Building the Purpose Movement

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There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

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and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

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Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host Elise Cortes. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration from those
people who have found deeper meaning and

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personal connection to their work life.
It's beyond nine to five. It's working

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on Purpose. Now Here is your
host, Elise Cortes. Welcome back to

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the Working on Purpose Show. Thanks
for tuning in again this week. I

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am your host, Alis Cortes,
joining you live from Dallas, Texas,

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which is home base for me.
If you've been tuning in for a while,

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you know this program is all about
how people create more meaningful and productive

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personal and work lives and equipping leaders, insight organizations to cultivate meaning and purpose

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that elicit's passion, inspired contribution,
innovation, and persevering performance. I talk

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with my guests to talk to draw
on their expertise, and share my own

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experience consulting, speaking and developing workforces
across the globe, and every week in

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these conversations, I hope you walk
away with something you can put immediately to

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use in your life. And that
you come alive with the possibility of living

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with passion, working on purpose,
and are inspired to discover for yourself just

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how big and fulfilling your life,
work and leadership can be. If you

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do catch fire from anything you hear, reach out and tell me about it.

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Don't keep it to yourself. Email
me at a least at at leastcore

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test dot com, or use the
contact me feature on my website to message

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me and tell me how I can
help you. Whether you want to join

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the distribution list to stay informed with
these radio show topics, you want to

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see about joining a catch fire online
inspiration, accountability or mastermind community, you

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want information on my purpose driven leadership
programs for individuals or companies, or you

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want to see about having me speak
for your company or conference. At any

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rate, I'm glad we're connected,
and thank you so much for listening.

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Now back to this week's program with
us this week is Paul Radoff. He's

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a certified management and president of Strategy
Development Group. He has been a business

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consultant in Southern California for the past
of thirty five years, assisting a wide

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range of middle market companies plan and
manage their growth and success. He's the

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author of Thriving in a New Stakeholder
World, Purpose as the new competitive advantage.

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He judged today from California. Paul, Welcome to Working on Purpose.

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Thank you so much for having me. It's so great. It's so great,

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And I have to first just share
I love telling my guests, how

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I am my listeners, how I
meet my guests. And so here we

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were you and I minding our very
own business at a purpose conference in Phoenix,

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Arizona in October. It was so
great. Let me just give a

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shout out to Aaron Hurst and his
team there at Imperative. They put on

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the conference. Fantastic thought leadership.
So first, since that was my first

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purpose conference, I'm interested. Do
you tend yourself a lot of conferences or

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events focused on purpose? Is that
something you do? No? I hadn't

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done that, and actually that was
my second one, and it was my

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second one in that month because you
know, I've been dealing in this industry

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now for a long time, actually
since two thousand and one and concerned purpose,

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and I had never really thought about, well, who else is out

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there doing this kind of work?
And then as I got more and more

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into it, it became obvious that
there is a whole purpose industry out there,

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and there are all kinds of organizations
and meetings and conventions and all kinds

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of things, and it was kind
of amazing that it took me this long

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to kind of finally say, well, maybe I should go out and meet

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some of these people and see what
they're doing. So that's how it all

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started. Well, that is so
great, Paul. I feel a little

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bit better because I've only been in
the purpose space for well, really,

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I guess fully for about four years
now, so I feel a lot better

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because that was definitely my first So
given that you have been in this space

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for as long as you have eighteen
years or so, what did you take

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away from the conference? Well,
it's very interesting because you know, a

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lot of the conversation has been how
purpose you know, helps organizations in terms

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of increasing the level of engagement of
its employees in that organization, and the

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conversation was really more about fulfillment as
the driver for organizations. You know,

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there's it's more important that employees feel
fulfilled in what they're doing than engaged in

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terms of some of the research that's
being done now. So it was interesting

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to have that conversation because up until
this point I had only thought in terms

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of engagement, how do you increase
the level of engagement of people in the

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organization, And now it seems that
maybe there needs to be some thinking about

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fulfillment, how that really is maybe
an important driver in organizational success. So

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it opened my eyes to something that
I hadn't really been aware of before.

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I appreciate that. Paul I too
also got that just very very clearly too.

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I have worked for a long time
with employee engagement, and I do

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now understand that the new term,
really the new, the new the way

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to replace that term from engagement is
now fulfillment. That's what we should be

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focused on. And I completely get
that because of its pulling effect, right,

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how it pulls people towards something else. And you probably know about that

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better than most people do. I
guess it's it's sort of like a bigger

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picture. So inside of fulfillment there
is engagement, right, So you know,

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if you have someone who's really fulfilled
on what they're doing, they're going

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to buy a very nature be more
engaged in what they're what they're doing.

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And then of course is to make
sure that their engagement is actually useful.

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You know, you can get engaged
but then not necessarily be engaged in what

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needs to be done, so with
the viation. So that's of course where

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organizational purpose comes in in terms of
helping people see where the engagement needs to

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be inside of this fulfillment of of
an individual's life, so to speak.

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Well, the next thing I want
to ask about because since you did say

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you've been working in the purpose space
for since two thousand and one, but

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I know you've been consulting for thirty
five years, so obviously before you got

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into purpose you were focused on other
kinds of consulting. So I'm interested to

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know just how you did land in
the purpose space. It's very funny because

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I was in a course, and
we were in this course we read certain

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books and there was this book called
sex Ecology and Spirituality by Ken Wilber,

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who was a philosopher, and it's
a very thick book, and I think

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in the course the first time,
I think I read about seventy pages and

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called it quits. But we did
talk about this book in the course,

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and it's all about how different life
forms from the very simplest to the most

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complex, which humans are all follow
the same kind of process development and kind

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of build on each other. And
in that conversation, I started thinking about,

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well, if the humans are the
highest life form now, then what's

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next. In other words, it's
been this evolutionary process and we're not the

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last. We're just in that process. So there's another higher life form coming,

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and as described in the book,
it's not like it's going to show

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up all of a sudden. It's
there probably already and just we haven't identified

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it yet. And so I was
looking around and thinking like, what could

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this be, this higher life form
be, And what came to mind was,

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well, maybe it's organizations. You
know, organizations are not just more

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people. They can create things that
you can't do just with people. You

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have people that interact in a way
that gets you something much larger than the

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some of its parts. And that
really intrigued me, and I started thinking,

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well, if an organization is really
a life form, then it has

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to follow those same kind of rules
that other life forms do. And then

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so I started thinking, well,
what what what does that mean? So

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I immediately thought of environment. So
every life forms success and its ability to

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thrive and survive is really a function
of this environment. If you think of

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any life form from the simplest plants, humans, it's environment. So if

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you're thinking about an organization, what's
the what is defined as the environment for

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an organization? And I started thinking
about, well, what about stakeholders.

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So you know, we generally think
about stakeholders as employees, but I started

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thinking of it in a broader sense
and say, well, maybe a stakeholder

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is any individual or group of individual
that impacts or is impacted by the organization.

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And the sum total of all those
different stakeholders, Well, that would

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be like its own ecosystem or its
own environment. And I thought, well,

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maybe I can all that it's stakeholder
world. So every like every human

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or every other life form, the
environment is you know, critical for its

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success, and so for an organization, it's stakeholder world is critical for its

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success. So then I started thinking, well, how do I get an

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environment, ecosystem, whatever you want
to call it, to be supportive of

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that organization? And then it just
came to me like an epiphany, Well,

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purpose if everybody in the organization and
all of the individuals in the environment

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found whatever that organization is committed to
its purpose, if they found it meaningful

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and important, then that could be
that one thing that gets everybody in support

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of the organization. So purpose turned
out to be the critical piece. And

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if I could have a purpose that's
meaningful and important to all of these stakeholders,

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then that could be the opportunity to
harness the power and resources of all

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of those stakeholders. And it changed
my life. At that moment, I

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just couldn't believe it. Well,
wow, and how do I do that?

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I mean, I get how important
purpose is for an organization, but

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how do I get that purpose to
really impact all of those different stakeholders?

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And then I started thinking about,
well, what do we have to do

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to do that, and started working
on looking at the organizations that I was

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working on and seeing how I could
bring purpose to that organization and help leaders

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in that organization lead from purpose and
see how that would impact the success of

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these organizations. And from that point
on, I started working on a book

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to just deal with what it would
take to lead from purpose in organizations.

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And it took me a long time. Took me about close to sixteen years

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to complete that book and figure out
what might work and what wouldn't work,

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and set me on this journey that
I've been on all of this time.

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Oh my gosh, Paul, that
was worth the price of admission right there.

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Wow. Okay, a couple of
things if I can one. It

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was so great to hear you render
that because in so doing I could I

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was on your journey with you.
The way that you brought us in that

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was just so gorgeous. And I
think you totally gave our listeners access to

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purpose in a way that I'll bet
for them for a lot of them is

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very fresh. That was so compelling. And when I think about this whole

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notion of purpose, Wow, for
you to spend so far eighteen years focused

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on this world of purpose, that's
worth getting up for yourself. Yeah,

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yeah, because I could see that
organizations are what changes the world. Now.

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You can't do it by yourself.
You need people, You need people

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together, and only by doing that
do you create something unique. And all

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the great successes in the world have
come through organizations, whether they be for

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profit, nonprofit, you name it, it's organizations. So how do I

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get organizations to just be far more
successful in what they're up to? Because

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there really is no reason to organize
unless you're going to make a difference in

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something. Why I organize? It's
too much work, you know. The

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only reason you organize is to make
a difference in the world in some way.

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And then if that's all they did, is could do that better?

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Wow? What an impact that could
have in the world. Well, and

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I completely agree, and again so
compelling. And don't we all love to

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work with somebody who's passionate about what
they do, and you clearly do,

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Paul. And to that end,
what kinds of companies do you serve?

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Who do you work with? Without
naming names? So I work in the

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small and medium size market, so
companies that are anywhere from startups to generally

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fifty to one hundred million in sales. So these are companies that generally don't

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have a full time chief strategy officer
or chief financial officer. And that's the

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roles that I play for my clients. So those are the companies that I

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work with, and I work with
them on a part time basis. So

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at any point in time, I
would have anywhere from two to six companies

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that I would be working with on
a part time basis performing that those functions.

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And what I started doing is bringing
purpose and I call it I originally

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call it purposeful behavior in the book, but subsequent to that I changed that

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to purposeful leadership, which I found
much more useful in talking about this and

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helping these organizations lead from purpose as
well. So that's basically what I do

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is as business strategy, financial management
and supporting them in purposefullyleadership. So the

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size of companies are of this anywhere
from anywhere from ten to five hundred employees

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is generally the size I work with. Okay, got it perfect, Paul,

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let's at this juncture. Go ahead
and grab our first break, because

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after the break, I want to
talk more about your actual book, what's

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in it. I'm your host Elis
Cortez. We've put on the air with

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Paul Radoff. He's a certified management
consultant and president of Strategy Development Group.

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He is also the author of Thriving
in a New Stakeholder World, purpose as

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a New Competitive Advantage. He joined
today from California. We'll be right back,

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stay with us. Alice Cortez is
a speaker and engagement and development catalyst.

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She designs and delivers professional development,
leadership and engagement workshops and can bring

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her expertise to your organization. She
will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce

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that will increase employee engagement, performance
and retention. To learn more or to

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invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elisecortes

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dot com. She would welcome the
opportunity to help get your employees working on

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purpose. This is working on Purpose
with Elise Cortes. To reach our program

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today, send an email to a
lease Alise at Aleasecortes dot com. Now

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back to working on purpose. Thanks
for staying with us, and welcome back

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to working on purpose if you're just
joining us. My guest is Paul Radoff,

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a certified management consultant and president of
Strategy Development Group. Paul has been

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a business consultant in Southern California for
the last thirty five years, assisting a

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wide range of middle market companies plan
and manage their growth and success. He's

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the author of Thriving in a news
takeholder World, Purpose as the New competitive

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advantage. I'm your host Cortes,
So Paul, before the break, we

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were talking a bit about just how
you got into the space, and I

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loved going on that journey with you
at every yummy moment of it. It

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was great. Before we talk a
bit more about your book here, I

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want to hear you talk a little
bit about this idea of purpose as a

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new optimizer. Right. So,
it's so funny when you think about how

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you get people to do things.
You really got a couple only a few

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choices. You can bribe them,
meaning you hate them whatever it takes to

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get them to do what you want
to do. Or you can course them

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in some way you know you've got
something hanging over them or whatever it is,

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or you're threatening them. Those are
really the only two ways that you

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can get people to do something other
than inspire them. You can inspire them

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to do something, and that's the
secret. See, what purpose provides is

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inspiration. So if you're excited and
inspired by and you want other people to

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support you in that, then all
you need to do is inspire them in

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what you're up to. And all
of a sudden, you've got all the

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support you need and you didn't have
to bribe them and you didn't have to

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coerce them. All you have to
do is inspire them. So purpose is

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incredible in terms of leveraging resources.
So you know my background, I'm an

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accountant. When you think about it. I mean, most of my work

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over the years has been in the
field of financial management and accounting. That's

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where I started, So I think
about how do you get efficiency in an

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organization. You have to leverage resources, and the best way to leverage resources

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is by inspiring people, and not
just your employees, but your suppliers,

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your customers, everybody you come in
contact with. If you can get them

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excited about what you're up to,
then they will help you in any way

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they can, even in ways that
you hadn't even dreamed of. So that's

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the first real benefit of purpose.
The second really key thing is is that

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it allows for clarity and focus.
When you have a purpose, you know

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exactly what you're up to, you
know exactly where you're going, and you

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can get clear in terms of what
works and what's consistent with where you're going,

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and what is not, what takes
you off track, and what keeps

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you on track. And that's really
very, very powerful. Most companies have

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a big problem in this area,
especially successful ones, because the more successful

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they are, the more opportunities show
up for them, and how do they

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stay clear and what they're really should
be focusing on to be successful and whatever

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their mission is and whatever problem they
are solving, that's going to make the

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world a better place. So that's
really the power of purpose that was so

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nicely delineated. And I want to
add just one thing to the whole import

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of inspiration that I always love to
share when I speak about it, and

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that is that if we peel back
and look at where does the world inspiration

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come from? Right, I'm sure
you know this too and probably talk about

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it. Is it's I think it's
Latin. It comes from the word in

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spurge, which means to breathe,
breathe into and so when we think about

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inspiration, we can really think that
it's about breathing life into something or someone,

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and I think that really really showcases
the power of inspiration. I agree

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one hundred percent, and especially today
where individuals are thinking about like what their

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personal purpose is in life and then
how that plays in with the work they're

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doing, because you know, they
go to work most of their time,

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most of the time in their lives
are spent at work. So wouldn't it

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be great if whatever they're up to
in life personally was aligned with what the

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organization they're working for is up to
as well, yes, indeed indeed,

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and I think you and I spoke
about this Showleman when we were at the

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conference. But Zach mccurio out of
Colorado, he says that, you know,

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if life is to be meaningful,
then work must be meaningful because we

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spend at least forty percent of our
life there. And he says forty percent,

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And that makes so much sense to
me, so much sense. Absolutely.

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And Zach, by the way,
is on our board at the Foundation

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for Purposeful Organizations. He's one of
our board members and very active in developing

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some of the tools that we offer. Well, I like the company you

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keep I did. I had them
on my radio shut late last year.

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Sometimes thought he was a rock star. So I'm gathering interesting people like you,

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Paul in my life. So thank
you for saying yes to the show

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my pleasure. Well, let's talk
a bit about the section in your book

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here. I wanted to really help
our listeners. I always like to give

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them something they can literally walk away
with and implement and use and make a

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differce in their lives and their work. And you've got a whole section in

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your book called Harnessing Stakeholder Power for
the Competitive advantage, and that's where I

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really wanted to spend a bit of
our conversation. And you delineate a set

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of purposeful behaviors that enables organizations to
manage their shareholder their stakeholder world, and

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I wanted to talk about a few
of those behaviors, starting with knowing your

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stakeholder landscape. Will you say a
bit more about that one. Yes,

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A lot of people don't realize how
important it is to get clear who is

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in your stakeholder world. And I
define the stakeholder world, as I said

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before, is basically any individual or
group of individuals that could be companies and

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people other organizations that impact or impacted
by your organization because they will impact you

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or you'll impact them, and that's
going to affect your success and your survival.

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And understanding who they all are and
which ones are critical for you in

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moving forward in your business is very, very important, and we call those

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key stakeholders, and actually we like
to use the words stakeholder community. So

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there's a stakeholder world out there which
are all of these people and you can't

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really you know, you may impact
them on a small basis, and you

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may not know who they are that's
fine, but if you communicate with them

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in some way that it's very useful
because you want them on your side as

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well. But what you're really looking
for are the key stakeholders, that community

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of stakeholders that are really going to
be critical for your success, and knowing

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who they are is very very important, and because what you want to do

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is you want to focus on inspiring
them, getting them communicating with them in

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a way that they are clear in
terms of what you're doing, and that

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they find what you're up to meaningful
and important to them, because only then

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will they really support you and think
about you in a way that will really

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benefit the organization's success. So knowing
who your key stakeholders are are very important,

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and they're generally under a dozen.
So it's just starting with with the

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owner obviously that starts it starts there, or the president of the company,

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the key management people in the company, any key people to your key suppliers,

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your customers, certain professionals you might
use, and so forth. There

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are people and organizations that are critical
for your success, and these are the

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people you need to inspire about what
you're up to, and you need to

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get them on your side and it's
not enough just to have a customer relationship

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or a vendor relationship. You need
to have a much more in depth relationship

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where they really understand what you're up
to, and then they're going to be

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thinking about how they can support you
all the time. And that's what you

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need for success. I got that
beautifully narrated, Got that okay? Then

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next if we can we've got that
whole stakeholder community then or the world?

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How do you help them? How
do you work with companies to help uncover

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a broader purpose amongst them? So
it's really an interactive kind of back and

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forth situation. The first thing you
need to do is get clear is what

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is the problem you're solving in the
world. So you have to be solving

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some problem otherwise why be here.
And there's many people confuse making a lot

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of money and profits with why the
organization exists, and that's really not It

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might be why you're in business,
but it may not be what the business

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is in business for. Because people
are not inspired by you're getting rich in

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inspired by what you produce for them
and for the world. What difference you

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make for the world, that's what
inspires people. So it is figuring out

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like why you're in business, what
difference are you making out there? And

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getting clear on what that is,
and that becomes the start of your purpose

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discovery. And it may not be
so obvious. It could be it could

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be related to the product that you're
making, or it could be something very

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different than that. I'll give you
an example. I have a client that's

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a foam fabricator. Now what does
that mean. They buy They buy large

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pieces of foam, the kind of
phone that they use to make mattresses,

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foam mattresses, and the foam that
you see in furniture, and they slice

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and dice this furniture, this foam
up and that's and they glue it together

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and make different pieces and so forth. So they fabricate pham. So you

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would think, well, what's their
business. Well, the reason they're in

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business is to create partnership. They
believe strongly that great partners make great products.

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So they're in business not to make
pham, but to make partnership,

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to make partnerships with their suppliers,
and partnerships with their customers, in partnerships

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with their employees, all their key
stakeholders, that community of stakeholders that are

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going to be critical for their success. They want to have be partners with

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them. And you can see that
that's not even has nothing to do,

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nothing to do with Poham right,
but has everything to do with why this

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business is in business in the first
place, because they feel that this is

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what's needed today. Because if you
had businesses that are thinking partnership, they're

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going to be far more successful than
what they do. So there's an example.

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So it's really getting clear, like
what is your purpose? And that's

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the step one. The next step
is how do you make it meaningful and

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important to at least your stakeholder community, those key stakeholders. It's very very

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often you can have a purpose that's
meaningful, important to you or to maybe

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your customer, but maybe maybe your
suppliers don't see it is that important.

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So it's a question of how do
you frame that purpose in a way that

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makes it meaningful and important, And
we call that broadening the purpose. And

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what's interesting about this process of broadening
the purpose is that very often when you

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do that, you not only broaden
the purpose, but you make it a

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higher purpose. And what a higher
purpose is is any purpose that benefits more

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people. So the more people you
benefit. You know, as an organization,

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the higher that purpose is, whereas
broadening a purpose is the more people

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that find that purpose meaningful and important. So those are two different things,

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but they go hand in hand.
If you have a broad purpose, you

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will generally have a higher purpose.
And wouldn't that be great if all organizations

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had a higher purpose? Yes,
indeed, it would be great. And

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of course you and I both know
that the exercise of arriving at this broader

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purpose takes some real looking, right, It takes some real inquiry, yes,

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absolutely, you know, especially if
there's a founder or if you're just

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if it's a company that's been around
a long time, then you have to

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look at the founders and why they
got in business, what motivated them to

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do what they're doing, Or if
you're starting off on a new business,

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like what what's really motivating you?
What's behind your interest in this area?

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Where do you you know what's inspiring
you about what you're doing? Just getting

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just trying to get an understanding and
discovering what is what's driving your interest?

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This way, companies just informed by
themselves for no reason. There is a

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purpose there and very often it just
requires discovering it. Looking into why this

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is important, meaningful and important to
you as an individual. That's where it

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starts. Now, you gave us
a beautiful example with that the phone company

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and how they're really they're really motivated. Their purposes is to create partnerships.

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Can you give us an example of
a company that you know, over work

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with that has uncovered a stronger broad
purpose for themselves. Yeah, I'll give

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you an example. So I have
another client that's a that's in the staffing

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business. So what they provide is
employees to different communities as crossing guards.

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So across the country they have hundreds
of communities where they provide thousands of crossing

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guards, school crossing guards. And
they actually have thought of themselves for years

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as the crossing guard company, and
which was, you know, very successful

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company, and that's what they do. They provide crossing guards and they just

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they just do that. So not
too long ago, they were trying to

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figure out a way of getting their
employees more work because you know, crossing

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guard only works a few hours to
day, and you know, how do

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they keep these people employed? You
know, if they're only working a couple

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hours, it's going to be very
difficult to you know, retain these people

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if they have to make a living. So they were thinking, well,

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what other work can we get them
to do while they're being crossing guards,

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you know, in the other hours
of the day. So, well,

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they're in the guard business, they're
you know, maybe it's security. Maybe

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they could loan them out to local
warehouses to keep the area safe, you

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know, and in that way,
maybe we can get some work for them

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and and and give them maybe a
full a hours of work every day.

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So they started going down that route
looking for what kinds of other businesses out

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there could use these individuals. And
then we started talking to them about like

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like what is your real purpose?
I mean, yeah, we understand you're

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in the crossing guard business. That
means that's what you do, but why

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do you do that? And they
started thinking about like like why do we

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do this? Why why are we
providing crossing guards? And this is a

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two generation company, And they started
thinking about the original individual that started this

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company, which happened to be a
policeman, and he's all about keeping children

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safe, and they said, yes, maybe that's it. What they realized

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is that they were really in the
business of keeping children safe. That was

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their business. So then they started
thinking, well, wow, it's keeping

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children safe. So that's what our
guards should be doing, keeping children safe.

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So how is going to a warehouse
and being a security guard for a

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warehouse keeping children safe? And they
realized that that's not what they should be

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doing. So they prevented themselves from
going off track into an area that had

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nothing to do with their business and
could have actually gotten into a lot of

405
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trouble. But now they realized that
they need to look for opportunities to keep

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other children safe in other areas.
And what they did is they found that

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there's a need for aids on the
campus of these elementary and junior high school

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primarily elementary schools, so that they
could provide safety aids to campuses. So

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now instead of just keeping children safe
at crossing at school crossings, they can

410
00:32:15.599 --> 00:32:21.400
now keep children safe in schools,
dramatically increasing the number of children that they

411
00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:24.799
can keep safe. And just imagine
if they've got if they've got six thousand

412
00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:30.359
guards out there, ten thousand guards
out there, and they've got all these

413
00:32:30.440 --> 00:32:34.599
children, you know, it's amazing. Millions of millions of children they're keeping

414
00:32:34.599 --> 00:32:37.640
safe every day is really an exciting
thing for an organization to be committed to.

415
00:32:38.640 --> 00:32:42.440
Oh my gosh, Paul, that
was great. Now hold on,

416
00:32:42.599 --> 00:32:44.839
just hang on to that, listeners, and just enjoy that we've got to

417
00:32:44.839 --> 00:32:50.200
grab our last break. That was
mind blowing that a company would spend that

418
00:32:50.279 --> 00:32:52.599
kind of effort to go looking for
that broader purpose. Paul, beautiful narration.

419
00:32:52.720 --> 00:32:55.599
Thank you. I'm Alice Cortez,
your host. We've been on the

420
00:32:55.680 --> 00:33:00.000
year with Paul Radoff, a certified
management consultant and president of Streat Development Group.

421
00:33:00.200 --> 00:33:04.720
He is the author of Thriving in
a New Stakeholder World, Purpose as

422
00:33:04.759 --> 00:33:07.359
the New competitive Advantage. You joined
to today from California. Stay with us

423
00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:22.000
after the record talk about how to
keep purpose alive. Alis Cortes is a

424
00:33:22.039 --> 00:33:27.920
speaker and engagement and development catalyst.
She designs and delivers professional development, leadership

425
00:33:27.960 --> 00:33:31.640
and engagement workshops and can bring her
expertise to your organization. She will help

426
00:33:31.680 --> 00:33:37.599
ignite meaningful development within your workforce that
will increase employee engagement, performance and retention.

427
00:33:37.920 --> 00:33:42.519
To learn more or to invite Elise
to speak to your organization, please

428
00:33:42.599 --> 00:33:47.319
visit her at www dot Elisecortes dot
com. She would welcome the opportunity to

429
00:33:47.319 --> 00:33:59.319
help get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with Elise

430
00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:02.599
Cortes us. To reach our program
today, send an email to a lease

431
00:34:02.960 --> 00:34:09.559
Alise at a lease Coortes dot com. Now back to working on purpose.

432
00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:21.159
Thanks for staying with us, and
welcome back to working on purpose if you're

433
00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:23.599
just tuning in. My guest is
Paul Radoff, a certified management consultant and

434
00:34:23.679 --> 00:34:28.840
president of Strategy Development Group. Paul
has been a business consultant in southern California

435
00:34:28.880 --> 00:34:31.320
for the past thirty five years,
assisting a wide range of middle market companies

436
00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:36.079
plan and manage their growth and success. He's the author of Thriving in a

437
00:34:36.079 --> 00:34:38.920
news stakeholder World, Purpose as the
New competitive advantage. I'm your host,

438
00:34:38.920 --> 00:34:44.440
Elise Cortes, Paul, that was
a fantastic story that you told before about

439
00:34:44.440 --> 00:34:47.679
the company that really went looking for
it's broader purpose that I really think that

440
00:34:47.719 --> 00:34:52.960
gives our listeners access to something for
themselves. So the next thing I want

441
00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:57.320
to talk about is is how do
we keep a purpose alive in organizations?

442
00:34:57.320 --> 00:35:00.840
Once we find it, how do
we keep it alive? This is a

443
00:35:00.880 --> 00:35:04.960
big challenge, and this is this
is not It's not that easy, and

444
00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:07.400
others you have to work at this
like anything else. If you if you

445
00:35:07.440 --> 00:35:12.159
want success in something, you have
to work at it. And there are

446
00:35:12.159 --> 00:35:19.480
really four areas that we focus on
uh in in in in getting purpose really

447
00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:23.360
involved in your organization, and operate
in leading from purpose within an organization.

448
00:35:23.480 --> 00:35:29.840
And those first having the having a
purpose obviously, embracing a purpose is critical,

449
00:35:29.960 --> 00:35:34.280
and then engaging your stakeholder world is
important. But also you have to

450
00:35:34.360 --> 00:35:39.960
design your organization around purpose. And
and very often, you know you,

451
00:35:40.320 --> 00:35:45.199
very often organizations start with whatever they're
doing now, which is their business model,

452
00:35:46.519 --> 00:35:50.639
and they say and they and they, and they don't realize that that's

453
00:35:50.719 --> 00:35:57.280
not necessarily moving them towards fulfilling on
their purpose. So it's redesigning or thinking

454
00:35:57.320 --> 00:36:01.199
about looking at your organization and what
it's doing and is it really fulfilling on

455
00:36:01.280 --> 00:36:05.599
its purpose. So this is a
very important area and we spend a lot

456
00:36:05.639 --> 00:36:12.920
of time in helping organizations revisit their
business model and make sure that it is

457
00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:19.320
fully aligned with with what their purpose
is. And of course the other area

458
00:36:19.480 --> 00:36:23.559
is is all of the actions that
they take in the organization, does the

459
00:36:23.639 --> 00:36:30.320
organization have a culture that supports fulfilling
on their purpose? This is very very

460
00:36:30.320 --> 00:36:35.960
important. Specifically with this company,
the phone Fabricator, that had to look

461
00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:40.719
at its core values and change the
change its values so that it was fully

462
00:36:40.760 --> 00:36:50.320
aligned with creating partnership among all of
its key stakeholders. So it's very important

463
00:36:50.360 --> 00:36:54.199
to have a culture that supports purpose
and design an organization that supports purpose.

464
00:36:54.679 --> 00:37:02.199
And one of the key things that
I find very effective is identifying a measure

465
00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:10.639
of success. Very often organizations measure
their success by various things they do inside

466
00:37:10.679 --> 00:37:15.599
of their business model, Like they'll
measure sales, they'll measure a number of

467
00:37:15.639 --> 00:37:22.440
customers, they'll measure profits, they'll
measure productivity. All of these things are

468
00:37:22.480 --> 00:37:28.599
really very simple. They've been developed
over hundreds of years. We understand how

469
00:37:28.599 --> 00:37:34.840
to do this and it's all measuring
your business model, how you operate as

470
00:37:34.880 --> 00:37:38.039
a company and what you do,
but why you do it is very different.

471
00:37:38.800 --> 00:37:43.119
And how do you measure how do
you measure fulfillment of a purpose?

472
00:37:43.719 --> 00:37:46.920
Like how would you measure partnership?
How would you measure keeping children safe?

473
00:37:47.360 --> 00:37:51.880
These are the key things. Figuring
out your purpose is one thing, but

474
00:37:51.960 --> 00:37:59.079
then finding ways of measuring your success
and fulfilling your purpose is critical to staying

475
00:37:59.119 --> 00:38:02.440
on purpose. If you don't measure, you don't do something. We all

476
00:38:02.480 --> 00:38:07.960
know that, we've grown up with
that language. Well, how many companies

477
00:38:07.000 --> 00:38:14.119
you know out there actually measure purpose, measure the fulfillment of their purpose.

478
00:38:14.599 --> 00:38:17.920
Very few, because it's not easy
and that you have to work in figuring

479
00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:22.480
out how to do that. Yes, indeed, that was again such a

480
00:38:22.480 --> 00:38:27.159
great piece of access there, Paul, And that makes me really want to

481
00:38:27.159 --> 00:38:30.360
ask you. You gave us a
couple examples before about companies that have found

482
00:38:30.639 --> 00:38:34.360
their broader purpose and how they've gone
about it. What I'd love is if

483
00:38:34.400 --> 00:38:37.559
you've got an example somewhere in there
that you can share, whether it's someone

484
00:38:37.599 --> 00:38:40.079
you've worked with us, just a
company that you know of that has managed

485
00:38:40.119 --> 00:38:45.840
to create that broader purpose and in
so doing it made a difference to their

486
00:38:45.880 --> 00:38:50.119
stakeholder performance. Can you speak at
all to that? Yes, well,

487
00:38:50.519 --> 00:38:54.360
I think the phone fabricator is a
perfect example. You know, they've had

488
00:38:54.840 --> 00:39:04.000
they've had problems with personnel for years. Uh, and this is a big

489
00:39:04.039 --> 00:39:07.599
This is a big problem. And
in uh in the fact that it's hard

490
00:39:07.639 --> 00:39:13.000
to get people to work in factories
these days at the lower price range and

491
00:39:13.199 --> 00:39:19.840
labor costs and had tremendous turnovers,
and it really affects you your success and

492
00:39:19.880 --> 00:39:25.079
your your productivity. But once they
started focusing on treating their their employees as

493
00:39:25.119 --> 00:39:31.400
partners and dealing with them in that
way, it totally transformed the way the

494
00:39:31.440 --> 00:39:36.760
business operated. And now there's a
real sense of community among them, among

495
00:39:36.800 --> 00:39:40.639
the workforce. There's a lot of
support for each other. Their turnovers down,

496
00:39:42.280 --> 00:39:45.639
and it's really it's really had a
big impact on their level of productivity,

497
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:50.840
which has continued to increase over the
past several years as they've been working

498
00:39:50.880 --> 00:39:54.400
on this awesome paul. I had
to imagine that would be some of what

499
00:39:54.480 --> 00:39:59.159
you'd see for a change in performance
when you start seeing people showing up more

500
00:39:59.199 --> 00:40:02.079
frequently and not being late, not
taking as many sick days, going the

501
00:40:02.119 --> 00:40:06.800
extra mile even when things get tough. Those are all indications to me,

502
00:40:07.360 --> 00:40:12.119
back to the beginning of our conversation, how this idea of creating more more

503
00:40:12.400 --> 00:40:15.320
of a purpose in our culture and
environment translates to what we used to call

504
00:40:15.400 --> 00:40:22.239
engagement and now shows up as fulfillment. Yeah, that's true. I guess

505
00:40:22.239 --> 00:40:25.880
that's true. It's engagement and fulfillment. I hadn't really thought about it from

506
00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:30.280
that perspective, but yes, so
it's it's very true, and people do

507
00:40:30.400 --> 00:40:37.480
fulfulfilled a lot more in working in
an environment where they see that what they're

508
00:40:37.559 --> 00:40:42.159
up to and what the business is
up to are aligned. Well, speaking

509
00:40:42.159 --> 00:40:45.000
of that whole question about fulfillment,
Paul, you know I can't resist asking

510
00:40:45.039 --> 00:40:49.920
you the question because you might remember
that I have been researching meaning and work

511
00:40:49.920 --> 00:40:53.480
and identity for a long time,
so I want to know what is it

512
00:40:53.480 --> 00:40:57.679
about the work that you do that
you find meaningful. I know you're passionate

513
00:40:57.719 --> 00:41:00.079
about it, but what is it
about it? Well, it's funny because

514
00:41:01.239 --> 00:41:07.280
I had never really known too much
about imperative. I read Aaron's book.

515
00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:13.960
But when I went to that conference, one of the things that they suggested

516
00:41:13.960 --> 00:41:19.039
I do is take that little assessment
tool that they have where it actually helps

517
00:41:19.039 --> 00:41:22.599
you figure out what your personal purpose
is, because I really hadn't thought about

518
00:41:22.599 --> 00:41:27.159
that much for myself, like what
my personal purpose is. And one of

519
00:41:27.239 --> 00:41:31.960
the things that I discovered is I
really like building things, and I had

520
00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:37.280
not really noticed that before in my
life. But it's clear to me that

521
00:41:37.320 --> 00:41:43.159
what I've done all my life is
kind of build things. And this whole

522
00:41:43.199 --> 00:41:46.559
effort that I'm involved in now is
really trying to build a movement around purposeful

523
00:41:46.639 --> 00:41:52.639
leadership and is really consistent with what
I love doing. And not to mention

524
00:41:52.719 --> 00:41:58.239
the fact that back in two thousand
and one, when I came to this

525
00:41:58.320 --> 00:42:02.760
realization how powerful purpose can be,
I made this promise to myself. I

526
00:42:02.840 --> 00:42:07.000
made this commitment that all businesses will
be committed to making a profound difference in

527
00:42:07.039 --> 00:42:09.480
the world. And I actually put
a date on it. I said I'd

528
00:42:09.480 --> 00:42:15.480
do that by twenty twenty five.
So I've only got five years left to

529
00:42:15.480 --> 00:42:19.840
work on this. But there's a
sense of urgency around trying to get every

530
00:42:19.880 --> 00:42:24.199
business to start thinking about how they
can lead from purpose. Oh, Paul,

531
00:42:24.360 --> 00:42:27.880
that was just stunning. Now,
So what I would what I have

532
00:42:27.920 --> 00:42:30.360
to say to that? Really quick? Listeners, did you hear that the

533
00:42:30.360 --> 00:42:32.400
man needs some help? Okay,
he can't do it himself. He already

534
00:42:32.440 --> 00:42:35.679
said that. So you got to
step up. You got to help us,

535
00:42:35.679 --> 00:42:37.079
You got to help us join this
movement, be part of it,

536
00:42:37.159 --> 00:42:43.519
and start really working on helping your
companies be purpose led and performance driven.

537
00:42:43.599 --> 00:42:45.519
I mean, that's that's right,
Paul. You can't do this by yourself,

538
00:42:45.599 --> 00:42:51.559
especially not in what six years that
there's a lot to do. There's

539
00:42:51.559 --> 00:42:54.119
a lot of companies out there that
need this, that want this. There

540
00:42:54.159 --> 00:42:57.960
are a lot of companies out there
that already have a purpose, there are

541
00:42:58.039 --> 00:43:00.039
things, but they have no idea
how to really bring that into the organization

542
00:43:00.280 --> 00:43:05.119
and to actually lead from purpose.
Yeah, I think you're upset. That's

543
00:43:05.119 --> 00:43:07.119
what I found as well, Paul, is that people people talk about it,

544
00:43:07.119 --> 00:43:10.000
they get excited about it, and
they and they can even talk about

545
00:43:10.079 --> 00:43:15.159
a purpose from their vantage point,
but they're not really running and leading their

546
00:43:15.199 --> 00:43:21.079
business from purpose. Yes, And
that's what our foundation does. It provides

547
00:43:21.079 --> 00:43:28.320
a platform to support leaders in leading
from purpose and gives them the tools,

548
00:43:28.320 --> 00:43:32.119
the practices. A community of other
leaders are that are engaging in this.

549
00:43:32.920 --> 00:43:37.519
It's a collaborative platform that supports their
growth and development in this area of purposeful

550
00:43:37.559 --> 00:43:44.840
leadership. And you can find out
about this that lead from purpose dot org,

551
00:43:44.880 --> 00:43:52.400
which is the which is what our
foundation website is listed under. All

552
00:43:52.480 --> 00:43:57.840
right, so lead from purpose dot
org. So, since Paul is building

553
00:43:57.920 --> 00:44:00.400
a movement, if you want to
be involved in something worth while, now

554
00:44:00.440 --> 00:44:04.119
you know where to go. So
Paul and our last just few minutes on

555
00:44:04.159 --> 00:44:07.000
the show here, I'd like to
leave my guests with the last word,

556
00:44:07.079 --> 00:44:09.519
if you will, so you know
the show is about helping listeners across the

557
00:44:09.519 --> 00:44:13.960
globe more meaningfully and productively connect with
their work. What would you like to

558
00:44:14.039 --> 00:44:19.280
leave them with. I think it's
so critical to figure out what you want

559
00:44:19.280 --> 00:44:22.360
out of life and what's important to
you, and to make sure you get

560
00:44:22.400 --> 00:44:27.039
that from the organization you work for, because there's nothing more important than having

561
00:44:27.039 --> 00:44:30.679
a fulfilled life at work. Oh
that was the way to close. Paul

562
00:44:30.800 --> 00:44:34.719
Radoff, Thank you so much for
joining me and being my guest. I

563
00:44:34.760 --> 00:44:37.000
have been so looking forward to this
conversation since I met you last October.

564
00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:42.639
You got to come back deal my
pleasure. O. Thanks so much for

565
00:44:42.719 --> 00:44:45.679
having me. You're welcome. If
you want to learn more about Paul,

566
00:44:45.760 --> 00:44:49.320
the working his team do at Strategy
Development Group, or his book Thriving in

567
00:44:49.320 --> 00:44:54.119
a Stakeholder World, visit their website. It's Strategydevelopmentgroup dot com. Last week,

568
00:44:54.119 --> 00:44:58.159
you've missed the show, you can
always catch a be a recorded podcast.

569
00:44:58.199 --> 00:45:00.280
If we were on the air with
Rachel Quizzold. She's an international trauma

570
00:45:00.320 --> 00:45:05.760
specialist based in Sydney, Australia,
and her specialty is helping people recover rapidly

571
00:45:05.800 --> 00:45:08.000
from pain, trauma, illness,
and master their psyche so they can live

572
00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:12.480
a healthy, happier life. It
was a great and lively conversation, as

573
00:45:12.480 --> 00:45:15.159
you can imagine. Next week will
be on the air with Max Hansen of

574
00:45:15.159 --> 00:45:20.480
why Scouts, a recruiting firm that
helps leaders hire on purpose so their businesses

575
00:45:20.480 --> 00:45:22.880
can have the greatest positive impact.
See you then, remember that work is

576
00:45:22.880 --> 00:45:30.679
at least one third of our life, so let's work on purpose. We

577
00:45:30.800 --> 00:45:35.840
hope you've enjoyed this week's program.
Be sure to tune in to Working on

578
00:45:35.880 --> 00:45:40.599
Purpose, featuring your host Alis Cortes, each week on the Voice America Empowerment

579
00:45:40.679 --> 00:46:04.599
Channel. This week, find your
life's purpose at work.