This Series:
Part 1 (Intro) | Part 2 (Purpose) | Part 3 (Values) | Part 4 (Roles) | Part 5 (Rhythms) | Part 6 (Goals)
Why Purpose Matters
Patrick Lencioni has this great quote I find myself repeating as an internal dialog:
"If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time"
And I think that is the crux of why a clearly defined "purpose matters.
When a team understands why they do what they do, something powerful happens. Energy that might otherwise scatter in different directions begins to align. People pull together. Work feels meaningful, not mechanical.
Clarity of purpose is the great amplifier of effort. It turns individual contributions into collective momentum. When every person knows exactly what the organization is trying to accomplish and how their role contributes to that larger goal the impact compounds.
At risk3sixty, we have worked hard to paint a clear picture of our purpose. It’s a living compass that guides how we make decisions, how we spend our time, and how we serve our clients. It’s what keeps us "rowing in the same direction."
We want our team to come to work every day knowing why their job matters and how their efforts contribute directly to the company’s success and our clients’ success. And two tools we use to do that our "Big Hairy Audacious Goal" and Open Book Management.
Tool #1: Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG)
One of the reasons sports is so great is because the goal is clear. Win the game. Win enough games and you might win a championship. There are rules. There is a scoreboard. And it is clear how disciplined execution arrives at the results you want.
But business, for some reason, doesn't enjoy the same clarity. You join a company, do a job for years, often without understanding if what you are doing even contributes to the larger objective of the company. It's a treadmill that never ends. That is a terrible place to be.
At risk3sixty, we try our best to avoid that kind of pitfall. We believe that every great team needs something worth fighting for - a mission big enough to inspire, but specific enough to guide action.
Our BHAG (see image below) does exactly that. It is a bold, measurable destination we’re chasing over the next few years. It’s not something we can achieve tomorrow. It’s something that requires us to stretch, grow, and evolve as a team. But it serves to align our energy.
It is also important to point out it's not just financial, more importantly, our goal is equal parts cultural. (I often tell team members, if I had to choose between the financial aspect of our BHAG or the cultural part - I would choose the cultural part every time.) The goal of our BHAG is to create opportunity for each other, but also to preserve this special thing that we have built together over the long haul.
When we set our BHAG, we asked ourselves: What would it look like if we fully lived up to our potential? The answer became a statement of intent that we all rally around. Then, we set to work aligning everything we do to align to it: BHAG -> to Annual Goal -> to Department Goals -> to Individual Goals.
We call that kind of alignment "Mission to metrics" and it is how we get the whole team aligned from top to bottom. More importantly, it is energizing when you understand exactly what you are fighting for and why you are fighting for it.
Tool #2: Open Book Management
Many years ago I read the book "Great Game of Business" by Jack Stack. Jack says that the best companies are able to design systems in their business where everyone understands how what they do contributes directly to the Company's financial health and objectives.
And to do this the burden is on the management team to 1) offer unparalleled transparency (open book management), 2) Educate the team so they can interpret the results, and 3) Make clear how each team member's job contributes.
That is a tall order, but if you can pull it off it is extremely powerful. It connects a company's "BHAG" to the tactical job each person is doing everyday. And, man, that is motivating!
That’s why we practice open book management at risk3sixty. We believe that when people have the full picture and they understand how their jobs (and individual KPIs) contribute to the bigger picture - they make better decisions and feel more ownership over the results.
Every team member has visibility into our financial performance, customer satisfaction scores, growth strategies, and long-term plans. We present them every week at our all hands meetings, during department level meetings, and at our quarterly off-sites. Nothing is hidden. We talk about what’s working, what’s not, and where we’re going next.
That level of openness builds trust - and trust fuels accountability. When everyone understands the numbers and the story behind them, each person has the freedom (one of our core values) to take full ownership of their job.
Transparency also keeps the management team honest. It forces us to communicate clearly, stay disciplined, and celebrate progress together. In short, open book management turns our shared purpose into shared performance.
What’s Next
Purpose is the foundation of everything we do at risk3sixty. It gives direction to our strategy, meaning to our work, and clarity to our communication.
But purpose alone isn’t enough - you also need the right principles to guide how your team behaves and makes decisions. That’s where our Values come in.
In the next part of this series, I’ll share how we defined the core values that shape our culture, how we live them out daily, and how they serve as the connective tissue that holds our organization together.
Read Part 3: Values –> Here
Christian Hyatt