Purpose

When?
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The calendar is full of events hosted by other organizations.  Their fundraisers are painted across the coming months in broad strokes.  The charitable golf tournaments are ubiquitous.  Speakers are scheduled every week.  The running schedule has the biggest race of the year on the weekend you selected for your neighborhood 5K.


If you require everyone to participate in your activity then this is a problem.  If you need those who believe what you believe then coordinate the event’s schedule with only a few other like-minded enterprises.  There is always an excuse to postpone but so often it is driven by fear and rationalized by pointing at what could go wrong.


If you have found shared purpose then the event is not just yours but it is ours and I am putting it on the calendar.

Great Stories for the Side of the Mountain
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Our best stories come when we are less than perfect but our purpose shines through despite our flaws.  Our best memories are the ones where we challenged ourselves to go beyond our perceived limits.  So often we reach the greatest heights when we steady our focus on the next step and not just on the summit that looms too far above to comprehend.


A couple years ago I camped at a popular lake in the Idaho wilderness.  The area is very popular with backpackers and selection of camping sites is a fierce competition.  Except I arrived in the first week of October and the only other car at the trailhead belonged to a couple that had walked a mile to the end of the first lake.  My destination was six miles further up the trail.  I made great time hiking, set-up camp, and even scampered another mile to a pass above the alpine amphitheater before returning to my tent as darkness descended.  


In the tent and settled for a cold evening with a couple inches of snow ready to shuffle the landscape’s palate by dawn, I absorbed the isolation of my geographic coordinates.  For a few minutes the scenarios of possible (and unlikely) events played on the main screen of my mind.  I prepared for a Man vs Nature shocking sequence to unfold.  I listened for the approaching danger, uncertain of its form.  After a few shallow breaths, I managed to regain focus.  I had dreamed of solitude such as this the night before.  I lived in the intermountain west because I believed wilderness was the incubator to many of our best ideas.  Revitalized with my sense of purpose, I zipped open the door to my lightweight shelter and took in the evening sky with its gleaming stars.  I revelled in the crack of twigs not far from the tent, found humor in the mysterious thuds from far off ridges, and listened intently to the high symphony of the pine trees singing the tune of approaching weather.  I embraced the fear, the beauty, the silence, the unknown, the remoteness.  It was the imperfection of the moment that made it perfect.  And only by laying in the middle of this vast glacier carved bowl of rocks could I come to appreciate the power of being somewhere else on the mountain other than the safety of the trailhead or in celebration on the summit.


Where on the mountain have your best stories found their genisus?  I would guess many start far before we reach the top of any peak.

Making the Leap
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Four versions of this image hit my email inbox in the last two days.  I find it powerful and yet the context perplexing.  The commitment of the fish to make the leap is inspiring.  However, many causes have used the image to address an opportunity for expansion.  Some suggest that a new location will allow them to find their purpose.  I would suggest that an individual’s or enterprise’s purpose does not change.  If we are not finding traction in the current environment then perhaps the it is time to take the message elsewhere.  If the reason for making the leap is reap the perceived rewards of swimming in a bigger pool of water, make sure it is consistent with your values.  The number one reason a nonprofit capital campaign fails is because a real estate opportunity dominated a cause’s decision-making.  The organization sees a deal that it cannot let slip away and launches a fundraising effort only to find itself lying on the table between two bowls of water.


Be true to your purpose and you will find you can swim in many different bodies of water.  

You

Are you the same person if you get a heart transplant?  What if you were to receive a belief transplant?  Would you be the same person?  A nonprofit organization can change the individuals who work for it and members who serve on its board and remain the same, correct?  How about if the purpose of the enterprise changes?

Swarm & Blast


One of the gifts of watching FC Barcelona play was the patience they showed.  Often the player who made an unselfish pass early the sequence would be rewarded with a scoring opportunity from just a few meters from the goal.  This contrasts with the soccer I played in the states.  There was a propensity for all the players to gather around the ball as if they were a swarm of bees.  Inevitably somebody would take a shot on goal from just inside the penalty area.  The chance of success where marginal and the results were often discouraging.  This contrasts to the ball-control and certainty about ones role exhibited by a professional futbol team.  Just when you thought a player must shoot, he was able to manufacture a pass that lead to a high percentage scoring chance.  The ability to honor the duties that came with playing a specific postion kept the team spread out across the offensive side of the pitch and made them so hard to defend.


I believe the same is true for all of us.  When we swarm and blast we are desperate.  However, if we stay true to our purpose the results can be electric.

One

It can take one compliment, one offer of assistance, one answer, one goal, one diagnosis for everything to change.  Or does it?  If we truly understand our purpose then the context may shift but our commitment to delivering our best remains.  We rely on change.  It must occur for us to exist.  Purpose provides us a narrative to thread together our actions in a unifying pattern.

Your In or Your Out

Trip to Disney World or Disneyland- are you in or out?  Most people can make that decision in a second.  Why?  Because Disney has defined what they stand for better than most organizations.  There are those who have their mouse ears on and already update their Google+ status.  Others would be halfway into their, ‘you would not catch me in a Disney park if I was dead’ speech.  No judgement on your reaction but this is a perfect example of an enterprise that has defined its purpose.  Most people know what they think already.  Does your community react the same way to your cause?  Do you know who is in or out?

For those who are undecided, here is a link to three behind the scenes tours that Guy Kawasaki took recently: Disneyland Dream Suite, Club 33, and Walt Disney’s Apartment.  If you are clicking the links you are probably in.

One Person

I am convinced more than ever that it takes just one person to change the focus and inspiration of any team.  Consider the role a single flight attendant plays on an aircraft.  You can almost feel the joy of one cabin crew and pain body of another.  Or, watch how an firefighting engine crew arrives at a non-emergency call.  Some squads connect immediately with people and are full of compassion.  Others come across cynical and inconvenienced by the call.  You see the importance of one among many in schools, sports teams, business enterprises, and hotel lobbies.  

You make a difference.  Just being in the picture changes the landscape.  Your impact is transformational.  What are you bringing to your team?