July 1, 2025 • 51 mins
Purpose isn’t a fixed asset, distant goal, or a destination—it’s a dynamic journey of ongoing alignment, learning to align one’s strengths and skills, values and intentions, and focus on the impact on people, community and the world around us. Join us as the guests reveal how to continually reset purpose for yourself, your team, and your organization. This living approach fuels higher engagement, sparks greater innovation, and helps reduce turnover—driving fulfillment and performance alike.
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Working on Purpose is broadcast live Tuesdays at 6PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Working on Purpose is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Working on Purpose Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-on-purpose--2643411/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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CY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or
comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you
(00:20):
for choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the
answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose
at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their
lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization
that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their
highest potential. Business can be such a force for good
in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide
(00:51):
guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we
all want Working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, doctor
Elise Cortez.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Welcome back to the Working on Purpose program, which is
then brought to you with passionate pride Since February of
twenty fifteen. Thanks for tuning in this week. Great to
have you. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. If we've
not met before and you don't know me, I'm a
workforce advisor, organizational psychologist, management consultant, logo therapist, speaker and author.
My team and I at gusta Now help companies to
enliven and fortify their operations by building a HI dynamic
(01:26):
high performance culture, inspirational leadership, and nurturing managers activated by
meaning and purpose. Many organizations are not aware of how
critical it is to invest in developing their leaders and
managers not just for their own effectiveness, but also to
avoid burnout and to keep them fulfilled. And did you
know that inspired employees outperform their satisfied peers by a
factor of two point twenty five to one. In other words,
(01:48):
inspiration is good for the bottom line. You can learn
more about us and know we can work together at
gustodashnow dot com or my personal site Elise Coortes dot com.
Getting into today's program we have with us at Dynamic Duel.
We have doctor rich Fernandez, who has dedicated his career
to building more purposeful mindful and high performing workplaces. An
independent he's an a practitioner that is stewarding high performance
(02:11):
and leadership. And we also have with us Carolina Lasso,
who is a purpose mentor and the founder of Plenari,
which is a purpose academy dedicated to unlocking your full
potential through transformative experiences. Rich and Carolina are are two
of the authors of The Purpose Reset. How reconnecting to
what matters drives fulfillment and success we should be talking
(02:33):
about today, specifically around the realms of first personal, then team,
then organizational. Rich joins us today from San Francisco and
Carolina hails from Toronto. Doctor Rich and Carolina, Welcome to
Working on Purpose. Hello, really great to be with you.
And as we talked about before you got in there,
I slightly loved reading your book, The Purpose Reset. I
(02:56):
really got so much out of it. Took so many
copious notes and I was like, is it time? It
is it time?
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Let's get them on. So it is time here, it
would be good. It's time.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Well for those of you, for our audience members who
have not read your book yet and haven't really dove
into it, Let's just briefly situate where you both came from,
because you have diverse experiences that brought you into this
same transformative purpose space. Could you just briefly each narrate
a bit about where you came from and why what
(03:27):
brought you together to write the book together.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Yeah, I'm happy to start. It's great to be here,
by the way, doctor release, and lovely to be with
your audience. And this is a topic that I have
been pretty much living my entire life and still do.
It's consistent with how we see purpose, which is an
ongoing process. And that ongoing process of aligning oneself with
(03:50):
what's most important, which we'll talk about more, has been
something that's been true for my whole career. I studied
and got a PhD in psychology, but eventually went into
industry pretty quickly after the PhD and worked in banking,
and then I went over to the technology sector as
a psychologist in leadership and learning and organization development, and
(04:12):
always I noticed that people and organizations, as well as
leaders within those organizations who knew what their purpose was
and how to align with the purpose of the organization
always outperformed. So it became an enduring question for me.
I eventually wound up at Google, which is something Kadalina
and I have in common. We both worked at Google.
(04:32):
I was head of executive Education, so I really had
a front seat view to leadership and how they were
carrying out purpose and its impact on the world. Eventually,
I left Google and I went to run Search Inside
Yourself Leadership Institute, which is a nonprofit that spun out
of Google and taught some of Google's leadership curriculum around
emotional intelligence. So all that weaves into this book The
(04:52):
Purpose Reset. Carlina and I worked at SII together and
that's how we started talking about this book.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Yeah, so some similar paths. But I think what's really
common between rich and I and also with the other
colleague who authored the book with us, Stepstern, is this
ongoing desire for more meaning and fulfillment. So in terms
of my story, I immigrated from Columbia and I was
(05:23):
doing all the things that I thought I needed to
do to be happy, right, So checking all of the
boxes and striving and working really hard, and you know,
graduated for Ledictorium, then Commerson speaker in college. Then I
got a scholarship to go to college, and then like
got jobs first and financial services in New York City
(05:46):
and meet an entertainment in Washington, DC. And then I
started working at Google. And I was there for seven
years and all throughout really trying so hard. And then
at a certain moment I paused and I said, wait
a second, is this what life is all about? And
is this my path? Is my purpose? And so asking
myself the big questions, I realized I wanted to do
(06:09):
something that was better aligned with my values and the
impact I wanted to have in the world, and something
that felt closer, more fulfilling, something more meaningful. And that's
when I found Rich and the rest of the team
and ended up quitting Google to join the Search Inside
your Self Leadership Institute and finding that connection between my
(06:32):
work and the impact I wanted to have by providing
these tools on emotional intelligence and mindfulness and resilience to organizations.
And eventually I also left, and now I decided to
go all in the time in the topic of purpose,
and so I founded my own Purpose Academy and I
am a purpose mentor so all things purpose. And so
(06:53):
one day we were talking about different things and our
colleague Steph talked about this idea of moving from ladder
to love I love that part of the book. Yes, yeah,
she wrote it down in an upkin and she showed
it to us. I think it was her last day
in our organization and she showed it to us and
I was like, oh my gosh, there's something here. Let's
(07:14):
talk about it. And we ended up developing the framework
that became then the book. And so we're so happy
that you have it in your hands right now and
that so many people get to read it.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
We are really three p's in a pod. The three
of us will step two, four pi's in a pod.
So I want to get through as much as I
can because listeners and viewers, there are so much there
wrote that is so actionable for you. So in the
first segment, we're talking about how to apply this stuff
on a personal level. So let's quickly talk about your
definition of purpose and let's talk about how to unpack it.
(07:47):
Just very briefly, but your definition is purpose is the
ongoing process of understanding and connecting strengths, values, and desired
impact with aligned actions to unlock your full potential and
be of service. So let's talk about those components a
little bit more deeply so that we can present them
for our listeners and viewers if we could.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
Yeah, I can. Maybe we should take it in parts, right, So,
because the definition has a few different key things to it. Yeah,
the very first one is that it's an ongoing process.
So purpose is a verb, it's not a noun. It's
something that's alive and living, and you have to always
kind of like nurture it. Just like a living thing.
You always have to be aware of it, you always
have to tune to it. And so that is the
(08:26):
very first part to understand it. It's an ongoing process
and not as a commodity that you could pull off
the shelf and all of a sudden, I have purpose
and I'm done. It's an ongoing life work. Then the
second part Karlina, I don't know, I'll kick it over
to you. Strengths, value.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Yeah, So we start there, right, and then it's the
light that illuminates the path on two key aspects based
on our research, One is awareness, becoming aware of everything
within you, your preferences, your strengths, your interests, your values. Right,
so awareness, and the second one is aligned to action
(08:59):
because you're aware about a lot of different things, but
if you don't take action, you won't have the opportunity
to receive real time feedback and really continue to align
within that path, within that journey. So it's a journey,
not a destination, and it's a combination of awareness and
align action. And we close with the part that it's
(09:22):
all about service. We cannot talk about purpose without service.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, you know. I remember some years ago when I
was speaking at a conference and the speaker in front
of me belt it out across the day. She said,
my purpose is to double my income, and I just cringed.
I was like, that is not.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Purpose, That's just a really fantastic goal, don't you know,
conflate these things.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Yeah, absolutely, because also it comes from an internal place.
We talked about strengths, you know, and values and desired impact,
and we all have strengths, we all have values, and
we all want to have some sort of impact, even
if it's small, if it's close, if it's out there
in the world. We all have that, and so it's
important to bring that forward and you add all that
together and in an equal service, you serve someone. Everybody
(10:11):
serves someone. And so our thing that was saying about
awareness and intentionality, the intentional about you know, what strengths
you want to bring and who you might wish to serve.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
And I completely align with.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
There's really nothing in your book that I didn't completely
align with, and I also wanted to situate for our
listeners and viewers. When you think about, you know, what
is the work engagement from a personal level. Maybe it's
not obvious to you, but really, when we talk about
being engaged in your work as an individual, what you
say in your book is it's being involved, enthusiastic, having
a dedication to it, having a deeper emotional connection to
(10:46):
your work that is characterized by a higher level of energy, focus,
intrinsic motivation. You're not just passively completing tasks. You're actively
invested in the work and it's end result. And when
you situate that, listeners and viewers imagine, have you felt
like that? Are you in a job like that?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Maybe?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Maybe not? Well, Actually, if you live in the United States,
the chances that you are in that kind of a
place are about thirty percent, and if more likely, that's
seventy percent. That you're not in that place. According to
Gallup's research, that's right.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
True, or that you may be within that right now,
but you can probably relate to not being engaged, that
feeling of emptiness, lack of fulfillment, lack of motivation, that
sensation that what you're doing is either not aligned with
your values, your interests, your strength, or the impact that
you want to have in the world. And it has
(11:40):
to deal with intrinsic motivation, right, so that which comes
from within, not necessarily the external, rewards.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
The best kind, so so powerful. Now we have got
to situate your full model here of the what, why,
and who, and I will tell you have already passed
us on to a couple of people to help them
along their path.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Including my daughter. That's so meaningful.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I told him, I told him this is you know
this this week's podcast guests, and this is what they're
they're up to. I think this will help you.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
So let's do this.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
I would love for us start about the four questions
that are under each of these buckets. However you want
to do this, because this is so powerful, Carolina and
rich which one of you wants to take this?
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Well, Ana, if you maybe share a little bit about
those questions, because of what I would like to do
is share an example from my own experience, my own
working experience. Once you talk about what those are okay.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
I love that sounds great. So our framework is at
the intersection. We believe that the purpose reset is at
the intersection of three key elements, the what, the why,
and the who? What why and who? Right? So under
what what we're talking about here is what are your
top strengths and skills? What are your interests? When do
(12:57):
you find yourself in a state of flow right timelessness,
that sense of being completely immersed in an activity, and
what activities bring you into that state of fulfillment where
you're having the impact you want? So it's the what.
It's the awareness of those aspects of your what A
(13:17):
little bit of a swat analysis for your own life
as the what. So let's hear an example.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
On that rich So I will use the example of
earlier in my career. I used to work at eBay
and I used to think, what do I have I'm
a psychologist, what do I have to offer an e
commerce company working with its leaders? I was running learning
and organization development, and I realized I can really facilitate
the growth of leaders and their conversations with each other
(13:43):
so that they can ensure that the platform is working optimally,
which will get to my who later, But let me
just pause there and say I was able to use
my strengths in facilitating growth of leaders leadership development to
help them have eBay be as successful as it could.
That was my what love it?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Tom?
Speaker 5 (14:03):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
And sometimes we know other people's strengths and values and
interests better than we know our own. So once again
it goes back to that awareness, that sense of depth
about self knowledge, self awareness. The second one is why,
the big why, right, So what moves me? Why do
I care about this and not that? What are my values?
(14:27):
What do I stand up for? What gives me that
sense of meaning? Once again, intrinsic motivation, that which really
moves me? The why do I want to wake up
and go and strive for something? Work for something, side
for something? What are the causes that moves me? What
legacy do I want to leave behind? So that's your
(14:48):
big why, that catalyst for action mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
And so what that looked like for me when I
worked at eBay was that I realized I wanted to
be a force for good. I knew that that's I
wanted to apply my skills in service to people into
the world to make it a better place. Basically, then
the extent I can did a little drop that I could,
and I realized it was working at eBay for me,
(15:13):
enabling a force for good. And when I got there
and I went to my first seller conference, I realized
that the majority of people who who operate the platform
are people who are running family run businesses out of
their garages shipping. This was the early days of eBay,
you know, shipping stuff out to the world and making
a living doing it and getting people stuff like that
they maybe couldn't get elsewhere. And so I realized that
there was an economic force for good. It was giving
(15:35):
opportunity to a broad array of people. It was a
force for good. So it aligned with my values, my why.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
That depth of alignment amazing. And then the last category,
so again we talked about the what and the why,
and the last one is the who. And here we
want to offer a combination of two different types of
people or two different audiences. The first one is who
do you want to serve? Going back to the idea
that purpose is all about service. Then who's on the
(16:04):
other side of that equation, who do you want to
support help walk walk this path of purpose with the
other one is Who do you admire? Right, is there
someone who perhaps has walked this path before that you
look up to that you would want to follow their footsteps.
(16:24):
I always send to recommend to people to analyze their Instagram,
like who do you follow? Who do you admire? What's there?
Are there any common trends or patterns or characteristics of
the people you admire and look up to? And the
last one is who do you want to become? So
it's not necessarily about the doing, but this is about
(16:47):
being who do I want to become? What kind of person?
And so that combination of the who who do you
want to serve? Who do you look up to? Who
do you want to kind of follow their footsteps? And
who do you want to become?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Perfect anything you wanted to add to that rich for
your own experience just.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
To round it out. Yeah, that eBay experience. Who was
the mission was to create economic opportunity for all? And
so yeah, that's who I wanted to serve and who
I wanted to become. And doing that was again like
that catalyst, somebody who can help the people who have
the technical skills to enable that in the world. So
I really was at eBay. I had this experience of
(17:30):
being energized, engaged focus. You know, for the forty years
or so that I was there, it was really it
felt like I was living My purpose was very alive,
Let's put it that way, because of the who, what,
and why I served that company with its purpose as
an organization aligned with my purpose personally.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
And this is so powerful.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
This is going to help our listeners and viewers, I think,
really get better connected because otherwise purpose is so abstract
for a lot of people. So this is amazing. Let's
let our listeners and viewers just reflect on what you've
just here because it's powerful. And as we'll take our
first break, I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez. We've put
on the eric doctor rich Fernandez, who is an independent
practitioner of high performance and leadership coaching, and we also
(18:10):
have with us Carolina Lasso, who is a purpose mentor
and the founder of Planari. We've been talking a bit
about how we can start to really apply how to
bring purpose into our personal lives. Now after the break,
we're going to talk about how to create it and
live it in our teams. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite
a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her
(19:03):
at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get
your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose
with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or
to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to
Alise A Lisee at eliscortes dot com. Now back to
(19:27):
working on purpose.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Thanks for staining with us, and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes, as I
too dedicated helping create a world where organizations thrive because
they're people thrive. They're led by inspirational leaders that help
them find and contribute their greatness. And we do business
at Betters the World. I keep researching and writing my
own books. So what are my latest is called the
Great Revitalization. How activating meaning and purpose can radically enliven
(19:54):
your business and I wrote to help leaders understand today's
very diverse and discerning workforce and what they want and
need from you, and then offer twenty two best practices
to help equip you to provide that for them in
your culture, in your environment. You can find my books
on Amazon or at my personal site at least Cortes
dot com if you are just now joining us. My
guests are doctor Brich Fernandez and Carolina Laso. They are
(20:17):
co authors of The Purpose Reset, How reconnecting to what
matters most strives fulfillment and success. So for this next
part we're focused on the team element here, but before
we do that, I think it's incredibly helpful for us
to talk about that beautiful framework that you situated, that
visual that really shows the beneficial ripple effects of purpose
(20:37):
alignment across the three levels of organization, team, and personal.
If one of you could situate that for.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Us, Yeah, for sure. So the cover of our book,
if you noticed, has some ripples and so that it
is a subtle symbol for us to indicate the importance
and the umplifying the multiplier effect of purpose. So starting
with the individual, when you're feeling aligned with your purpose
(21:07):
and with that of your team and that of your organization.
Then you start feeling more inspired, more motivated, more engaged,
and we talked about the in forms of engagement at
the team level. Then you feel like you belong, that
you can collaborate more easily, that you can commit and
be accountable for your work. And then you begin to
(21:28):
connect at a deeper level with your organization to be
an advocate for the mission, the big vision of that organization.
And then you end up having this sense of pride.
I am proud to work at an organization and within
my team beason what we do, the impact we have,
and the way we work together. So that's the visual
(21:51):
we have and how it takes you from individual to
team to organization. And I think we can all feel
it in our bodies right, Like we know and we're
proud of something. We're proud of being part of the movement,
a company of culture, and I think we also know
when we're not that proud, when we're not that inspired
by the work we do.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I just think that that is so crisp and tight.
I really applaud how you've created that. It's just and
it captures so much of what I have certainly understood
internally over all these years of investigating and working with
purpose too. But that is just tight and the listeners
and viewers, if you at whatever level you're looking at
this as an individual, as a team member, or if
you are a leader or an owner of an organization,
(22:33):
just think about what you could do with your organization
if you were aligned like this. So I want to
read something from your book. I love reading from my
guest books, especially when there's some really powerful, punchy sentences
and lets you comment on it. But you say, when
a sensitive purpose is at the core of your job,
meaning that engagement becomes the force, that the force that
transforms routine into meaningful actions, duty into dedication, and indifference
(22:58):
into commitment. It's the invigorating poll. This is great, the
invigorating poll that invites someone to lean in, explore, learn
and innovate, create, collaborate and care about their work out
of a true desire to be of service. That is
so beautiful. Imagine ladies and gents, if you went to
work with that wind in your sales.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Wow. Yeah. And you know what's even better is that
that doesn't happen alone. Because now here we're talking about
team purpose and so all of that takes place in
the quote unquote home, that is the team that you
are on in an organization. And so another way to
say it is that the team is the functional unit
of purpose in the organization. The team is the functional
(23:41):
purpose of unit in the organization, meaning that that is
where you as an individual come to join your efforts
with those of others on a daily basis and then
align with that greater mission of the larger organization, which
then affects the world. So in the team purpose model,
the beauty of it is we like to say one
plus one equals three.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I love that, Yes, yeah, I love that. And I
also appreciate a couple of things that I thought were
so important to bring out here, especially since I've had
guests on talking about the importance of belonging. But you
even go so far as you say that belonging to
a team, especially if you're up to things like that together,
can be a big source of purpose.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
For sure. And not only is it motivating for the participants,
the team members of let's say that intact team, but
it also becomes magnetic that right, and so you start attracting,
whether it's clients or partners or other teams within the organization.
(24:44):
You start becoming magnetic because you have that clarity of vision,
that clarity of meaning, and that extra energy. Right, we
talk about that invigorating energy that you truly care about
what you do. And so that grows, the community grows
that I like to call it movement, right, It becomes
a movement when you have that sense of purpose.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
Yeah, belonging really unlocks psychological safety and trust, right, And
so that's that we often teach this model at Search
inside Yourself called the BITS model, which is belonging leads
to inclusion, which leads to trust, which leads to an
overall feeling of safety. I trust you, I feel safe here.
(25:29):
I can bring my best ideas, I can experiment, I
can fail and learn And basically that's the formula for innovation.
So and the very first component of it is belonging
and it happens in teams, and you can weave it
into your teams intentionally as part of the team's purpose.
So that's why it's in the book.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
And Rich do you remember while we were at Google
there was this big study done by the people Ops team.
So people op is the hr that the name of
the Hi team in Google, and they did this research
called Project Aristotle maybe some people have heard about it,
where they analyzed about two hundred and fifty teams within
(26:12):
Google with this magnifying glass, trying to understand what are
the drivers of high performing teams, what are the drivers
of those teams that really hit it out of the stadium.
And what they found was that indeed, that psychological safety
was at the top, but then in addition to that,
other drivers included impact, having clarity and the type of
(26:33):
impact you're having which is linked to meaning, and also
clarity and structure. Right, so when you have purpose, you
have that sense of direction, clarity, and then also the
impact the meaning site. So that really can catalyze and
elevate teams working together.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
And listeners and viewers. If you're not finding this hopelessly, yey,
I don't know what to do. This is just so hard, Okay,
So the next thing I want to do and go
to This is so important to situate for our listeners
and viewers, whether you are a team member yourself or
whether you're a leader, is this notion of your team's
purpose directly connecting the dots between your daily task and
(27:14):
that bigger picture. We all three of us know how
many individuals feel like they just can't see how their
work connects to the bigger hole, and therefore it's not motivating,
it's not meaningful. They can't see how it's connected. So
if one of you can speak to the notion of
how when we work through team purpose, we can see
that we can connect, that we can be fortified by
(27:35):
that bigger vision that we're going for.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Yeah, I like to call it line of sight. That's
a pretty common expression that maybe a lot of people
have heard about. But like, the team has a line
of sight to the organization's priorities, and therefore, through the team,
can you also learn about your line of sight and
how it works through and on the team to deliver
some of the organization's purpose. And so, like, if you're
ever wondering, like what am I doing here? What do
(27:59):
we even doing in this organization? Like, really, the team
is the place where a lot of that gets sorted out.
And that's why belonging to a team and harnessing the
team's power to be able to connect the dots, as
we like to say, is really critically important.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
I know, I'll just add to that, Yeah, Yeah, if
I may I'll just add that it also has to
do with the story would tell ourselves. Right, And so
if I'm working within an organization and I just say, oh,
I'm just doing this little part. I'm coding this one
if ten lines of code and that's all I'm doing,
(28:36):
that story you're telling yourself yourself is very different than
if you say, through the code that I am writing,
I am creating a brand new software to help students
in ten different countries around the world. Right, Like, what's
that story? And I think purpose and linking from the
individual to the team, to the organization to that big
(28:57):
mission that gives you that significant set, transcendence and sense
of meaning that is so important in motivating you day
to day.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Indeed, oh so so much so. And this conversation reminds
me I don't remember. It was a few years ago
that I had Marcus Buckingham on the podcast talking about
his book that he co wrote with Ashley Goodall good Will,
I forget his last name. It's called The Nine Lies
About Work. But what part of what they were situating
in that book was people don't join companies as much
(29:29):
as they joined teams, and for the same reason they
might leave a team. They also might leave a manager.
But in other words, the power the profundity of a
well focused team is we just can't under state that.
And then to go on to illustrate that further is
when one of the other things you talked about in
your book is you say purpose alignance, team members toward
(29:51):
a common goal, which fosters what a concept, clarity, effective
decision making, and collaboration. We know where we're supposed to
row the boat. We don't actually need somebody here immediately
every day in and day out to be able to
show us because we know together what our purpose is
in alignment with the organization. That is so powerful when
you think about how that directs team efforts, how it
(30:13):
directs effectiveness, high performance. All of us are interested in
high performance.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Yes, comment on that.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
Absolutely, And you know I said this earlier, but it's
because the team is something like your home in the organization, right,
and so the qualitative experience you have on your team,
the feeling of it, the connection that you sense there,
the relationships that you have on the team, brings all
of that. The alignment, the priorities, your specific role, the
(30:41):
team's deliverables, It brings it all alive. But at a
very human level. And so it's where you can go
to sort of say this is hard, or like what
should I do now? Or I have this great idea,
what do you all think of this? That's the place
to go, kind of like gathering around a dinner table, right,
but like instead of at home, it's and you might
(31:02):
not be having a meal always at work, but like
you're gathering to be able to have that experience in
the ideal way that a team would work. If a
team is really creating that sense of belonging, in that
sense of purpose, it's the home that allows you to align.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
But you know what's interesting is that completely agree with
you rich there and teams are not doing it. It's
very rare to find a team, an intact team that
actually has an explicit, a written purpose statement. We have
it for organizations, right, and sometimes it's just like copy
on a website that's forgotten. So we'll talk about that next.
(31:41):
But for teams, it's kind of rare to sit down
and say, why do we exist as a team, What
are we supposed to be doing, what's our purpose, what's
our what are deliverables? And oftentimes it's just linked to outcomes.
From the business but not the bigger purpose. And so
one of themations we have in the book is for
(32:02):
teams to sit down and together go create a purpose statement.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
That's a perfect way to send us on to our break,
so our listeners and viewers can kind of contemplate that
a noodle that over. I'm your host, Doctor Release Cortez,
who on the air of doctor Rich Fernandez, who is
an independent practitioner of high performance and leadership coaching. We
also have Carolina Lasso, who is a purpose mentor and
the founder of Planari. We've been talking about their book,
The Purpose Reset, so we've been talking specifically about how
(32:30):
to apply this in teams. In this segment after the break,
we're going to talk about how to bring it into
the organizational overall level. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Doctor Release Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps company's
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite
a Lease to speak to your organization, please visit her
(33:14):
at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get
your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose
with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or
to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to
Alise A Lisee at elisecortes dot com. Now back to
(33:38):
working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. As you
know by now, my program is dedicated to empowering and
inspiring you along your journey to realize more of your potential.
If you want to learn more about how we can
work together and learn about the gusterer Now Academy for
leaders and individuals on various journeys alike, make your way
to Gusto dashnow dot com and then navigate to the
(34:04):
training tab to find the academy.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Love to have you join.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Us if you are just joining us. My guests are
doctor Rich Fernandez and Colorino Laso. They are co authors
of the Purpose Reset How reconnecting to what matters most
drives fulfillment and success. So for this last segment, we
will focus on the organizational level. Here and I just
wanted to situate to start here. I mean, I just
think there's so many incredibly compelling ROI reasons and whether
(34:29):
you're the CFO or whatever, this stuff ought to speak
to you. But let's talk about some of the some
of the reasons the economic factors that validate the importance
of a purpose reset for business. Can there's at least
three that you talk about, and as the chapters go on,
could you talk about those?
Speaker 5 (34:47):
Well? From an economic perspective, we know that the outcomes
for businesses or organizations are much better when employees feel
that they're connected to the organization's purpose. You know, employees
are seventy nine percent more motivated and thirty three percent
less likely to leave, for example, according to some of
(35:07):
the research. And then there's also the fact that innovation
is often unlocked at a much higher level when employees
feel that they're connected to the purpose. So it makes
good business sense just from a pure numbers perspective to
have clarity on what the organization's purpose is and make
it such that it is very alive for the people
(35:28):
who are in the organization.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
And it makes sense right because when you truly care
about your impact, when you truly care about that which
you're creating and your team, and there is that sense
of belonging. When we're just talking about you are more
likely to innovate, You're more likely to just express your creativity,
that sense of creating something new. You are more engaged,
(35:55):
as we talked about, and you collaborate better. Right, So
there is that sense of direction, clarity, collaboration, belonging, innovation,
risk taking, and resilience. There is a very strong link
between purpose and resilience because of course, when you care
about something, you're more likely to stand up again after
an obstacle, to try again, to just have that determination
(36:19):
to keep on trying despite any setbacks along the path.
So it makes sense that organizations have greater return have
better economics just from that angle alone. But you know what,
it also makes sense from a human perspective because we
want to have our employees, our team members, feel seen,
(36:41):
feel heard. We want their strength to be well utilized,
we want alignment with their values, we want them to
care and enjoy what they're doing. So it makes sense
from so many different perspectives.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
And there's one more thing that you talk about in
your book that I completely align with as well, when
it comes to the economic benefits of really operating from purpose,
and that speaks to the idea of service. So when
when the team members are really so aware and they're
living the purpose of the organization, they want to better
serve whoever the customer is, and that's where we see
a lot of innovation happen because they're so riveted and
(37:16):
so understand and care about that customer because they feel
cared for that, that's also where we see the innovation.
And I want to really celebrate that because you know,
we all talk about emotional intelligence and such, but I
think that that gets overlooked when we talk about why
innovation can be so organic. It's partly it's partly a
result of being so riveted on being of service.
Speaker 5 (37:39):
Yeah, exactly. You know, it's again, it's a motivating and
innovating factor in the organization because you are having an
impact that is connected with your core strengths and the
things you have to offer to the world. I was
reading a fun book called Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert,
and you talked about creative living as offering your internal
(38:02):
gifts outwardly in the world and having a clear purpose
unlocks that capacity for yourself to be a channel for
what you want to offer through your organization to impact
the world.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Sounds great to me.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Okay, So Cadarlin, know you mentioned something earlier about having
you know, purpose statements, purpose mission, vision value statements and
how for a lot of organizations they might be situated
somewhere in a wall that somebody would try to go
and you know, go read from it. It's not in
their hearts, or it's on the website someplace. And I
know the two because as part of the work that
I do, and so there is a disconnect between how
(38:38):
an organization is actually living that versus how it's dictated
on the wall, and there's an opportunity there to be
able to align those things. So let's just talk a
little bit about that. You know, how important it is
to really understand purpose, mission, vision values and align that
with the way that organizations actually live it and what
happens when they don't.
Speaker 5 (38:59):
M hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
So I can begin with that, and as you say it,
oftentimes it's something that one team comes up with, right,
So someone come up with our mission and vision statements
and our purpose statements, and so a sub group creates
them and as you're saying, that they post them on
a wall. But now that we're you know, a more hybrid,
(39:22):
more remote environment, people might not even see that new
employees get onboarded to the organization, and that may be
part or not of the onboarding process. And if it is,
it's just like read this thing, read read this one
pager kind of thing. Initially you've read it, right, yeah, yeah,
initially that you've read it, then you understand kind of thing.
Or it's on the website, but it is the one
(39:44):
page that never gets updated or reviewed. And and it
is so important because words matter so much. It is
so important to a make sure that is indeed what
you're aiming for, what you're working toward, too, that it's clear.
May I just say that some vision and mission statements
(40:06):
are so convoluted and like what one don't really mean
by this? Right, so unclear. They need to be clear
and they need to be lived most importantly if they
just sit on a piece of paper and what's the
point They need to You need to feel them in
your bone, you need to really care about them. They
(40:27):
need to be inspiring, motivating, aspirational and yet the pointing
the road that you're following. So they also need to
be realistic and relevant to what you're doing. So it's
really really important to go back and revisit it and
to make sure that everybody has clarity on it. I
think in the book we talk about an example of
(40:48):
a team that I was a part of, and the
vice presidents, our team lead, decided to print a beautiful
cards with a purpose statement. Yeah, she called it might
be called it our north star. And so each person
had when we were all on our desks in the office,
each person had by their desk this piece of paper
(41:10):
and it said, this is our north star. And so
every time you are questioning, like what is it that
I'm supposed to be doing, is this something I should prioritize,
you just go back and look at it and read it,
and he should be filled. And of course that's just
one example of something tactical that could be done. But
I think here we can be very creative in the
ways to bring to life those purpose statements to make
(41:34):
sure they are really integrated in everything that we do.
Otherwise people can go into a purpose drift. And I
let Rich.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
Talk about that, yeah, and I'll give some examples, you know,
because it really comes the other thing that I want
to share is that it comes down to what Aristotle
way back in ancient Greece in his first book on physics,
called first principles. So purpose is a first principle. We
have this in the book, meaning the core or a
foundational concept upon which every other concept is built. That's
(42:05):
what a first principle is. And purpose for an organization
is a first principle. Right. And so let me give
you an example, like a great example of and I
like to give example a non example as I like
to call it. Right, So, like at one point in time,
Boeing was known for engineering excellence. That was its first
in the world to deliver engineering excellence. Somewhere along the
(42:27):
way it experienced what we call a purpose drift, which
is it got away from its first principles. It got
away from that concept of engineering excellence is what we
are based on. It happened around the time of their
merger around with McDonald Douglas, which was focused very much
on cost cutting and efficiency, so that became a priority.
As a result of that, For example, the headquarters moved
(42:49):
from Seattle to the Chicago area, but manufacturing and production
was still in Seattle, and they were disconnected and quality
assurance fell off, and we know what's happened, numerous acts,
accidents all the way through this very year, but also
previous years with Lionaire and you know, Ethiopia and airlines
that were Boeing planes because qualities suffered. Here the United States,
(43:10):
a window blew out on an Alaska flight, right Boeing
plane because they lost sight of their first principles. But
a good example of a purpose reset that draws on
the first principle of purpose is CVS care Mark right
where they at a certain point decided to stop selling
tobacco products that cost them two billion dollars a year
(43:32):
in revenue. But what they understood was because they were there,
their first principles were the health and well being of people.
They decided that was inconsistent with it. They weren't going
to drift from their purpose and instead they were going
to double down and provide consultation services through their pharmacies
and eventually worked with insurance companies to the point where
(43:54):
they acquired one, which was EDNA, and they actually drastically
increased their revenue. You know, since taking that move so
in a certain way, making a decision to forego some
revenue to stay true to your first principles and your
purpose actually clarified their focus and help them expand. So
they had to decide to stop doing something in order
(44:15):
to remain on purpose and true their first principles. So
two good examples out there of organizations that really tried
to keep purpose alive. Remember way back in the beginning
of this conversation, it's an ongoing process. Oh, we've been
selling tobacco products. Is that consistent with our purpose? You know? Oh?
Are we still delivering engineering excellence? Wasn't that our original purpose? Right?
(44:37):
So the ongoing process of building that awareness and then
aligning your actions to deliver it, that's how we've always
defined purpose as a verb.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
So excellent to bring that home, Rich, I want to
see if we can get in two more things really quick,
because we're close to time here. I do want to
situate the importance of also enrolling external stakeholders in this
whole purpose quest, and that means you know your customers,
you're in investors, regulators, anybody who can influence the success
or failure of the organization. I do something called purpose
visioneering to bring those parties together to be able to
(45:09):
line over that. But I think a lot of organizations
are not considering those other parties when it comes to
their purposed purpose process. If you could just speak very
briefly to that and then have one more question before
we go.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Yeah, and if you think about a brand's purpose, that's
actually a beautiful process for a brand to understand what
it stands for and how does that have an impact
on all of those external stakeholders. So a big one
that we can highlight right now is customers. Consumers, people
(45:44):
buy the brand because of the impact it's going to
have on the planet, on the world societies, not just
for the product or service itself, right, And we've seen
so many examples of that. We talk about many samples
of that in the book, And so just the importance
of really understanding that people will pay, will vote with their.
Speaker 6 (46:08):
Dollars, yes, their fear are not or their feet exactly,
and whether or not you are aligned with a purpose
that feels right to people.
Speaker 4 (46:18):
And I think that's growing with new generations.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
I find that really so exciting. I feel like it's
just so civilized and it's such so conscient, conscionable and such.
The last question I want to get to here is
I want to situate because if people are listening to
this are like, yeah, this sounds really really great and
it's not my job and I can't do anything about that,
and guess what it is and you can. And so
I really like how you talk about a purpose reset
(46:41):
for an organization can involve any role, whether you're a
leader or a founder, whether you're part of the people
or culture teams, whether you're an employee, whether you're a customer.
I think that is so empowering if you could just
briefly speak to that.
Speaker 5 (46:56):
It goes to things like perception and narrative and what
you tell yourself and how do you understand your role?
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Right.
Speaker 5 (47:01):
Love that story about like they were asking someone was
like taking a tour of NASA and they were asking
in Jenner, what do you do around here? And he
basically said, I help put people on the moon. And
so like, really seeing that through line, that connectivity throughout
is what we'll keep that purpose alive on an ongoing basis.
Speaker 4 (47:22):
So we've come close to the end here.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
I want to give you both a chance to say
close and say, like thirty seconds each year, you know
that the show's listened by people around the world who
are interested in either trying to become part of an
ourization that is doing what we're talking about here. They're
trying to become better leaders versions of themselves, or they're
just trying to be trying to step onto this purpose
path individually? What would you each like to leave them with?
Speaker 4 (47:50):
I can start with First of all, you just serve
to live a life of meaning and purpose. It's not
just for a few lucky ones you, every single person
who serves that number one, number two. Purpose is not
just about work. Meaning is not just about work. And
(48:11):
even though of course this conversation focuses on that there
are so many sources of meaning and fulfillment out there,
go out and seek them, go out and live them.
And three, take action because the only way you're going
to get that immediate feedback on whether something feels aligned
or not is by doing it, by taking action. So
keep on going on your purpose path. You're already walking it.
Speaker 5 (48:36):
And my encouragement would be to know that purpose is
a practice and whatever you practice grows stronger. Though there
are ways you can practice developing clarity about purpose and
aligning your everyday actions and behaviors towards that awareness, and
in that way you practice purpose and keep practicing it
(48:56):
throughout your lifetime, throughout your working career and beyond, because
that's what keeps it alive and strengthens it purpose as
a practice.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
I am so delighted to know both of you, to
have learned from you, to be inspired by you. And
now guess what, you know, You're stuck with me. You
can't get away from me. So thank you Carolina, Thank
you Rich for being on working and purpose, sharing your
beautiful work, your hearts, and your souls. So good to
have you on. Thank you, thank you, thank you for listening.
Thanks absolutely and devouring your book. I loved it. Listeners
(49:26):
and viewers, you are going to want to be connected
to both of these people. I would tell you to
first start by going to LinkedIn and finding them both.
You have Carolina Lasso so c A r O l
I n A Lasso is l A S s O
and you have Rich Fernandez r I c H and
the Fernandez f E r n A n D Easy.
(49:47):
You can also find more about the book on Carolina's website,
which is Carolina Lasso dot com. Last week, if you
missed the live show, you can always catch it be
recorded podcast. We were on your professor Thaudius Metz talking
about the decades long work he's had investing in meaning
in life and meaning in work research. It was very
chew a conversation that helps really explain why meaning is
(50:09):
so important to people's lives for fulfillment, performance and vitality.
Next week we'll be on air with the Beautiful African
Women due of Funke Michaels and Absa Ning will be
talking about their book Modern Leadership, Inspired by Mother Nature.
The book is one part a call for women to
help and support and champion one another across life, and
(50:29):
one part a delightful deep dive into how ten different
animals can give us insight into being better leaders, starting
with the bee, to the ant, to the owl, and
the octopus to name justife. It is a very fresh
take on how we humans can be enlarged and more
effective by immersing ourselves in the wisdom of nature. See
you then, remember that work is one of the best
(50:49):
adventures and means of realizing our potential and making the
impact we crave and can give us the opportunity to
do business in a way that betters the world. So
let's work on purpose.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program, be sure to
tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes,
each week on W four CY. Together, we'll create a
world where business operates conscientiously. Leadership inspires and passion performance,
and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning
and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's Work on Purpose.
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W four
CY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or
comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you
(00:20):
for choosing W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the
answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose
at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their
lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization
that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their
highest potential. Business can be such a force for good
in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide
(00:51):
guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we
all want Working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, doctor
Elise Cortez.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Welcome back to the Working on Purpose program, which is
then brought to you with passionate pride Since February of
twenty fifteen. Thanks for tuning in this week. Great to
have you. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. If we've
not met before and you don't know me, I'm a
workforce advisor, organizational psychologist, management consultant, logo therapist, speaker and author.
My team and I at gusta Now help companies to
enliven and fortify their operations by building a HI dynamic
(01:26):
high performance culture, inspirational leadership, and nurturing managers activated by
meaning and purpose. Many organizations are not aware of how
critical it is to invest in developing their leaders and
managers not just for their own effectiveness, but also to
avoid burnout and to keep them fulfilled. And did you
know that inspired employees outperform their satisfied peers by a
factor of two point twenty five to one. In other words,
(01:48):
inspiration is good for the bottom line. You can learn
more about us and know we can work together at
gustodashnow dot com or my personal site Elise Coortes dot com.
Getting into today's program we have with us at Dynamic Duel.
We have doctor rich Fernandez, who has dedicated his career
to building more purposeful mindful and high performing workplaces. An
independent he's an a practitioner that is stewarding high performance
(02:11):
and leadership. And we also have with us Carolina Lasso,
who is a purpose mentor and the founder of Plenari,
which is a purpose academy dedicated to unlocking your full
potential through transformative experiences. Rich and Carolina are are two
of the authors of The Purpose Reset. How reconnecting to
what matters drives fulfillment and success we should be talking
(02:33):
about today, specifically around the realms of first personal, then team,
then organizational. Rich joins us today from San Francisco and
Carolina hails from Toronto. Doctor Rich and Carolina, Welcome to
Working on Purpose. Hello, really great to be with you.
And as we talked about before you got in there,
I slightly loved reading your book, The Purpose Reset. I
(02:56):
really got so much out of it. Took so many
copious notes and I was like, is it time? It
is it time?
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Let's get them on. So it is time here, it
would be good. It's time.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Well for those of you, for our audience members who
have not read your book yet and haven't really dove
into it, Let's just briefly situate where you both came from,
because you have diverse experiences that brought you into this
same transformative purpose space. Could you just briefly each narrate
a bit about where you came from and why what
(03:27):
brought you together to write the book together.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Yeah, I'm happy to start. It's great to be here,
by the way, doctor release, and lovely to be with
your audience. And this is a topic that I have
been pretty much living my entire life and still do.
It's consistent with how we see purpose, which is an
ongoing process. And that ongoing process of aligning oneself with
(03:50):
what's most important, which we'll talk about more, has been
something that's been true for my whole career. I studied
and got a PhD in psychology, but eventually went into
industry pretty quickly after the PhD and worked in banking,
and then I went over to the technology sector as
a psychologist in leadership and learning and organization development, and
(04:12):
always I noticed that people and organizations, as well as
leaders within those organizations who knew what their purpose was
and how to align with the purpose of the organization
always outperformed. So it became an enduring question for me.
I eventually wound up at Google, which is something Kadalina
and I have in common. We both worked at Google.
(04:32):
I was head of executive Education, so I really had
a front seat view to leadership and how they were
carrying out purpose and its impact on the world. Eventually,
I left Google and I went to run Search Inside
Yourself Leadership Institute, which is a nonprofit that spun out
of Google and taught some of Google's leadership curriculum around
emotional intelligence. So all that weaves into this book The
(04:52):
Purpose Reset. Carlina and I worked at SII together and
that's how we started talking about this book.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Yeah, so some similar paths. But I think what's really
common between rich and I and also with the other
colleague who authored the book with us, Stepstern, is this
ongoing desire for more meaning and fulfillment. So in terms
of my story, I immigrated from Columbia and I was
(05:23):
doing all the things that I thought I needed to
do to be happy, right, So checking all of the
boxes and striving and working really hard, and you know,
graduated for Ledictorium, then Commerson speaker in college. Then I
got a scholarship to go to college, and then like
got jobs first and financial services in New York City
(05:46):
and meet an entertainment in Washington, DC. And then I
started working at Google. And I was there for seven
years and all throughout really trying so hard. And then
at a certain moment I paused and I said, wait
a second, is this what life is all about? And
is this my path? Is my purpose? And so asking
myself the big questions, I realized I wanted to do
(06:09):
something that was better aligned with my values and the
impact I wanted to have in the world, and something
that felt closer, more fulfilling, something more meaningful. And that's
when I found Rich and the rest of the team
and ended up quitting Google to join the Search Inside
your Self Leadership Institute and finding that connection between my
(06:32):
work and the impact I wanted to have by providing
these tools on emotional intelligence and mindfulness and resilience to organizations.
And eventually I also left, and now I decided to
go all in the time in the topic of purpose,
and so I founded my own Purpose Academy and I
am a purpose mentor so all things purpose. And so
(06:53):
one day we were talking about different things and our
colleague Steph talked about this idea of moving from ladder
to love I love that part of the book. Yes, yeah,
she wrote it down in an upkin and she showed
it to us. I think it was her last day
in our organization and she showed it to us and
I was like, oh my gosh, there's something here. Let's
(07:14):
talk about it. And we ended up developing the framework
that became then the book. And so we're so happy
that you have it in your hands right now and
that so many people get to read it.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
We are really three p's in a pod. The three
of us will step two, four pi's in a pod.
So I want to get through as much as I
can because listeners and viewers, there are so much there
wrote that is so actionable for you. So in the
first segment, we're talking about how to apply this stuff
on a personal level. So let's quickly talk about your
definition of purpose and let's talk about how to unpack it.
(07:47):
Just very briefly, but your definition is purpose is the
ongoing process of understanding and connecting strengths, values, and desired
impact with aligned actions to unlock your full potential and
be of service. So let's talk about those components a
little bit more deeply so that we can present them
for our listeners and viewers if we could.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
Yeah, I can. Maybe we should take it in parts, right, So,
because the definition has a few different key things to it. Yeah,
the very first one is that it's an ongoing process.
So purpose is a verb, it's not a noun. It's
something that's alive and living, and you have to always
kind of like nurture it. Just like a living thing.
You always have to be aware of it, you always
have to tune to it. And so that is the
(08:26):
very first part to understand it. It's an ongoing process
and not as a commodity that you could pull off
the shelf and all of a sudden, I have purpose
and I'm done. It's an ongoing life work. Then the
second part Karlina, I don't know, I'll kick it over
to you. Strengths, value.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Yeah, So we start there, right, and then it's the
light that illuminates the path on two key aspects based
on our research, One is awareness, becoming aware of everything
within you, your preferences, your strengths, your interests, your values. Right,
so awareness, and the second one is aligned to action
(08:59):
because you're aware about a lot of different things, but
if you don't take action, you won't have the opportunity
to receive real time feedback and really continue to align
within that path, within that journey. So it's a journey,
not a destination, and it's a combination of awareness and
align action. And we close with the part that it's
(09:22):
all about service. We cannot talk about purpose without service.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, you know. I remember some years ago when I
was speaking at a conference and the speaker in front
of me belt it out across the day. She said,
my purpose is to double my income, and I just cringed.
I was like, that is not.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Purpose, That's just a really fantastic goal, don't you know,
conflate these things.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Yeah, absolutely, because also it comes from an internal place.
We talked about strengths, you know, and values and desired impact,
and we all have strengths, we all have values, and
we all want to have some sort of impact, even
if it's small, if it's close, if it's out there
in the world. We all have that, and so it's
important to bring that forward and you add all that
together and in an equal service, you serve someone. Everybody
(10:11):
serves someone. And so our thing that was saying about
awareness and intentionality, the intentional about you know, what strengths
you want to bring and who you might wish to serve.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
And I completely align with.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
There's really nothing in your book that I didn't completely
align with, and I also wanted to situate for our
listeners and viewers. When you think about, you know, what
is the work engagement from a personal level. Maybe it's
not obvious to you, but really, when we talk about
being engaged in your work as an individual, what you
say in your book is it's being involved, enthusiastic, having
a dedication to it, having a deeper emotional connection to
(10:46):
your work that is characterized by a higher level of energy, focus,
intrinsic motivation. You're not just passively completing tasks. You're actively
invested in the work and it's end result. And when
you situate that, listeners and viewers imagine, have you felt
like that? Are you in a job like that?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Maybe?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Maybe not? Well, Actually, if you live in the United States,
the chances that you are in that kind of a
place are about thirty percent, and if more likely, that's
seventy percent. That you're not in that place. According to
Gallup's research, that's right.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
True, or that you may be within that right now,
but you can probably relate to not being engaged, that
feeling of emptiness, lack of fulfillment, lack of motivation, that
sensation that what you're doing is either not aligned with
your values, your interests, your strength, or the impact that
you want to have in the world. And it has
(11:40):
to deal with intrinsic motivation, right, so that which comes
from within, not necessarily the external, rewards.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
The best kind, so so powerful. Now we have got
to situate your full model here of the what, why,
and who, and I will tell you have already passed
us on to a couple of people to help them
along their path.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Including my daughter. That's so meaningful.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I told him, I told him this is you know
this this week's podcast guests, and this is what they're
they're up to. I think this will help you.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
So let's do this.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
I would love for us start about the four questions
that are under each of these buckets. However you want
to do this, because this is so powerful, Carolina and
rich which one of you wants to take this?
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Well, Ana, if you maybe share a little bit about
those questions, because of what I would like to do
is share an example from my own experience, my own
working experience. Once you talk about what those are okay.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
I love that sounds great. So our framework is at
the intersection. We believe that the purpose reset is at
the intersection of three key elements, the what, the why,
and the who? What why and who? Right? So under
what what we're talking about here is what are your
top strengths and skills? What are your interests? When do
(12:57):
you find yourself in a state of flow right timelessness,
that sense of being completely immersed in an activity, and
what activities bring you into that state of fulfillment where
you're having the impact you want? So it's the what.
It's the awareness of those aspects of your what A
(13:17):
little bit of a swat analysis for your own life
as the what. So let's hear an example.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
On that rich So I will use the example of
earlier in my career. I used to work at eBay
and I used to think, what do I have I'm
a psychologist, what do I have to offer an e
commerce company working with its leaders? I was running learning
and organization development, and I realized I can really facilitate
the growth of leaders and their conversations with each other
(13:43):
so that they can ensure that the platform is working optimally,
which will get to my who later, But let me
just pause there and say I was able to use
my strengths in facilitating growth of leaders leadership development to
help them have eBay be as successful as it could.
That was my what love it?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Tom?
Speaker 5 (14:03):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
And sometimes we know other people's strengths and values and
interests better than we know our own. So once again
it goes back to that awareness, that sense of depth
about self knowledge, self awareness. The second one is why,
the big why, right, So what moves me? Why do
I care about this and not that? What are my values?
(14:27):
What do I stand up for? What gives me that
sense of meaning? Once again, intrinsic motivation, that which really
moves me? The why do I want to wake up
and go and strive for something? Work for something, side
for something? What are the causes that moves me? What
legacy do I want to leave behind? So that's your
(14:48):
big why, that catalyst for action mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
And so what that looked like for me when I
worked at eBay was that I realized I wanted to
be a force for good. I knew that that's I
wanted to apply my skills in service to people into
the world to make it a better place. Basically, then
the extent I can did a little drop that I could,
and I realized it was working at eBay for me,
(15:13):
enabling a force for good. And when I got there
and I went to my first seller conference, I realized
that the majority of people who who operate the platform
are people who are running family run businesses out of
their garages shipping. This was the early days of eBay,
you know, shipping stuff out to the world and making
a living doing it and getting people stuff like that
they maybe couldn't get elsewhere. And so I realized that
there was an economic force for good. It was giving
(15:35):
opportunity to a broad array of people. It was a
force for good. So it aligned with my values, my why.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
That depth of alignment amazing. And then the last category,
so again we talked about the what and the why,
and the last one is the who. And here we
want to offer a combination of two different types of
people or two different audiences. The first one is who
do you want to serve? Going back to the idea
that purpose is all about service. Then who's on the
(16:04):
other side of that equation, who do you want to
support help walk walk this path of purpose with the
other one is Who do you admire? Right, is there
someone who perhaps has walked this path before that you
look up to that you would want to follow their footsteps.
(16:24):
I always send to recommend to people to analyze their Instagram,
like who do you follow? Who do you admire? What's there?
Are there any common trends or patterns or characteristics of
the people you admire and look up to? And the
last one is who do you want to become? So
it's not necessarily about the doing, but this is about
(16:47):
being who do I want to become? What kind of person?
And so that combination of the who who do you
want to serve? Who do you look up to? Who
do you want to kind of follow their footsteps? And
who do you want to become?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Perfect anything you wanted to add to that rich for
your own experience just.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
To round it out. Yeah, that eBay experience. Who was
the mission was to create economic opportunity for all? And
so yeah, that's who I wanted to serve and who
I wanted to become. And doing that was again like
that catalyst, somebody who can help the people who have
the technical skills to enable that in the world. So
I really was at eBay. I had this experience of
(17:30):
being energized, engaged focus. You know, for the forty years
or so that I was there, it was really it
felt like I was living My purpose was very alive,
Let's put it that way, because of the who, what,
and why I served that company with its purpose as
an organization aligned with my purpose personally.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
And this is so powerful.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
This is going to help our listeners and viewers, I think,
really get better connected because otherwise purpose is so abstract
for a lot of people. So this is amazing. Let's
let our listeners and viewers just reflect on what you've
just here because it's powerful. And as we'll take our
first break, I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez. We've put
on the eric doctor rich Fernandez, who is an independent
practitioner of high performance and leadership coaching, and we also
(18:10):
have with us Carolina Lasso, who is a purpose mentor
and the founder of Planari. We've been talking a bit
about how we can start to really apply how to
bring purpose into our personal lives. Now after the break,
we're going to talk about how to create it and
live it in our teams. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite
a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her
(19:03):
at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get
your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose
with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or
to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to
Alise A Lisee at eliscortes dot com. Now back to
(19:27):
working on purpose.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Thanks for staining with us, and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes, as I
too dedicated helping create a world where organizations thrive because
they're people thrive. They're led by inspirational leaders that help
them find and contribute their greatness. And we do business
at Betters the World. I keep researching and writing my
own books. So what are my latest is called the
Great Revitalization. How activating meaning and purpose can radically enliven
(19:54):
your business and I wrote to help leaders understand today's
very diverse and discerning workforce and what they want and
need from you, and then offer twenty two best practices
to help equip you to provide that for them in
your culture, in your environment. You can find my books
on Amazon or at my personal site at least Cortes
dot com if you are just now joining us. My
guests are doctor Brich Fernandez and Carolina Laso. They are
(20:17):
co authors of The Purpose Reset, How reconnecting to what
matters most strives fulfillment and success. So for this next
part we're focused on the team element here, but before
we do that, I think it's incredibly helpful for us
to talk about that beautiful framework that you situated, that
visual that really shows the beneficial ripple effects of purpose
(20:37):
alignment across the three levels of organization, team, and personal.
If one of you could situate that for.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Us, Yeah, for sure. So the cover of our book,
if you noticed, has some ripples and so that it
is a subtle symbol for us to indicate the importance
and the umplifying the multiplier effect of purpose. So starting
with the individual, when you're feeling aligned with your purpose
(21:07):
and with that of your team and that of your organization.
Then you start feeling more inspired, more motivated, more engaged,
and we talked about the in forms of engagement at
the team level. Then you feel like you belong, that
you can collaborate more easily, that you can commit and
be accountable for your work. And then you begin to
(21:28):
connect at a deeper level with your organization to be
an advocate for the mission, the big vision of that organization.
And then you end up having this sense of pride.
I am proud to work at an organization and within
my team beason what we do, the impact we have,
and the way we work together. So that's the visual
(21:51):
we have and how it takes you from individual to
team to organization. And I think we can all feel
it in our bodies right, Like we know and we're
proud of something. We're proud of being part of the movement,
a company of culture, and I think we also know
when we're not that proud, when we're not that inspired
by the work we do.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I just think that that is so crisp and tight.
I really applaud how you've created that. It's just and
it captures so much of what I have certainly understood
internally over all these years of investigating and working with
purpose too. But that is just tight and the listeners
and viewers, if you at whatever level you're looking at
this as an individual, as a team member, or if
you are a leader or an owner of an organization,
(22:33):
just think about what you could do with your organization
if you were aligned like this. So I want to
read something from your book. I love reading from my
guest books, especially when there's some really powerful, punchy sentences
and lets you comment on it. But you say, when
a sensitive purpose is at the core of your job,
meaning that engagement becomes the force, that the force that
transforms routine into meaningful actions, duty into dedication, and indifference
(22:58):
into commitment. It's the invigorating poll. This is great, the
invigorating poll that invites someone to lean in, explore, learn
and innovate, create, collaborate and care about their work out
of a true desire to be of service. That is
so beautiful. Imagine ladies and gents, if you went to
work with that wind in your sales.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Wow. Yeah. And you know what's even better is that
that doesn't happen alone. Because now here we're talking about
team purpose and so all of that takes place in
the quote unquote home, that is the team that you
are on in an organization. And so another way to
say it is that the team is the functional unit
of purpose in the organization. The team is the functional
(23:41):
purpose of unit in the organization, meaning that that is
where you as an individual come to join your efforts
with those of others on a daily basis and then
align with that greater mission of the larger organization, which
then affects the world. So in the team purpose model,
the beauty of it is we like to say one
plus one equals three.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I love that, Yes, yeah, I love that. And I
also appreciate a couple of things that I thought were
so important to bring out here, especially since I've had
guests on talking about the importance of belonging. But you
even go so far as you say that belonging to
a team, especially if you're up to things like that together,
can be a big source of purpose.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
For sure. And not only is it motivating for the participants,
the team members of let's say that intact team, but
it also becomes magnetic that right, and so you start attracting,
whether it's clients or partners or other teams within the organization.
(24:44):
You start becoming magnetic because you have that clarity of vision,
that clarity of meaning, and that extra energy. Right, we
talk about that invigorating energy that you truly care about
what you do. And so that grows, the community grows
that I like to call it movement, right, It becomes
a movement when you have that sense of purpose.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
Yeah, belonging really unlocks psychological safety and trust, right, And
so that's that we often teach this model at Search
inside Yourself called the BITS model, which is belonging leads
to inclusion, which leads to trust, which leads to an
overall feeling of safety. I trust you, I feel safe here.
(25:29):
I can bring my best ideas, I can experiment, I
can fail and learn And basically that's the formula for innovation.
So and the very first component of it is belonging
and it happens in teams, and you can weave it
into your teams intentionally as part of the team's purpose.
So that's why it's in the book.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
And Rich do you remember while we were at Google
there was this big study done by the people Ops team.
So people op is the hr that the name of
the Hi team in Google, and they did this research
called Project Aristotle maybe some people have heard about it,
where they analyzed about two hundred and fifty teams within
(26:12):
Google with this magnifying glass, trying to understand what are
the drivers of high performing teams, what are the drivers
of those teams that really hit it out of the stadium.
And what they found was that indeed, that psychological safety
was at the top, but then in addition to that,
other drivers included impact, having clarity and the type of
(26:33):
impact you're having which is linked to meaning, and also
clarity and structure. Right, so when you have purpose, you
have that sense of direction, clarity, and then also the
impact the meaning site. So that really can catalyze and
elevate teams working together.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
And listeners and viewers. If you're not finding this hopelessly, yey,
I don't know what to do. This is just so hard, Okay,
So the next thing I want to do and go
to This is so important to situate for our listeners
and viewers, whether you are a team member yourself or
whether you're a leader, is this notion of your team's
purpose directly connecting the dots between your daily task and
(27:14):
that bigger picture. We all three of us know how
many individuals feel like they just can't see how their
work connects to the bigger hole, and therefore it's not motivating,
it's not meaningful. They can't see how it's connected. So
if one of you can speak to the notion of
how when we work through team purpose, we can see
that we can connect, that we can be fortified by
(27:35):
that bigger vision that we're going for.
Speaker 5 (27:37):
Yeah, I like to call it line of sight. That's
a pretty common expression that maybe a lot of people
have heard about. But like, the team has a line
of sight to the organization's priorities, and therefore, through the team,
can you also learn about your line of sight and
how it works through and on the team to deliver
some of the organization's purpose. And so, like, if you're
ever wondering, like what am I doing here? What do
(27:59):
we even doing in this organization? Like, really, the team
is the place where a lot of that gets sorted out.
And that's why belonging to a team and harnessing the
team's power to be able to connect the dots, as
we like to say, is really critically important.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
I know, I'll just add to that, Yeah, Yeah, if
I may I'll just add that it also has to
do with the story would tell ourselves. Right, And so
if I'm working within an organization and I just say, oh,
I'm just doing this little part. I'm coding this one
if ten lines of code and that's all I'm doing,
(28:36):
that story you're telling yourself yourself is very different than
if you say, through the code that I am writing,
I am creating a brand new software to help students
in ten different countries around the world. Right, Like, what's
that story? And I think purpose and linking from the
individual to the team, to the organization to that big
(28:57):
mission that gives you that significant set, transcendence and sense
of meaning that is so important in motivating you day
to day.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Indeed, oh so so much so. And this conversation reminds
me I don't remember. It was a few years ago
that I had Marcus Buckingham on the podcast talking about
his book that he co wrote with Ashley Goodall good Will,
I forget his last name. It's called The Nine Lies
About Work. But what part of what they were situating
in that book was people don't join companies as much
(29:29):
as they joined teams, and for the same reason they
might leave a team. They also might leave a manager.
But in other words, the power the profundity of a
well focused team is we just can't under state that.
And then to go on to illustrate that further is
when one of the other things you talked about in
your book is you say purpose alignance, team members toward
(29:51):
a common goal, which fosters what a concept, clarity, effective
decision making, and collaboration. We know where we're supposed to
row the boat. We don't actually need somebody here immediately
every day in and day out to be able to
show us because we know together what our purpose is
in alignment with the organization. That is so powerful when
you think about how that directs team efforts, how it
(30:13):
directs effectiveness, high performance. All of us are interested in
high performance.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Yes, comment on that.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
Absolutely, And you know I said this earlier, but it's
because the team is something like your home in the organization, right,
and so the qualitative experience you have on your team,
the feeling of it, the connection that you sense there,
the relationships that you have on the team, brings all
of that. The alignment, the priorities, your specific role, the
(30:41):
team's deliverables, It brings it all alive. But at a
very human level. And so it's where you can go
to sort of say this is hard, or like what
should I do now? Or I have this great idea,
what do you all think of this? That's the place
to go, kind of like gathering around a dinner table, right,
but like instead of at home, it's and you might
(31:02):
not be having a meal always at work, but like
you're gathering to be able to have that experience in
the ideal way that a team would work. If a
team is really creating that sense of belonging, in that
sense of purpose, it's the home that allows you to align.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
But you know what's interesting is that completely agree with
you rich there and teams are not doing it. It's
very rare to find a team, an intact team that
actually has an explicit, a written purpose statement. We have
it for organizations, right, and sometimes it's just like copy
on a website that's forgotten. So we'll talk about that next.
(31:41):
But for teams, it's kind of rare to sit down
and say, why do we exist as a team, What
are we supposed to be doing, what's our purpose, what's
our what are deliverables? And oftentimes it's just linked to outcomes.
From the business but not the bigger purpose. And so
one of themations we have in the book is for
(32:02):
teams to sit down and together go create a purpose statement.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
That's a perfect way to send us on to our break,
so our listeners and viewers can kind of contemplate that
a noodle that over. I'm your host, Doctor Release Cortez,
who on the air of doctor Rich Fernandez, who is
an independent practitioner of high performance and leadership coaching. We
also have Carolina Lasso, who is a purpose mentor and
the founder of Planari. We've been talking about their book,
The Purpose Reset, so we've been talking specifically about how
(32:30):
to apply this in teams. In this segment after the break,
we're going to talk about how to bring it into
the organizational overall level. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Doctor Release Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps company's
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite
a Lease to speak to your organization, please visit her
(33:14):
at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get
your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose
with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or
to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to
Alise A Lisee at elisecortes dot com. Now back to
(33:38):
working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. As you
know by now, my program is dedicated to empowering and
inspiring you along your journey to realize more of your potential.
If you want to learn more about how we can
work together and learn about the gusterer Now Academy for
leaders and individuals on various journeys alike, make your way
to Gusto dashnow dot com and then navigate to the
(34:04):
training tab to find the academy.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
Love to have you join.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Us if you are just joining us. My guests are
doctor Rich Fernandez and Colorino Laso. They are co authors
of the Purpose Reset How reconnecting to what matters most
drives fulfillment and success. So for this last segment, we
will focus on the organizational level. Here and I just
wanted to situate to start here. I mean, I just
think there's so many incredibly compelling ROI reasons and whether
(34:29):
you're the CFO or whatever, this stuff ought to speak
to you. But let's talk about some of the some
of the reasons the economic factors that validate the importance
of a purpose reset for business. Can there's at least
three that you talk about, and as the chapters go on,
could you talk about those?
Speaker 5 (34:47):
Well? From an economic perspective, we know that the outcomes
for businesses or organizations are much better when employees feel
that they're connected to the organization's purpose. You know, employees
are seventy nine percent more motivated and thirty three percent
less likely to leave, for example, according to some of
(35:07):
the research. And then there's also the fact that innovation
is often unlocked at a much higher level when employees
feel that they're connected to the purpose. So it makes
good business sense just from a pure numbers perspective to
have clarity on what the organization's purpose is and make
it such that it is very alive for the people
(35:28):
who are in the organization.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
And it makes sense right because when you truly care
about your impact, when you truly care about that which
you're creating and your team, and there is that sense
of belonging. When we're just talking about you are more
likely to innovate, You're more likely to just express your creativity,
that sense of creating something new. You are more engaged,
(35:55):
as we talked about, and you collaborate better. Right, So
there is that sense of direction, clarity, collaboration, belonging, innovation,
risk taking, and resilience. There is a very strong link
between purpose and resilience because of course, when you care
about something, you're more likely to stand up again after
an obstacle, to try again, to just have that determination
(36:19):
to keep on trying despite any setbacks along the path.
So it makes sense that organizations have greater return have
better economics just from that angle alone. But you know what,
it also makes sense from a human perspective because we
want to have our employees, our team members, feel seen,
(36:41):
feel heard. We want their strength to be well utilized,
we want alignment with their values, we want them to
care and enjoy what they're doing. So it makes sense
from so many different perspectives.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
And there's one more thing that you talk about in
your book that I completely align with as well, when
it comes to the economic benefits of really operating from purpose,
and that speaks to the idea of service. So when
when the team members are really so aware and they're
living the purpose of the organization, they want to better
serve whoever the customer is, and that's where we see
a lot of innovation happen because they're so riveted and
(37:16):
so understand and care about that customer because they feel
cared for that, that's also where we see the innovation.
And I want to really celebrate that because you know,
we all talk about emotional intelligence and such, but I
think that that gets overlooked when we talk about why
innovation can be so organic. It's partly it's partly a
result of being so riveted on being of service.
Speaker 5 (37:39):
Yeah, exactly. You know, it's again, it's a motivating and
innovating factor in the organization because you are having an
impact that is connected with your core strengths and the
things you have to offer to the world. I was
reading a fun book called Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert,
and you talked about creative living as offering your internal
(38:02):
gifts outwardly in the world and having a clear purpose
unlocks that capacity for yourself to be a channel for
what you want to offer through your organization to impact
the world.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Sounds great to me.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Okay, So Cadarlin, know you mentioned something earlier about having
you know, purpose statements, purpose mission, vision value statements and
how for a lot of organizations they might be situated
somewhere in a wall that somebody would try to go
and you know, go read from it. It's not in
their hearts, or it's on the website someplace. And I
know the two because as part of the work that
I do, and so there is a disconnect between how
(38:38):
an organization is actually living that versus how it's dictated
on the wall, and there's an opportunity there to be
able to align those things. So let's just talk a
little bit about that. You know, how important it is
to really understand purpose, mission, vision values and align that
with the way that organizations actually live it and what
happens when they don't.
Speaker 5 (38:59):
M hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
So I can begin with that, and as you say it,
oftentimes it's something that one team comes up with, right,
So someone come up with our mission and vision statements
and our purpose statements, and so a sub group creates
them and as you're saying, that they post them on
a wall. But now that we're you know, a more hybrid,
(39:22):
more remote environment, people might not even see that new
employees get onboarded to the organization, and that may be
part or not of the onboarding process. And if it is,
it's just like read this thing, read read this one
pager kind of thing. Initially you've read it, right, yeah, yeah,
initially that you've read it, then you understand kind of thing.
Or it's on the website, but it is the one
(39:44):
page that never gets updated or reviewed. And and it
is so important because words matter so much. It is
so important to a make sure that is indeed what
you're aiming for, what you're working toward, too, that it's clear.
May I just say that some vision and mission statements
(40:06):
are so convoluted and like what one don't really mean
by this? Right, so unclear. They need to be clear
and they need to be lived most importantly if they
just sit on a piece of paper and what's the
point They need to You need to feel them in
your bone, you need to really care about them. They
(40:27):
need to be inspiring, motivating, aspirational and yet the pointing
the road that you're following. So they also need to
be realistic and relevant to what you're doing. So it's
really really important to go back and revisit it and
to make sure that everybody has clarity on it. I
think in the book we talk about an example of
(40:48):
a team that I was a part of, and the
vice presidents, our team lead, decided to print a beautiful
cards with a purpose statement. Yeah, she called it might
be called it our north star. And so each person
had when we were all on our desks in the office,
each person had by their desk this piece of paper
(41:10):
and it said, this is our north star. And so
every time you are questioning, like what is it that
I'm supposed to be doing, is this something I should prioritize,
you just go back and look at it and read it,
and he should be filled. And of course that's just
one example of something tactical that could be done. But
I think here we can be very creative in the
ways to bring to life those purpose statements to make
(41:34):
sure they are really integrated in everything that we do.
Otherwise people can go into a purpose drift. And I
let Rich.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
Talk about that, yeah, and I'll give some examples, you know,
because it really comes the other thing that I want
to share is that it comes down to what Aristotle
way back in ancient Greece in his first book on physics,
called first principles. So purpose is a first principle. We
have this in the book, meaning the core or a
foundational concept upon which every other concept is built. That's
(42:05):
what a first principle is. And purpose for an organization
is a first principle. Right. And so let me give
you an example, like a great example of and I
like to give example a non example as I like
to call it. Right, So, like at one point in time,
Boeing was known for engineering excellence. That was its first
in the world to deliver engineering excellence. Somewhere along the
(42:27):
way it experienced what we call a purpose drift, which
is it got away from its first principles. It got
away from that concept of engineering excellence is what we
are based on. It happened around the time of their
merger around with McDonald Douglas, which was focused very much
on cost cutting and efficiency, so that became a priority.
As a result of that, For example, the headquarters moved
(42:49):
from Seattle to the Chicago area, but manufacturing and production
was still in Seattle, and they were disconnected and quality
assurance fell off, and we know what's happened, numerous acts,
accidents all the way through this very year, but also
previous years with Lionaire and you know, Ethiopia and airlines
that were Boeing planes because qualities suffered. Here the United States,
(43:10):
a window blew out on an Alaska flight, right Boeing
plane because they lost sight of their first principles. But
a good example of a purpose reset that draws on
the first principle of purpose is CVS care Mark right
where they at a certain point decided to stop selling
tobacco products that cost them two billion dollars a year
(43:32):
in revenue. But what they understood was because they were there,
their first principles were the health and well being of people.
They decided that was inconsistent with it. They weren't going
to drift from their purpose and instead they were going
to double down and provide consultation services through their pharmacies
and eventually worked with insurance companies to the point where
(43:54):
they acquired one, which was EDNA, and they actually drastically
increased their revenue. You know, since taking that move so
in a certain way, making a decision to forego some
revenue to stay true to your first principles and your
purpose actually clarified their focus and help them expand. So
they had to decide to stop doing something in order
(44:15):
to remain on purpose and true their first principles. So
two good examples out there of organizations that really tried
to keep purpose alive. Remember way back in the beginning
of this conversation, it's an ongoing process. Oh, we've been
selling tobacco products. Is that consistent with our purpose? You know? Oh?
Are we still delivering engineering excellence? Wasn't that our original purpose? Right?
(44:37):
So the ongoing process of building that awareness and then
aligning your actions to deliver it, that's how we've always
defined purpose as a verb.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
So excellent to bring that home, Rich, I want to
see if we can get in two more things really quick,
because we're close to time here. I do want to
situate the importance of also enrolling external stakeholders in this
whole purpose quest, and that means you know your customers,
you're in investors, regulators, anybody who can influence the success
or failure of the organization. I do something called purpose
visioneering to bring those parties together to be able to
(45:09):
line over that. But I think a lot of organizations
are not considering those other parties when it comes to
their purposed purpose process. If you could just speak very
briefly to that and then have one more question before
we go.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Yeah, and if you think about a brand's purpose, that's
actually a beautiful process for a brand to understand what
it stands for and how does that have an impact
on all of those external stakeholders. So a big one
that we can highlight right now is customers. Consumers, people
(45:44):
buy the brand because of the impact it's going to
have on the planet, on the world societies, not just
for the product or service itself, right, And we've seen
so many examples of that. We talk about many samples
of that in the book, And so just the importance
of really understanding that people will pay, will vote with their.
Speaker 6 (46:08):
Dollars, yes, their fear are not or their feet exactly,
and whether or not you are aligned with a purpose
that feels right to people.
Speaker 4 (46:18):
And I think that's growing with new generations.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
I find that really so exciting. I feel like it's
just so civilized and it's such so conscient, conscionable and such.
The last question I want to get to here is
I want to situate because if people are listening to
this are like, yeah, this sounds really really great and
it's not my job and I can't do anything about that,
and guess what it is and you can. And so
I really like how you talk about a purpose reset
(46:41):
for an organization can involve any role, whether you're a
leader or a founder, whether you're part of the people
or culture teams, whether you're an employee, whether you're a customer.
I think that is so empowering if you could just
briefly speak to that.
Speaker 5 (46:56):
It goes to things like perception and narrative and what
you tell yourself and how do you understand your role?
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Right.
Speaker 5 (47:01):
Love that story about like they were asking someone was
like taking a tour of NASA and they were asking
in Jenner, what do you do around here? And he
basically said, I help put people on the moon. And
so like, really seeing that through line, that connectivity throughout
is what we'll keep that purpose alive on an ongoing basis.
Speaker 4 (47:22):
So we've come close to the end here.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
I want to give you both a chance to say
close and say, like thirty seconds each year, you know
that the show's listened by people around the world who
are interested in either trying to become part of an
ourization that is doing what we're talking about here. They're
trying to become better leaders versions of themselves, or they're
just trying to be trying to step onto this purpose
path individually? What would you each like to leave them with?
Speaker 4 (47:50):
I can start with First of all, you just serve
to live a life of meaning and purpose. It's not
just for a few lucky ones you, every single person
who serves that number one, number two. Purpose is not
just about work. Meaning is not just about work. And
(48:11):
even though of course this conversation focuses on that there
are so many sources of meaning and fulfillment out there,
go out and seek them, go out and live them.
And three, take action because the only way you're going
to get that immediate feedback on whether something feels aligned
or not is by doing it, by taking action. So
keep on going on your purpose path. You're already walking it.
Speaker 5 (48:36):
And my encouragement would be to know that purpose is
a practice and whatever you practice grows stronger. Though there
are ways you can practice developing clarity about purpose and
aligning your everyday actions and behaviors towards that awareness, and
in that way you practice purpose and keep practicing it
(48:56):
throughout your lifetime, throughout your working career and beyond, because
that's what keeps it alive and strengthens it purpose as
a practice.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
I am so delighted to know both of you, to
have learned from you, to be inspired by you. And
now guess what, you know, You're stuck with me. You
can't get away from me. So thank you Carolina, Thank
you Rich for being on working and purpose, sharing your
beautiful work, your hearts, and your souls. So good to
have you on. Thank you, thank you, thank you for listening.
Thanks absolutely and devouring your book. I loved it. Listeners
(49:26):
and viewers, you are going to want to be connected
to both of these people. I would tell you to
first start by going to LinkedIn and finding them both.
You have Carolina Lasso so c A r O l
I n A Lasso is l A S s O
and you have Rich Fernandez r I c H and
the Fernandez f E r n A n D Easy.
(49:47):
You can also find more about the book on Carolina's website,
which is Carolina Lasso dot com. Last week, if you
missed the live show, you can always catch it be
recorded podcast. We were on your professor Thaudius Metz talking
about the decades long work he's had investing in meaning
in life and meaning in work research. It was very
chew a conversation that helps really explain why meaning is
(50:09):
so important to people's lives for fulfillment, performance and vitality.
Next week we'll be on air with the Beautiful African
Women due of Funke Michaels and Absa Ning will be
talking about their book Modern Leadership, Inspired by Mother Nature.
The book is one part a call for women to
help and support and champion one another across life, and
(50:29):
one part a delightful deep dive into how ten different
animals can give us insight into being better leaders, starting
with the bee, to the ant, to the owl, and
the octopus to name justife. It is a very fresh
take on how we humans can be enlarged and more
effective by immersing ourselves in the wisdom of nature. See
you then, remember that work is one of the best
(50:49):
adventures and means of realizing our potential and making the
impact we crave and can give us the opportunity to
do business in a way that betters the world. So
let's work on purpose.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program, be sure to
tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes,
each week on W four CY. Together, we'll create a
world where business operates conscientiously. Leadership inspires and passion performance,
and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning
and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's Work on Purpose.
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