The Purpose Effect by Dan Pontefract

Author:Dan Pontefract
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business
Publisher: Figure 1 Publishing
Published: 2018-09-22T16:00:00+00:00

We might claim the action that Holley took was a good deed. In fact, Johnsonville Sausage, Johnson & Johnson and Rick Holley at Plum Creek Timber are all examples of firms (and people) defining and demonstrating organizational purpose through a number of good deeds. When an organization successfully defines its purpose to be something that consists of more than profit and/or power—while actively demonstrating said purpose at all times—it is the stakeholders that ultimately benefit. When the organization defines and demonstrates a greater purpose, it creates a scenario in which team members can feel a sense of purpose in their role, ideally complementing how they have developed, defined and decided their own personal sense of purpose. Organizational purpose is the second of three components in the quest to achieve the sweet spot of The Purpose Effect.

A Deed That Is Good

What is a deed? According to the Oxford Dictionary, a deed is “an action that is performed intentionally or consciously.” A deed is also referred to as a legal document, something that is signed and delivered. Think of property ownership documents or an item related to legal rights. For The Purpose Effect, we will use the first definition and consider it alongside a well-known expression, “doing good deeds.”

Good deeds can be performed for anyone. Good deeds also can be performed by anyone. I might shovel my neighbor’s driveway after a snow blizzard, or I may donate money to my colleague Bryan Acker’s worthy cause of helping to eradicate cancer. When I save 10 percent of my earnings for the future, as David Chilton taught me in his book, The Wealthy Barber, I am performing a good deed when it comes to my future, and for my family.

A stranger who opens her doors to other strangers in need of lodging, as many residents of Gander, Newfoundland, did when air travelers were stranded on September 11, 2001, is performing a good deed in the community. I once witnessed a family of four cleaning up garbage that had been collecting in the bushes adjacent to Jericho Beach in Vancouver. When I asked the father what they were doing as I was walking past, he replied rather gleefully, “It’s our family’s good deed of the month.”

Researchers have long studied humans (in life and at work) with respect to acts of giving. Adam Grant, for example, provided us with the book, Give and Take. It turns out we are hard-wired to do good acts and we give (and want to do good) without the need for any kind of vainglorious recognition. Some researchers claim this is because humans are naturally pro-social. “When people are primed to see themselves as good people,” claimed one study, “who do good for goodness sake, not to obtain public credit, they may be motivated to do more good.”11

As Adam Grant writes, “The more I help out, the more successful I become. But I measure success in what it has done for the people around me. That is the real accolade.”12 In other words, a good deed helps others, and that in itself is a success.

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