What’s the difference between passionless purpose and passionate purpose?

/ mkessenburg

Passionless purpose and passionate purpose—what’s the difference? For me, the difference between passionless purpose and deep, passionate purpose is like the difference between compliance and effectiveness, lipservice and engagement, drudgery and inspiration. Let me explain.

Passionless purpose looks like…Passionate purpose looks like…
1. Having a mission statement that hangs on the wall, serving as a piece of office decor.1. Deeply, collectively understanding and pursuing our “why.” 
2. Having a mission statement that serves as a fire alarm to be pulled to stop something bad from happening.2. All of us moving together toward a brighter future.
3. Having a mission statement that is used for marketing only (with little or no impact in my daily routine).3. Using the mission statement as our rallying cry.
4. Having a mission statement so my school can be accredited. (Very similar to studying for grades!)4. Using our mission statement as our compass.
5. Having no regular group prayer times to ask God for help as we carry out the mission. (Perhaps we think we can do work without God’s help?)5. Having regular group prayer times to ask God for help as we carry out our Christ-centered mission.
6. Talking about tasks without connecting them to the mission—possibly because they’re actually unconnected with the mission.6. Telling stories about living out our purpose.
7. Silos—with everyone pursuing their own purposes (think a loose confederation of warring tribes).7. Teams—with everyone pursuing the mission (think Body of Christ).
8. Competition for scarce resources.8. Collaboration.
9. A transaction—I pay you, you do it. Nothing more.9. Transformation—we collaboratively work to impact the world for Jesus, and as we do so, we become more Christlike ourselves.
10. Living in a dismal wasteland.10. Living in a vibrant garden.

Bottom line? Passionless purpose is all about compliance, results in lipservice, and feels like drudgery. (Not good. Sounds like unhealthy culture.) Passionate purpose is all about effectiveness, engagement, and inspiration. (Sounds like flourishing culture!)

Note: Ranjay Gulati, author of Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies, refers to passionless purpose culture as convenient purpose culture (as in, we use the mission when it is convenient) and to passionate purpose culture as deep purpose culture. He urges readers to be deep purpose leaders who “[l]et purpose drive…strategy conversation” (loc 3521), “[live] the purpose in everything” (loc 3559), “work on purpose-related metrics” (loc 3609), and “[s]tay inspired” (loc 3623).

No one I know intentionally sets out to develop a “passionless purpose” culture of lipservice and drudgery, but it happens and we need to be on our guard against it. Reflecting on the questions below can help you see if there are any indications that your organizational culture is or is moving toward passionless purpose: 

  • What percentage of staff can readily recite the mission statement?
  • How frequently do staff recite the mission in casual conversation?
  • What percentage of staff deeply understand and can readily articulate the connection between their jobs (meaning, their daily activities) and the mission?
  • With what frequency is the mission explicitly used to guide decision-making?
  • To what extent does your organization have helpful key performance indicators for mission achievement that are clearly defined, visible, monitored, assessed, and used to develop next steps?
  • With what frequency do staff celebrate progress on the mission?

Photo by Ann H

What about you? What’s the difference between passionless purpose and passionate purpose? What does a “passionless purpose” culture look like? What does a “passionate purpose” culture look like? To what extent are there indications that your organization is or is moving toward a “passionless purpose” culture?

Here are some related blog posts:

Here are some additional things I’m learning from Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies:

  • “Purpose creates a unifying vision for all of a company’s stakeholders, including its employees, customers, partners, and shareholders. It drives ethical behavior and creates an essential check on actions that go against the best interests of stakeholders. Finally, it’s a powerful driver of culture, providing a framework for consistent decision-making throughout an organization, which ultimately helps sustain long-term financial returns for the company’s shareholders” (loc 55).
  • “How attuned to purpose are you really?… Are you injecting purpose methodically into strategy, your oversight of working conditions, and your company’s relationships with stakeholders?” (loc 521).
  • “Leaders pursue purpose superficially because for all their apparent enthusiasm, they don’t fully understand how devotion to a purpose enhances business performance. As a result, they continue to perceive purpose as a tax on the business rather than as a performance booster” (loc 1078).

Get flourishing!

Michael

P.S. Bonus! Here’s a list of 10 quotations from things I’ve read or listened to that contain the word purpose:

  1. “Purpose leads to high impact” (Lead Like You Were Meant To: Switch from Autopilot to Intentional, p. 147).
  2. “Instead of cascading goals, instead of cascading instructions for actions, we should cascade meaning and purpose” (Nine Lies About Work, loc 959).
  3. “The ability to see the relationship among people, patterns, and purpose allows you to think smarter and act faster in an explosive setting” (Influence in Action, p. 51).
  4. “Your role as a manager is not to do the work yourself, even if you are the best at it, because that will only take you so far. Your role is to improve the purpose, people, and process of your team to get as high a multiplier effect on your collective outcome as you can (The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You, p. 26).
  5. Location 2075: Purpose-driven goals sell more milk, win more games, enhance performance, and lead to outcomes that far surpass your numbered goals alone” (The Power of Positive Leadership, loc 2075).
  6. “For the vision and purpose to come alive, it must have meaning for each team member” (The Power of a Positive Team, loc 621).
  7. “That’s what I mean by an unstoppable team, one that brings diverse gifts to bear on the team’s goals through a shared sense of purpose and a deep commitment to each other. You can assemble as many individual superstars as you’d like, but they won’t become unstoppable unless they believe in each other and in their collective mission” (Unstoppable Teams: The Four Essential Actions of High-Performance Leadership, loc 45).
  8. “ So how do you set these goals the right way? First, you must answer the question, “Why?” Why? Because truly transformational teams combine their ambitions to their passion and to their purpose, and they develop a clear and compelling sense of why” (Why the Secret to Success Is Setting the Right Goals).
  9. “So how do we achieve clarity of purpose in our teams and even our personal endeavors?” (Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, p. 124)
  10. “The purpose of praise is to help people what to do more of, to show them what success looks like, to show them what’s valued. It’s not to make them feel better…. Praise is not how you show you care personally…. Criticism…is helping people know what to do better” (Radical Candor Podcast Episode 1: What Is Radical Candor?).