Evan Renaerts

Simply on Purpose

December 13, 2007

The dependable rains of this wet west coast have returned after several days of cold and frost; the dark, short days of winter are upon us. The city seems to come to life more slowly, less traffic, people on the street rubbing their eyes – yawn, when will the light return.

I notice that a quick way to cut through personal and organizational dilemmas is to ask one simple but frequently overlooked question; what are we trying to achieve. This is the “purpose” question. Since we can do any number of things, then what would cause us to make one particular choice over another?

Because the purpose question is often overlooked, individuals and organizations regularly end up shuffling through a stack of possible options looking for “the thing” that they should be doing. Another common aspect of this phase is that people become attracted to complex and dramatic looking solutions or interventions.

What it looks like from the outside is that the ego has gotten engaged and the ego, everybody’s ego, loves drama, loves to be special. So to come back to the purpose question, what are we about and what are we trying to achieve in this situation, can feel a bit like throwing cold water on all that specialness.

Still, when we are faced with situations that require extraordinary action the cold water of basics and simplicity can be the very best starting place. An organization might have a team in break down, or a division that is failing to meet performance expectations. For individuals they may be facing a career, financial or family crisis; there are any number of possibilities that fall into the category, “This needs immediate attention.”

Regardless of the specific situation or circumstances it is always worthwhile to stop and ask, “What are my values and, given that this crisis has come into my life, how can I use it to help me get where I want to be?” By asking questions like this we can move out of panic, out of drama and specialness, and out of being a victim of circumstances.

Knowing who we are and what we value is the most direct route to knowing what our purpose is – the areas of endeavour and the ways of relating that will support us to experience fulfilment. The other immediate payoff in knowing our purpose is that we can then avoid wasting time, energy and money on overly complex and highly dramatic workshops, consulting services, and various other high cost interventions.

The world is a complex system; one tiny action in this corner can trigger completely unforeseen consequences in another corner. Over simplification and unnecessary complexity -neither are answers. There is real value though, in taking a simple approach to complex issues.
Principles, values, purpose, they aren’t necessarily easy to define but they are always our simplest and best reference points.

Evan Renaerts
604 314 0835
evan@evanrenaerts.com