How often do you sit down and think about why you do what you do?
Did you fall into this job or career by mistake? Was it just a good opportunity at the time? Did the organisation and the role inspire you? When you started in this role what difference did you want to make?
When we often work with clients on developing purpose, vision or values we find the following when it comes to their own role:
many of them haven’t tapped into why they do what they do for a long time
they’ve forgotten why they work at the organisation they do
They’ve disconnected with the difference they are looking to make in their role
When you’ve not connected with your personal why can you really bring the emotion and belief into creating purpose, vision and values for your organisation? Without it, the process can become pedestrian, lacking in connection and why.
Does it risk becoming just a set of words on the wall in reception or on coffee mugs? Can you truly engage your organisation in creating a new purpose if you haven’t made that emotional connection yourself, tapped into your personal why?
It’s not a difficult thing to do but we believe it is worth doing.
It helps teams connect together as they know why they’re all doing what they’re doing. It can support resilience as the belief can help you dig deep at times of real challenge. It can energise and drive you. It is infectious.
So where does the Statue of David come in?
A number of times I’ve brought a picture of David into a room. It’s a great talking point! But there is a serious point to it as well.
Using David to get everyone to think about what they do and why from the perspective of the head, heart, gut and groin (yes we usually see some giggles at mention of the groin). But it’s a really useful reminder of what you need to tap into when reflecting on those questions of why:
The head is the obvious one......it’s the sensible, rational reasons
The heart, sometimes less easy for people to think about but it is the things that you love
The gut, trickier again to tap into but the things that you feel and notice sometimes. You know the saying “I feel it in my gut”
The groin, this is less well considered but we like to think about it as the things that really stir you, drive you, those deeper feelings.
So the Statue of David is nothing to be feared. But it can be a really helpful tool to get you to think a little bit differently about why you do what you do and the difference you want to make.
If you connect with your personal why it will really help you when you work with your people to create your organisation’s purpose, vision and values.
It will be a whole lot easier.
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