How to Effectively Launch Your Purpose to Your People For Maximum Impact
In my previous post, we looked at how to define your organization’s purpose. One of the next steps in your journey to becoming a more purpose-driven organization is to successfully launch it in your people. You will need your employees to understand your purpose and how important it is to your business. They need to be inspired by it and see how their work connects into it.
I’ll share some best practices I’ve picked up along the way on how you can effectively launch your purpose to help ensure it’s clear, impactful and inspiring to rally your employees and have them get behind your purpose.
Briefing Your Leaders
Before the big reveal of your purpose to all your employees, it will be important to brief your leaders. They will be key players to further communicate the messages behind your purpose and link their strategies more clearly to it. During the leader briefing, you should be covering:
Why your purpose is important to your business
What was the journey to define it
Who was involved in the work to define it
What your purpose statement is and the needed context to make it clear to them
What expectations you have of them to be purpose champions and bring this work to their teams and their part of the business
What is coming next to launch and communicate it to all employees
What resources will be made available to them to bring this work to their teams to have the needed discussions to clarify anything and action plan to bring it to life
During this briefing, you will get a sense of how employees may respond to the reveal, what questions may come up or potential areas of resistance, based on your leaders’ reactions. This will be useful information to potentially revise your launch event and how you communicate and explain your purpose to all your employees.
You will need the support of your leaders to be active champions of your purpose. As they lead their teams and their part of the business, they need to continue to make and communicate the connections between the work and your purpose to their people. A constant reminder is needed about the importance of your purpose to your business success and how your strategy and objectives contribute to your organization’s ability to achieve your purpose and create the impact it wants to create in the world.
Revealing Your Purpose
When you are ready for the official launch of your purpose, make an inspiring event out of it – both in person and online. Get your employees excited about what it is and what will be possible if everyone gets behind it and takes active steps to bring it to life.
Just as you did with your leaders, explain the journey to your employees. Acknowledge and celebrate those who were actively involved and led this work. Provide the needed context so they understand what the purpose is about, what is hoped to be achieved with it and what employees can expect moving forward in regard to your purpose. Also explain the why behind having a purpose and the expectations you will have of them and what they can expect from your leaders so your purpose doesn’t just remain as a campaign slogan on a wall but is actually brought to life.
After you have presented to your employees, enable them to physically engage and interact with your purpose. Use the space where the event is being hosted to create interactive exhibitions where they can touch and feel your purpose. Showcase examples in your past and present that are connections to your purpose so employees can see that your purpose isn’t just some lofty goal, but you have already taken steps to activate the purpose.
Have your employees write down their own commitments and aspirations for the purpose and put it on a wall. This will be good information to see where the energy is and potential new directions for you to take your business and culture to be more purpose-driven.
If you have multiple locations, you will need to find a way to create a roadshow for your people in those locations if they aren’t able to attend the event because of distance or budget concerns. They too, should have a similar experience to excite and inspire themselves at an event so they can also engage more with your purpose and not just have to rely on experiencing the launch on their screens.
Take It To Your Teams
Your purpose shouldn’t just stay at the enterprise level. It needs to be brought down to the team level so they can see a clearer connection between their everyday work and your purpose. Teams should be exploring for themselves:
What the organization’s purpose means to them?
What is their own purpose in connection with the company’s purpose?
How embedded is the purpose in their current strategy and processes?
What needs to change to be more aligned to the purpose and who will lead the different initiatives?
What specific goals and objectives around your purpose can each individual add to their performance goals?
How to Support Your Purpose Journey
To continue to raise awareness of your purpose and bring it more to life, there are a variety of support materials you should consider:
Internal website hub to host your purpose story and resources
Manifesto to provide more context, as mentioned in a previous post
Talking points for leaders to have talks with their teams
Team activities to define their own purpose and how they can contribute to getting results towards achieving their purpose
Online forum for teams and employees to share their purpose and success stories
Communication Channels to Leverage
There are a variety of channels to communicate your purpose and keep it alive, such as:
Intranet
Internal emails or Slack channels
In the workplace – walls, in meeting rooms
External company website
Employer branding sites
Annual report
It will be beneficial to have a communication calendar for your purpose to map out what stories and messaging you want to have throughout the year. A one-off event isn’t going to be enough to have your purpose be firmly embedded in the minds of your employees or your culture.
You need to tell your purpose stories repeatedly to keep it front-of-mind and continue to inspire your employees with the current and potential future impact your purpose is having on the business and society.
Embedding Your Purpose
You can’t just rely on communications to effectively embed your purpose into your culture and employee experience. It is only one part of your purpose strategy. There are many other areas of your employee experience where your purpose needs to be embedded into. I’ll be exploring that in a future post.