Purpose-driven action learning enables organisations to navigate complexity by uniting everyone around a clear strategic purpose. Using Call Me's transformation as an example, the approach demonstrates how employees are empowered to continuously ask whether their actions build trust — thereby closing the notorious 'Purpose Gap'.
Are you in an organisation where there are constantly many different initiatives coming from the organisation's various departments? Is it more complex and confusing than helpful in terms of what should guide you in the present when you find yourselves in difficult situations?
In this blog we want to point to a simple organisational upgrading practice that can help everyone in the organisation find their way through difficult questions like these: What is ultimately the most important thing for us as an organisation to succeed both in the short and long term? What is it that I as a leader or employee should have an inner focus on, regardless of what I'm dealing with? How does it all make sense from both the small and the large perspective?
An inspiring case, which amongst others INSEAD mentions as an example of successful Blue Ocean Strategy, is the Danish mobile operator Call Me's transformation from a low-cost mobile brand with poor reputation to a well-known and strong brand with great success on the key financial metrics. Hanne Lindblad, now a re:lead partner, who at that time as CEO led Call Me's successful transformation, attributes the success to this simple upgrading practice: purpose-driven action learning.
Call Me developed a clear strategic purpose that was about building a business with a brand and business processes that were permeated with TRUST both internally and externally. The vision and direction were clear. There was, however, no grand implementation plan. Instead, the way forward was to be found continuously, by everyone in the organisation continuously asking themselves and each other the question: "Does what I/we are doing right now contribute to building Trust or Anti-trust?"
All leaders and employees were engaged in, and empowered to, investigate that question together, and implement improvements that built TRUST. In this way, all actions, structures, workflows, thought patterns and touchpoints with customers, suppliers and colleagues were continuously scrutinised, reassessed and upgraded over the years, as new doors opened.
In this way, purpose-driven action learning can be the path to being able to handle the complexity of everyday life. This is extremely important in social networks, where relevance and relationships determine the outcome. Empowering all members to investigate and challenge existing approaches and processes also helps to balance power hierarchies, and turns the organisation into a meaning-making growth pyramid.
Purpose-driven action learning supports strong shared sense-making, stimulates curiosity in the present and thereby connects to the upgrading of both relevance and relationships. In doing so, we don't reduce complexity, we simply learn to be in it, without it stressing our nervous system.
Purpose-driven action learning can initiate an internal movement that supports continuous upgrading of both the personal and collective inner operating system, so that the development of people and business go hand in hand. This combination also helps avoid the notorious 'Purpose Gap' that many companies in our time experience — where employees experience a great discrepancy between the meaningful purpose that is communicated and the reality they experience day to day.
The combination of a meaningful purpose and action learning contributes to creating a new, healthier balance that generates resonance, making it easier for us to attract and retain employees at a time when "sense-making beyond the numbers" has become a requirement for all businesses.