Providing Your Team Purpose

“A great team has two essential components: trust and a shared purpose.” Stanley McChrystal

The Wrong Part

For JJ’s team, each workday would begin gathered in their break area. The team looked forward to this as a time of fellowship, but most importantly to reaffirm their team’s purpose. The day always began with “the wrong part”.

Intertwined into the daily operational and administrative announcements, JJ reflected on the story that became the team’s azimuth.

By simply reminding the team of “the wrong part”, his team became focused and motivated. Much like a battle cry, these words sparked everyone’s passion, set the direction for the day, and served as the reminder of their purpose.

Earlier in JJ’s career, he had heard about a ship that could not get underway due to a needed repair part while in waters in the middle east. Immediately as the troubled part was identified, an urgent order was submitted with the confidence that a priority would be assigned to it allowing the vessel to become operational. Pleased to learn that the order had been received, fulfilled, and shipped, the crew prepared for its installation. On the day of its receipt, with expectations high, it was determined that “the wrong part” had been sent. The order had been submitted correctly, but it had not been accurately filled. This left the ship vulnerable for an extended and unnecessary period of time.

Several failures occurred. The individual responsible for fulfilling the order failed to select the correct part. The quality control team failed to reject the order that was incorrect. But more importantly, the supervisors of these two teams failed to create a clear purpose. Workers were simply going through the motions, instead of being inspired with an understanding of who they were serving and why it was their responsibility to provide high quality outcomes.

JJ found this to be inexcusable and decided that when put into a leadership position, he would use this as both his personal and team’s purpose.

Today, as a supervisor of a naval vessel resupply team, he shares this story to ensure his team thinks in terms of their efforts as outcomes, not inputs. He taught his team to look at a ship, not as a floating iron vessel, but rather as teams of highly specialized people with a national security mission whose lives and mission depended on their accuracy and complete fulfillment of each supply order. It was their responsibility for efficient and accurate resupply operations – never to deliver “the wrong part”.

Purpose: Defining Your Strategic Direction

The role of the Integrator Leader is to define their team’s Purpose – the What and Why. It should inspire the team by specifying what is to be accomplished and why it has importance. As such, it serves as their compass heading or strategic direction. It needs to be clear, concise, and compelling.

Leadership Coach Ben Brearley suggests that “The team purpose acts as a guiding vision for your team.” With this, he says it allows your team to understand if they should commit, to model correct behaviors, and helps them to connect to something with a higher meaning.

Defining your organization’s purpose begins with seeing the world from the canopy view. The idea is to widen everyone’s aperture so that they see their actions within the broader organizational context. This canopy view should inspire workers at all levels to become more productive and efficient, and better able to align their efforts with those of the broader organization.

In Stan McChrystal’s bestselling book Team of Teams, he explains his need to get everyone invested into his reframed operational practices and how he unified them by providing them a compelling common purpose. “This investment and unity then elicited genuine contributions from everyone – it gave people a reason to strive to be more than they are.”

Do not make the mistake of assuming everyone understands the common purpose. This includes even your more seasoned employees. Today, workers are inherently myopic; that is, they possess a deep, yet fragmented, knowledge. They know more and more about less and less. Without a clear compass heading to orient their activities and without feedback on their progress, workers will never be fully productive.

Providing your team with a view from the canopy gives them a clear line of sight to their goal. With an understanding of where they are going, inspire them to engage in how to get there. Help them learn to self-organize behind their purpose and become less dependent upon you over time.

Integrator Leader Reflections

Have you provided your team a view from the canopy so they can more easily see a clear line of sight to their goal?

Do you regularly remind your team of their purpose?

Do you reflect with your team about “the wrong part” or some other inspiring message for them to live their purpose daily?

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