What Are We Actually Here to Do?

Most organisations have a purpose.

Or at least, they have a statement somewhere that explains why they exist.

The problem is that having a purpose and remaining connected to it are not the same thing.

In Human System, Purpose is not a slogan, a branding exercise or a paragraph at the beginning of a strategy document.

It is the reason the organisation exists. The reason the work is being done. The thing the rest of the system is supposed to serve.

That last part matters.

Because organisations build systems to help them achieve their Purpose. They create structures, processes, policies, measures, meetings and roles. Over time, those things can become increasingly complex.

And sometimes, without anyone consciously deciding it, people can become so busy running the organisation that they stop asking whether the organisation is still doing what it exists to do.

Purpose should help us make sense of decisions

Purpose does not make every decision easy.

Organisations still have competing priorities. There may be financial pressures, operational challenges, limited resources and genuinely difficult choices to make.

Human System does not pretend that asking, “What is our Purpose?” will suddenly produce an obvious answer.

But it should give us something important to come back to.

When things become complicated, we can ask:

• What are we actually trying to achieve?

• Who are we here for?

• How does this decision help us achieve that?

• What are we asking people to do, and why?

• Is this process helping us, or are we now serving the process?

• Have we become busy without becoming more useful?

These questions do not remove the complexity.

They help make sure we are at least thinking about the right things.

Because it is entirely possible for an organisation to be extremely busy, highly structured and apparently productive while gradually becoming disconnected from the reason it exists.

The system should serve the Purpose

This is an important part of Human System.

I am not against systems.

Human System is, after all, a system.

Organisations need structure. They need processes, responsibilities, information and ways of making decisions. Without them, good intentions alone are unlikely to achieve much.

But every part of a system should have a reason for being there.

A process should help people do something necessary.

A meeting should help people understand, decide or act.

A measure should provide useful information.

A structure should support the work that needs to be done.

The question should always remain:

What is this here to help us achieve?

Because systems can gradually start serving themselves.

Processes continue because they are established processes.

Meetings continue because they have always happened.

Measures continue to be reported because they are the measures we report.

Structures are protected because changing them would be difficult.

Activity can begin to look like progress simply because people are constantly doing things.

And somewhere along the way, the original reason for doing those things can become less visible.

That is how an organisation can lose sight of its Purpose without ever formally changing it.

Purpose needs to remain part of the loop

For me, this is where Purpose becomes more than an abstract idea.

It should remain connected to what actually happens.

Purpose influences what the organisation builds, what it values and what it asks people to do.

Those systems and expectations then shape behaviour.

Behaviour produces outcomes.

Those outcomes give us information.

And that information should help us learn.

Including learning whether the system we have built is actually helping us pursue our Purpose well.

So Purpose is not simply where the thinking begins.

It is something we should keep returning to.

Purpose → System → Behaviour → Outcomes → Information → Learning → Purpose

That does not mean constantly rewriting the organisation's Purpose.

It means remaining willing to ask whether the things we have built around it are still doing what they were intended to do.

A simple test

Sometimes the most useful questions are the simplest.

Could we achieve the same Purpose more simply?

If the answer is yes, we should probably pay attention.

Complexity is not always a sign of sophistication.

More processes do not necessarily mean better control.

More meetings do not necessarily mean better communication.

More measures do not necessarily mean better understanding.

And more activity does not necessarily mean more progress.

Sometimes the system has simply become larger than the job it was created to do.

What are we actually here to do?

I think this is a question organisations should be prepared to ask themselves more often.

Not because they have forgotten their mission statement.

But because Purpose can slowly become disconnected from everyday reality.

People can be working hard.

Leaders can be making decisions.

Reports can be produced.

Targets can be monitored.

Processes can be followed.

And still, nobody has stopped to ask:

Is everything we are doing actually helping us achieve what we are here to achieve?

For me, that is what Purpose means in Human System.

It is not something that sits above everything else, looking impressive on a website or a wall.

It is the reason the rest of the system exists.

And the system should remain answerable to it.

Perhaps that gives us two questions worth returning to:

What are we actually here to do?

And:

Is everything we have built helping us do it?