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.
2. a clear and transparant set of roles and matching responsibilities throughout the organization (together covering all that is needed to realize the purpose).
3. a clear and transparant set of metrics to visualize the progress towards realization of the (various sub-)purpose(s).
4. a culture based on safety that supports and creates space for all those involved to truly own their responsibilities (and to overcome their individual challenges).
5. a clear set of (integrative) decision making principles that supports swift progress without disturbing the distribution of leadership.
6. migration towards a compensation structure that is based on purpose contribution.
7. shared trust in the process and sufficient time to move from A to B.
A temptation that I frequently encounter (and initially succumbed to myself) is to limit the implementation to the relatively easy bits (purpose at organization level only plus number 2 and 5) and to postpone the rest till later. Making the intended transformation a much tougher process whilst significantly increasing the risk to get stuck halfway.
I believe the main challenge in whole process is the required change in behavior at an individual level. Going through it myself I experienced a number of blocking fears around giving up the false feeling of security the old management hierarchy provided. And around daring to truly own and activate all the responsibilities of a certain role (especially when those and the progress I make on them are for all to see).
ps: the ‘teal wheel‘ is a practical tool to objectively evaluate the current postion of an organization on the aspects named above.
