The Challenge: To make your business grow. The proposed solution? Creating purpose driven teams.
But how do you inject purpose into your teams? And why is Purpose the key way to achieve business growth? We sat down with our provider Katerina, to hear all about it.
The Background
“Purpose as one of the key ways to achieve sustainable business growth”
Katarina describes herself as a business development strategist, partnering up with clients to accelerate their business growth in three different ways: by spotting growth multipliers, stakeholder relationship mapping and, by integrating and activating purpose within their teams as well as the organization.
It’s undeniable that the way people perceive their jobs today is shifting deeply. People now are concerned about work-life balance, in how their activity affects the world around them. They want to contribute in a more meaningful way, they want to be part of something bigger than themselves. And they want their work, their jobs, to simultaneously be their passion. Research from the E.Y. Beacon Institute and Harvard Business School shows that companies that lead with purpose and have purpose-oriented leaders are more likely to outperform the competition. Having to deal with poor employee engagement? Collaboration? Absenteeism, burn-out compensations? Difficulty attracting and retaining talent?
According to Katarina, the answer to all these questions is simply put: purpose driven teams, individuals and organizations.
It’s the key to achieving a sustainable culture transformation, where everyone thrives.
A unique, purpose driven vision
“What is my why? My vision? My vision is a healthy and thriving society, where people work for more that money and status. A world, where everyone has a great sense of meaning and purpose, every day. A world where we leverage the knowledge of our core intrinsic motivators to not only drive our own fulfillment but to contribute to making the world a better place, together.”
KATERINA
Why the Workshop format?
Team-building events and interactive workshops are the most effective way to work on the topic of Purpose. With a workshop format, you bond as a team, identifying common goals and values while turning them into clear, actionable steps. Normally, this is followed up by 1-on-1 work and a variety of materials distributed pre or post-workshop. We also include access to an online purpose platform. The concept is finally made tangible and actionable, backed up by scientific research. It’s about learning-by-doing, filled with individual, small group and whole-team exercises.
What can the people/groups that book your event, expect to get?
First of all, they can expect to learn about their own internal motivations and values. This is how they will understand some of their past decisions and peak moments. Mainly it helps set an internal compass for future decisions. Secondly, they will discover their team purpose profile. They will discover their strengths but also blind spots and red flags hindering their team’s progress or impact. They then need to apply it to their business strategy or to a specific case study, for which the team co-creates a purpose-rich plan for the future.
All participants get a year-long free access to the Purpose Platform, allowing them to define their own purpose power-ups, track their fulfilment progress or define their personal purpose story and purpose
What are typical and not so typical team challenges this technique can solve?
The typical team challenges are breaking the silo-thinking and creating a united team. Furthermore, it helps to address poor team collaboration and feelings of low fulfillment (in the team or on the job) by making all aware of their differences, showing them how to respect them and use them in a complementary way towards greater impact. Also, it allows a company to build purpose-driven tribes and address their diversity and inclusion struggles.
Some not so typical challenges the purpose workshop can help solve is stagnating innovation and creativity, creating a space where ideas flourish and an environment of psychological safety where each individual feels heard, empowered and recognized.
How do you measure the effectiveness of your event?
All workshop participants are invited to provide their feedback. They share their key learnings and the immediate changes they commit to pursuing. To make sure they follow through, we assign an accountability partner and give them access to the online purpose platform. That way they can measure their progress. Finally, two or three months after the workshop, KPIs are compared, a fulfillment and happiness at work questionnaire is run, and the data from the online purpose platform is analyzed to measure the true effectiveness.
What would you say is your main concern/goal when you prepare to host a team building event
My main concern is to create a comfortable and safe environment for an open discussion. To encourage everyone to actively participate from start to finish. The involvement, openness and interaction is absolutely key to achieving the best results. My main goal is to get the whole team truly hands-on through various small and larger group activities assuring all team members participate.
Sharing memories
The most unforgettable memory was during one of the first workshops of about 45 people. What made the moment truly special, was seeing the workshop participants to reach the “Aha moment”, finally understanding their past decisions. Not to question or regret them, but rather to own them and celebrate them. The other highlight is always to see the “click” when the team members suddenly understand their differences (not of age, race or gender) but the differences of what drives them and what really lights them up, which results in great acceptance and respect within the team, shifting the silo-thinking and internal competition out of the picture.
Beyond team building
With these techniques, you can become a purpose-oriented organization. These techniques can be used for instance in Hiring and onboarding for Purpose (using a tailored assessment for new hires). Use Purpose to build tribes within your business, bonding individuals across your organization and driving innovation. You can also use it to accelerate your Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, attracting more women to your workforce. Develop Purpose-oriented Leadership to create a respected mentoring program. In terms of personal use, you get to do the Individual Purpose Profile and you can apply that knowledge daily in your private life when interacting with friends or family, or even when choosing a volunteer charity project to engage.
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Katarina’s event is delivered in German or English. Book it now on the link below!
