The Purpose Effect: Building Meaning in Yourself, Your Role and Your Organization

by Dan Pontefract

Overview

Pontefract combines years of experience and research on employee engagement to create a work about the three crucial areas of purpose: individual, workplace role, and organizational. When one area is lacking, this three-legged barstool starts to wobble, and the results range from disengagement to bankruptcy.

A business leader that is committed to purpose will create purpose for his/her employees. An employee that feels his/her sense of purpose on the job will be an invaluable asset to productivity and success. An organization centered on purpose will benefit every stakeholder, from employees to society in general. This “sweet spot” of purpose creates a reciprocal relationship between all three areas, and sits at the center of Pontefract’s work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781937498894
Publisher:	Elevate Publishing
Publication date:	05/10/2016
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Dan is Chief Envisioner of TELUS Transformation Office, a future-of-work consulting group that helps organizations enhance corporate culture, leadership, purpose, learning, work styles and collaboration practices. He is a passionate leader in the leadership and social collaboration technology spaces and is uniquely skilled to ensure an organization can move from traditional cultures to healthier ways of working. A renowned speaker and author, Dan has presented at multiple TED events, writes for Forbes, Harvard Business Review and The Huffington Post and has appeared on the front covers of T+D Magazine and Chief Learning Officer Magazine.

He and his wife, Denise, live in Victoria, Canada with their three young children.

You can reach Dan on Twitter (@dpontefract) or at www.danpontefract.com.

Read an Excerpt

The Opportunity for Purpose

Since 1994, I have enjoyed the good fortune of working with people and teams in both corporate and academic settings. Throughout my career, whether working internally with thousands of peers, interviewing various leaders and employees across the globe or consulting with organizations who seek counsel and guidance on their own internal culture and operating practices, I have noticed the emergence of a unique pattern.

The Purpose Effect is a three-way relationship between an individual’s personal sense of purpose in life, the organization’s purpose and a person’s purpose in their role at work. When all three aspects of purpose are properly defined, are well aligned and function in partnership with one another, then the employee, the organization and society mutually benefit. When they are not, it can lead to significant damage in society and in the organization. The Purpose Effect is the pattern I have exposed.

If an organization exhibits a high degree of purpose in its mission and objectives—taking a stand to benefit society—there is a good possibility that employees will more easily demonstrate purpose in their roles at work, likely aiding and adding to their own personal sense of purpose in life as well. It is no coincidence that the organization, society and the employee greatly benefit when this occurs.

If an individual joins an organization that is in direct conflict with their personal sense of purpose, there is a strong likelihood they will develop a workplace mindset that is negative, ambivalent, even melancholic. If the role an individual performs provides the opportunity to demonstrate purpose—in alignment with both a personal sense of purpose and that of the organization—there is a very good chance of increased engagement, even fulfillment.

Think of it as a three-legged barstool. If one of the legs is broken or uneven, either an individual ends up crashing to the ground or there is a perpetual wobble, prompting a feeling of uneasiness, of disequilibrium. Such a lack of balance in the workplace can result in personal disengagement, disbandment of a team, or in the direst instance, the end of the organization itself. Those who lack direction in these situations, simply go through the motions, longing for the day when their opinions and ideas mattered, helpless as senior leaders pursue an organizational purpose that has no meaning for them personally. Any lack of alignment between the three categories of purpose—the barstool legs—can have devastating consequences at both an individual and a collective level.

The Purpose Effect requires balance, harmony and ultimately alignment between a person’s life, the organization where they are employed and their role at work. When this alignment is present, there are strength and unity between the three categories. When such strength and unity are prevalent, they result in psychological and emotional employee commitment. That is, when an employee feels part of something bigger at work and it aligns with their personal sense of purpose, they perform better. The organization also benefits. Deloitte reported purpose-first types of organizations “have 30 percent higher levels of innovation and 40 percent higher levels of retention, and they tend to be first or second in their market segment."

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction

Part I

Chapter 1: The Purpose of Purpose
Chapter 2: Moral Purpose

Part II

Chapter 3: Not On Purpose
Chapter 4: Purpose Mismatch

Part III

Chapter 5: Creating a Personal Sense of Purpose
Chapter 6: Developing Organizational Purpose
Chapter 7: Establishing Role-Based Purpose

Part IV

Chapter 8: Communitas—A Community of Purpose
Chapter 9: Sweet Spot Guidance
About the Author
Index

References

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The Purpose Effect helps individuals and leaders connect the dots between the personal, professional, and organizational. Dan Pontefract makes a strong case that we shouldn’t check our core values in life at the office door."
Adam Grant
Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of GIVE AND TAKE and ORIGINALS‎

“A compelling thesis on how purpose can drive not only personal fulfilment but also lead to more stable, cohesive and higher performing organisations. The Purpose Effect is a must read for any who doubt the impact of purpose on organisational stability and performance.”
Paul Polman
Chief Executive Officer, Unilever

"Engagement research is clear: people want to work for a purpose, not just a paycheck. The Purpose Effect should be required reading for anyone who wants to find and develop meaning in their life, their role, and throughout their company. A great read for anyone who is looking to get the most from their career and life."
Kevin Kruse
New York Times bestselling author of Employee Engagement 2.0

"Dan Pontefract’s The Purpose Effect is a challenge to both the worker and the leader to find the winning trifecta – a combination of a personal sense of purpose, an organizational purpose and a role purpose."
Dee Ann Turner
Vice President, Chick-fil-A
Author of It's My Pleasure

"Dan Pontefract raises the discussion of purpose to the next level using his three category model with the “sweet spot,” looking at it holistically and its impact on individuals, organizations, and society as a whole. This book is loaded with examples that take it from what might seem as a nice-to-have, to a must-have in order to maximize impact, engagement, and contribution."
Tony Bingham
President and CEO, Association for Talent Development

"As the sense of meaning in the corporate world continues to plummet, the shortage of clear and comprehensive thinking on solutions has become acute. Dan Pontefract rides to the rescue with The Purpose Effect, providing a well-argued and detailed framework for organizations and their people to find and maintain their purpose 'sweet spot.'"
Roger L. Martin
Author and Institute Director
Martin Prosperity Institute, Rotman School of Management

"Pontefract provides a powerful framework to make work deeply fulfilling and productive for the most valuable members of the workforce, those that are purpose-oriented."
Aaron Hurst
Author of The Purpose Economy
CEO of Imperative

Editorial Reviews

"The Purpose Effect provides a roadmap for how we can develop personal purpose in our lives, in the organizations we work for, and in our specific role within an organization. Pontefract powerfully shows why we need to pay attention to each of these in relationship to one another."
800-CEO-READ

"How do you find a personal purpose and a business purpose that are in sync, to be the driver of business success, as well as your own happiness? I just finished a new book, “The Purpose Effect,” by renowned author Dan Pontefract, that provides a good framework and background or doing just that. I recommend his tips for creating and maintaining that sweet spot."
Martin Zwilling, Forbes

"Advocating corporate social responsibility, The Purpose Effect: Building Meaning in Yourself, Your Role, and Your Organization, by Dan Pontefract, is an inspiring how-to guide that proposes a plan to move away from the all too common us-versus-them mentality toward building more collaborative and productive relationships between organizations and employees."
Foreword Reviews

"Is Pontefract’s work the end of the search for engagement? Not likely, but it does move us along the journey to find meaning in our work, and that can’t be a bad thing."
The Bellingham Business Journal

From the Publisher