Purpose driven

Having been involved in the transformation of several (large) organizations from a traditional into a purpose driven structure, I have come to learn a few do’s and don’ts.

Replacing the traditional management hierarchy with a hierarchy of purposes can indeed be a very efficient way to achieve the reason for being of that organization. Not only because of the undistracted focus on serving that purpose (instead of whatever individual stakeholders need) but also because it enables a sustainable shift towards distributed leadership (whereby the available ‘energy to serve the purpose’ is not only more abundant but also of a different and more intrinsic quality).

In my view the following ingredients need specific attention when migrating towards a purpose driven structure:
1. a shared purpose that is explicitly translated to all levels of the organization (up to a purpose for individual roles) in order to create a clear hierarchy of purposes.

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Transformative

Starting to appreciate more and more the Transformative Mediation as a one of the least invasive approaches to improve the quality of communication between people. Its key principle is full trust in the capabilities of the people involved to regenerate (themselves).

It’s main interventions, reflecting (mirroring) and summarizing what happens in the purest way possible, are only meant to support already nacent moments of shifts in self-confidence of the individuals involved and moments of shifts in openness to the other person’s views. With respect for what they want and when they want it at its core.

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Impact hypothesis

When thinking about which potential (future) projects that would energise me one of the criteria would often be ‘impactful’. Whereby impact would somehow stand for ‘substantial’ or potential to become big (not something small), meaningful and ‘resolving some broad, serious social issue’.

Now I’m not so sure anymore if impact (in that sense) still is a relevant criterium for me. Talking from my limited but personal experience the actual impact of larger projects is very difficult to assess (let alone predict) and can therefore be quite different from your ‘good’ intentions in the beginning.

Independer.nl can for instance be seen as a successful project whereby the power balance between larger financial institutions and the consumer has been somewhat restored to the benefit of consumers. But maybe its actual impact is that the balance of power was been restored just enough to prevent a larger, more fundamental and sustainable change.

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Guilt vs Responsibility

Current hypothesis: free will comes with ‘consciousness’. I believe our intentions to be inherently good at every point in time. And that my behavior outside consciousness is controlled by ego.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Which doesn’t mean I’m not fully responsible for that behavior and shouldn’t bear the consequences thereof.

I feel a responsibility to become more conscious and serve life. But am I also responsible for my (temporary) unconsciousness? I tend to believe that nobody including myself.. is willingly unconscious.

And hope one day to feel the same compassion towards myself as I start feeling more and more towards others. I struggle along the path… and I feel deeply sorry for any harm this causes to my environment.

Factfulness vs knowingness

Everybody more or less accepts the fact that the levels of biodiversity on our planet are decreasing (at a rapidly increasing pace). There is however no consensus if this will negatively affect our quality of life. Many argue that a decrease in biodiversity is of no concern as:

– there is insufficient evidence of the negative impact on us as humans of this development in the foreseeable future (see also the trends in the selective set of metrics reported by Hans Rosling),
– there are sufficient hopeful technological developments to counter the negative effects (in as far as we are aware of them) and mainly,
– the (perceived or expected) short term cost / pain of changing our behavior are too high vs this lack of evidence.

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99%

Once I understand the essence of certain life serving behavioral concepts it usually takes me a few years to integrate them into my day to day behavior. That is up to 99%. The last stretch from 99% up to 100% is the most challenging and takes another couple of years…

Before getting there (and only once in a while) I do however get short ‘previews’ of this 100% state. Only then do I get a taste of the full meaning and potential of such concepts as ‘surrender’. In these brief moments when everything feels as it should be, I sense endless abundance (instead of scarcity) and direct connection. These moments are great incentives to keep on moving ;o)

Transcending events

Well meant advise from a seasoned diplomat based on a holistic world view to look past ‘events’ and to let yourself inspire by ‘trends’ instead.

Thus freeing yourself from false images triggered by the fear of short term loss and opening up your mind to more realistic insights into the bigger picture. Thus creating the space required to move on to more helpful strategies.

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QOL =

When a sense of bliss is missing I now tend to take a moment to figure out why instead of pushing the feeling away and carrying on based on an (unhealthy?) ability to endure a certain situation for quite a while.

And when I am alert enough to catch that moment I realise at the experience level that my sense of well being is directly related to my sense of connectedness. It is not much more complicated than that!

Lack of connection (or consciousness) = Lack in well being.

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