Purpose Driven Organizations--Culture Part Two

When times get difficult, culture can both affirm our strengths or magnify our weaknesses.   Unfortunately, we often don’t know what we have to work with until crisis comes.  This should encourage us to try to better understand and assess our cultural norms. 

 

In writing about the Purpose Led Organizations, Peter Hawkins identifies three outcomes of purpose related to culture.

 

First, it attracts and energizes employees.  In Good to Great, Jim Collins wrote: 

 

The executives who ignited the transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. No, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it. They said, in essence, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.” 

 

Getting the right people on the bus is easier when the leader knows the purpose of the organization, leads with it, and finds those who will embrace it.  In a church, this is more difficult.  A leader may have some say in hiring staff leaders and even some in selecting lay leaders, but there are always going to be “people on the bus” who don’t embrace the purpose.  In such cases, helping such people transfer to another bus may not be a bad idea! 

 

Second, it creates collective shared meaning to the enterprise.  Shared meaning is found in purpose and embodied in ritual.  In a business, the rituals may be team building activities, effective communication techniques, and approaches to professional development. In a church, purpose is institutionalized in worship, discipleship, and ministry practices.  In order to affirm what supports our purpose, we instill rituals which reinforce our purpose and build commitment.

 

Third, it unites passion, stimulates creativity, and inspires people to be at their best.  Purpose can provide clarity in the midst of turmoil.  During the Blitz, the British Ministry of Information developed a series of three posters in 1939 to rally and reassure its populace.  One of those posters was the iconic, “Keep calm and carry on.”  This embodied British purpose of resilience and perseverance under trying circumstances.  Pastor Craig Groeschel has observed, “We can tolerate the pain as long as we know the purpose.”  A clear purpose provides hope for the future and keeps us on task.  

 

For the church, survival is not an adequate purpose statement.  God is calling the church not just to survive but to thrive.  People will respond to that challenge and give their best to achieve it.