It was in my view only Aaron Hurst and his team at Imperative who were really successful in their mission to decode the often mysterious and fluffy perceived “Purpose”. Moreover they engaged in years of research to create a truly invaluable personal compass to finding and working with purpose.
But what was one of the main findings of their research?
Surprise, surprise: We do not all gain purpose from the same things! There is no one size fits all purpose for everybody. There is no black and white kind of definition of purpose.
Aaron and his team were able to finally turn purpose into a more understandable common language, identifying the main purpose drivers. Purpose drivers which are linked to our deep intrinsic motivators. Purpose drivers across three dimensions of Who we seek to impact, Why and How, resulting in 24 different purpose profiles.
- DRIVER#1: WHO do you seek to impact, the elevation at which we seek to have an impact if on the individual directly, or on teams and organizations or on the whole society.
- DRIVER#2: WHY do you want to make an impact, being your view of fairness and the source of your value system.
- DRIVER#3: HOW do you seek to make an impact, being your natural way in which you tend to approach problems, present solutions and make an impact.
Let’s look into the key purpose drivers in more detail.
DRIVER#1: WHO do you seek to impact?
- INDIVIDUAL: Do you believe change starts with an individual and you desire to impact individuals directly? Do you get most fulfillment seeing a person overcome an obstacle and solve his/her problem with your help or guidance?
- ORGANIZATION: Do you believe enabling teams and organizations impacts lives of many? Do you believe in collective power of a team or an organization to work together more effectively towards achieving great impact?
- SOCIETY: Do you believe a healthy society will result in healthy individuals and organizations engaging in projects having societal impact? Do you engage in projects / work that is globally scalable?
Which resonates the most with you?
DRIVER#2: WHY do you want to make an impact?
- KARMA: Do you work to advance opportunity for those who work hard so they have the ability to reach their greatest potential? Do you believe competition is a health driver of greater achievement and performance?
- HARMONY: Do you work to level out the playing field to ensure everyone has equal access to opportunity? Do you believe in case of a race, all should not only start together, but also finish together, taking care of the weaker runners?
Which resonates the most with you?
DRIVER#3: HOW do you seek to make an impact?
- HUMAN: Do you enjoy exploring human experiences and contexts to provide authentic and tailor-made solutions, putting the customer / end-user into the center of attention?
- COMMUNITY: Do you bring all stakeholders together to find the best and innovative solution, creating communities in order to address issues and look at different angles and perspectives?
- STRUCTURE: Do you put new tools, systems and structures in place to solve problems, advancing outdated or inefficient processes, thinking lean?
- KNOWLEDGE: Do you engage in extensive research to really understand the current situation and uncover new knowledge, ideas and perspectives?
Which resonates the most with you?
MY PURPOSE DRIVERS
Finding out my personal purpose drivers explained a lot about my past choices and states of fulfillment.
- My WHO driver is Society, meaning I get most fulfilment from working on projects with greater societal impact or on projects that are scalable globally.
- My WHY driver is Harmony, being a strong believer of us having an universal responsibility rather than just responsibility for ourselves or those closest to us, and that we should support the less-privileged or “weaker” individuals.
- My HOW driver is Structure, explaining the sometimes-freaky structural maps I envision drafting strategy maps, the need for concise and neat-looking email layout or my passion to innovate inefficient processes and reorganize chaos in order to achieve a more systematic and structured result.
YOUR PURPOSE DRIVERS
To unlock purpose for yourself you need to stop and think which purpose drivers apply to you. Of course you can take the Purpose assessments or simply look at some of your peak moments in life – When you were your best self, light-up and deeply fulfilled and on fire? Think for a second: Who did you impact, why and how in that particular situation? Which purpose drivers dominated that situation?
MORE PURPOSE
If you are interested in the research behind and more information on the main purpose drivers, get your copy of the Purpose Economy written by Imperative’s founder Aaron Hurst himself.
For more information about Fortuny’s work around Purpose for individuals or organizations, read on here.
