Something that we’ve been talking about lately is ‘higher purpose’….setting a mission and vision, not in the traditional sense of a corporate mission statement that sounds as dry as toast and inspires very little, but in the sense of doing something good for the world, beyond just what you do.
The more we look at the companies we deem as ‘successful’ – the companies whose communities are strong and passionate – the more we see the common thread of higher purpose. It isn’t always as publicized as Google‘s “Do No Evil”…but it is pretty apparent when one takes a look at companies like Flickr and Threadless that there are higher purposes of service there for specific communities.
Chris and I actually sat down well before we even thought up Citizen Agency and wrote down our higher purposes. Our exercise was more of a couple compatibility test, but it has proven to be highly relevant to everything else we’ve done since then. We were to write down our core life goal on a piece of paper, then share it with the other person. Both of us came back with the a statement similar to:
Empowering the end user.
Months later, when Citizen Agency was born, it was born on that higher purpose. The Agency in Citizen Agency is a double entendre.
So, in order to make it dead simple for you to do this exercise start with the personal. What is your personal ‘higher purpose’. (I believe that it is much easier to do this excercise once you have children. That kind of experience forces you to think about someone other than yourself.) Take your personal purpose or raison d’etre and look at what you are creating with your business. Do they match? Can they?
If they don’t, you may have a commodity…and that is fine. Commodities are fine things and much needed in the world. However, it is incredibly difficult to build a community around a commodity. With purpose, it flows.
So, then…what is your higher purpose? We have a client summit on Friday during the day and that is going to be the first exercise. It should be interesting to hear…and then try to work with everyone to see how that works back into their products. I’ll be sure to report the findings here.
4 Comments
This one it home hard, and thanks for that. Ive been doing a lot of self-evaluation regarding my place within the industry, both currently and where I think I want to be. Coming to terms with long term goals in the form of a “higher purpose” is definitely one way of looking at how I’ve been looking at things.
In other news, I’m super-disappointed that I couldn’t make CitizenSummit. I debated back and forth flying out late last night/early this morning just to come to the event and then hop back on a plane so I could be back in Philly for plans that I have for saturday afternoon…unfortunately I’m stuck on site with a client and my schedule was volatile at best, so I couldn’t realize that dream. Next time, I suppose
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Fantastic post, though I disagree on the nomenclature.
This mad hatter must ask, what is an “end user”? It feels similar to a “consumer” which I heard you cluetrainers had a little problem with? The term may dehumanize your higher purpose some.
Enough of that, you do empower me. Thank you!
An interesting part of a “Constructive Living” course Julia and i recently took was the importance of getting specific and detailed and making sure my actions matched the details. Myself and most of us on the course were talking in general about what we wanted to do or change. Mission statements should be that.
I’ve also found the exercise of defining “core values” to be of similar use, and a great lens through which to evaluate how to act in difficult situations/defining goals. My professional coach taught me that, bless her!
Just wanted to say thanks for this opportunity to share the pursuit of purpose. One of my favorite books on purpose is Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl. The book is Frankl’s psychiatirc observations of finding meaning in the most difficult of situations – the WW@ concentraion camps. It’s an incredible story of how meaning and purpose can be understood even in the most difficult situations. For anyone struggling with finding life purpose I highly recommend this book as a great primar to your soul searching.
Regards,
Keith Raymond
http://www.yoursuccessprinciples.com
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