Tools · Living the Purpose Check

Does purpose change what people notice, choose and do?

Purpose-driven organisations perform better. A strong, shared purpose inspires people and guides them to improve customer impact every day. Assess the six most important characteristics and discuss the results with your management team. A management offsite is a good moment to do so.

Start the check

01 / Why

Look for evidence that purpose is doing real work

A purpose-driven organisation uses purpose to shape stories, strategy, judgement, innovation and contribution. The wording matters less than whether people can point to decisions and behaviour that changed because of it.

This check draws on the six characteristics in the article What a purpose-driven organisation really looks like. Rate what happens in practice and bring examples. Intentions and statements are weak evidence.

Assessing the overall scores and comparing results between functions and locations can reveal where improvements are needed in leadership, core management processes or communication.

02 / Check

Rate the six characteristics

Choose the answer that best reflects the evidence you see in the part of the organisation you know.

01 Impact is vivid and authentic

Can people tell stories worth sharing about someone trying to make progress, what stood in their way, and how the organisation helped?

Why it matters

Real customer-impact stories show whether purpose is understood and felt. Look for stories worth sharing: specific examples of progress, the obstacles overcome and the organisation’s contribution.

02 Impact resonates externally

Does the progress we believe we enable match the progress customers and stakeholders actually experience and value?

Why it matters

This tests whether your organisation’s purpose delivers a meaningful positive impact on the lives of customers and their environment, grounded in a universal truth of progress people want to make, a friction to overcome and the resulting need.

03 Strategy and transformation follow purpose

Can we name important strategic choices and transformations that turned out materially different because of purpose?

Why it matters

If people clearly see the link between purpose, strategy and transformation, you touch head and heart: people understand where the organisation is heading and feel why that’s important.

04 Purpose guides judgement

When two legitimate demands pull in different directions, how do purpose, values and leadership examples help people make a better decision?

Why it matters

Everyday working life is full of competing demands. A strong, well-lived purpose helps people take a step back and determine the course of action.

05 Purpose directs innovation and priorities

Does purpose generate useful new ideas and help teams decide what to Start, Stop and Accelerate?

Why it matters

A strong, well-understood purpose helps generate new ideas that converge and improve customer impact, and helps teams across the organisation determine what to Start, Stop and Accelerate.

06 Purpose releases contribution and wider impact

Does purpose lead people to bring more of their initiative, ideas and energy, and does it inspire visible contributions to society that express the same cause?

Why it matters

When they feel their work matters, people contribute more ideas and initiative for better customer propositions and impactful societal contributions linked to the organisation’s distinctive cause.

03 / Discussion

Your Living the Purpose score

Answer all six questions to see your profile and save your results.

Bring this to your next management meeting

Complete the check independently, then compare scores and the evidence behind them.

Invite a colleague