Finding the purpose of a service in four steps

In my last post and the one before I discussed the importance of purpose, and the perspective it should be considered from.  Here I'm going to share some tips I've learned to help others define a purpose of a service – set out in four steps. 

1. Gather people together from different parts of the service
A service is normally made up of teams and people performing different functions (a common aspect of a command and control design).  When you split a service like this, the people in each function tend to become like characters from Rashomon, with different views about what the service exists to do as a whole.  It's helpful to bring those views together, and start aligning them around a common purpose.

2. Ask them what the purpose is
I've adapted an activity Dan Pink does.  Ask everyone "what is the purpose of [this service]?" and  instruct them to write it on Post-It notes.  Stick the answers up, and read them out.  (In local government, I've often had answers like "to carry out our statutory duties to..."   They are used to taking an internal perspective rather than a customer one). Next, have a discussion and agree a working definition of purpose.

At this point I've made mistakes.  I've been impatient.  I've wanted them to nail the purpose too early on, and wasted time debating the issue and getting nowhere. 

3. Go and study demand
Instruct the team to observe customer demands on the service.  Listen to phone calls, observe face-to-face conversations, read emails, etc.  Write down each demand in the customer's own words.  Consider what matters to the customer at the point of making a demand.  If you speak with customers, ask them "what matters?"  In a future post I'll write more about studying demand.

4. Ask them again
This time, be clear that the purpose should be from the customer's point of view.  Reflect on what you've all learned about demand and what matters to the customer.  I've always found that by now the team come up with a definition of purpose that's at least very close to representing what the whole service exists to do for the customer.  It can be useful to have a discussion about how this differs from the first version of purpose, and why it's changed. 

 

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The definition of purpose is likely to keep evolving as you learn more about what matters to the customer.  That's good.  The important thing is to be crystal clear about purpose before starting to redesign the service – something to cover in a future post. 

What are your thoughts about these steps?  Would you use them?  How could you improve them?  Feel free to comment below, or share with someone who might be interested. 

What is the purpose of purpose?

The first of W Edward Deming's 14 points for management is to "Create a constancy of purpose".  This is still very relevant today. 

For example, I recently listened to a programme called The Charity Business on BBC Radio 4.  In the third episode we learn that some charities are excellent at raising funds, but their impact is minimal.  We also learn there are other charities that make a huge impact, but are not so good at raising funds.  It means we end up giving money to the charities that are good at pulling on our heart strings and persuading us to donate, while other charities that make a difference go out of business. 

It sounds like some charities focus too much on fund-raising, to the detriment of their original purpose.  This is one reason why constancy of purpose is important – to keep everyone focused on doing the right things. 

Here are four more reasons why purpose is important:

1. Alignment.  In Fourth Generation Management by Brian L Joiner, he uses a diagram similar to the one below to highlight the importance of a clear purpose. 

The top box represents an organisation with no clear purpose.  Teams or individuals end up operating on their own – each pulling in their own direction.  It can result in chaos and dysfunction.  The bottom box represents an organisation where the purpose is clear and meaningful.  Everyone is pulling in the same direction

2. Decision making.  In this 30 second clip, Olympic rower Ben Hunt-Davis explains one of the reasons why his team won gold in Sydney.  During training, every time they had a decision to make they'd ask themselves "Will it make the boat go faster?" 

This was the purpose of their training.  It gave them clarity about what they were there to do – even if it meant missing out on trips to the pub.  Likewise, you can ask "will this help us achieve our purpose of...?" when making those difficult decisions in your organisation.

3. Motivation. In Drive by Dan Pink, purpose is one of his three ingredients of intrinsic motivation.  His research finds that "The most deeply motivated – not to mention those who are most productive and satisfied – hitch their desires to a cause larger than themselves".  Later on in the book he also says "If people don't know why they're doing what they're doing, how can you expect them to be motivated to do it?"

4. Measurement.  Purpose defines what your organisation exists to do.  If you don't have measures that relate to purpose, how will know how well the organisation is performing?  John Seddon puts it nicely with this diagram:

If measures are derived from purpose, it allows you to experiment and innovate with method.  You use your measures to see if your efforts are improving your achievement of purpose.  The mistake a lot of organisations make –  which I'll talk about in a future post – is when measures start with an arbitrary number instead of purpose. 

In my next post I'll share the most important lesson I've learned about defining the purpose of a service.  In the meantime, feel free to comment below, or share this with someone you think could be interested.