measure output An accelerated numbers game the opportunity to get rid of people and work having lead them well.

00:22:19: That logic won't change unless mindset changes.

00:22:23: If People are seen as a cost to optimize, And Work is an output to extract AI just runs that logic at speed.

00:22:30: no human manager ever could Which makes AI adoption stress test for any organization Because technology doesn't decide whether human works stays meaningful.

00:22:41: We Decide.

00:22:42: Companies that run on the belief, people are reason their business exists will see AI as an extension of human capabilities.

00:22:51: So it all comes down to how we use and the right mindset because better our tools get more matters.

00:22:59: asking what human work is for where real value sits and meaning in life.

00:23:06: Those questions always matter.

00:23:08: AI just makes them important answer.

00:23:11: Now before we close, think of one person you lead.

00:23:15: Maybe someone who doesn't show the highest level of engagement?

00:23:19: Could they tell you in their own words why there work matters?

00:23:23: Do you know how they find meaning and what they do?

00:23:26: if The answer to both is yes You've been doing the harder work all along And I hope this episode was able to show you Why it's so valuable.

00:23:36: If you aren't really sure It's something to check.

00:23:39: ask your team.

00:23:40: The gap to close is between giving people tasks and goals, And giving them something they can make sense of.

00:23:47: Let me finish today with a short story.

00:23:50: It's the one Peter Drucker also shared in his book.

00:23:53: A traveler comes across three stone cutters at work.

00:23:56: He stops and asks the first What are you doing?

00:24:08: I'm doing the best job of stone cutting in the entire county.

00:24:12: When he asks The Third, the man stops looks up at him with a visionary gleam in his eye and says... Same work three different answers.

00:24:24: We all have a different perspective on our work And the meaning of it in our lives.

00:24:29: Translating purpose into meaningful work is the difference between people feeling like they're just cutting stone or building a cathedral.

00:24:38: And the way we direct people is the difference between management and leadership, that's it for today!

00:24:45: In The Reflection episode will take purpose in direction into practice.

00:24:50: Stay curious stay tuned.

00:24:53: Thanks for tuning-in to New Work Playbook where work gets better because people matter.