Evaluating the power of purpose

An authentic organisational purpose can inspire, drive commitment, and build a unifying focus across an organisation. ​It can inform decisions and actions – both strategic and day-to-day – ​by becoming the prism though which you do business.​ It can unite people across an organisation or even the globe, providing a catalyst for a compelling employee experience that creates great customer experiences.

Of course, it can. But it doesn't always. And some purposes are more, well, purposeful than others.

Which is why we were so lucky to work with one global business that really wanted to reorientate around an authentic purpose. If only it could articulate what it was.

Finding purpose

As a 60-year old founder-led business, Crown Worldwide isn't short on heritage or passion. Purpose for Crown was always going to be more than just a comms programme. In fact, it turned out to be a voyage of discovery.

Because, purpose isn't something you invent through surveys or workshops. It's something you reveal or unfold by looking deeply at who you are. In a business like Crown, purpose is already there. It just needs to be rediscovered and articulated. And that's why we teamed up with Sam Knowles, of Insight Agents, to take a robust approach to discovering Crown's purpose. An approach that involved interviews, brand research, a survey, linguistic analysis and more.

Having a purpose and being purposeful

Of course, articulating a purpose is only the beginning of the journey. For a purpose to be meaningful, it needs to be alive, to inform decisions, to unite people, to matter. It's about comms, yes, to a degree. But far more than that, it's abut engagement, leadership and action.

We worked with Crown to define an organic approach to kick-starting a meaningful conversation about purpose. But here's where it got really cool. The team we were working with wanted to understand the impact of this new conversation and whether it was translating into action.

A data-informed business, the team turned the same skills on their internal culture to build a world-class evaluation process focusing on the impact of the purpose on both customers and employees.

It's not just us calling it unique and innovative. This evaluation process has just been shortlisted for three Internal Communications and Engagement Awards: Best Innovation; Best Evaluation Process of Internal Communications; and Best Use of Data. The winners will be announced next month.

In the meantime, you can hear more about this brilliant approach on The Reset Show on Wednesday, July 28th at 1pm (and then on all good podcast platforms afterwards). Join The Reset Show live by signing up as a guest here.