“Personal purpose and personal vision and organizational purpose are part of what gives daily meaning to the work you do daily.” This week, we meet two very interesting purpose practitioners who genuinely seem to embody in their work that sentiment—Tal Goldhamer, Partner and Chief Learning Officer – Americas, EY, and his colleague Jeff Stier, leader of EY Americas’ Purpose & Vision Realized practice. In one of the best conversations we’ve had on an already strong season, we delve into just how central this major leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services thinks purpose really is.
An intriguing new purpose concept: nesting
EY doesn’t think or expect all of its global roster of 300,000 to get all they need out of that topline directive to build a better working world. What’s more effective: working with team members to identify what their individual purpose is, then chaining that to the larger vision, work it calls ‘purpose nesting.’
Why ‘purpose’ can’t do all the work itself
We hear how EY puts a lot of effort into supporting the purpose concept with vision and striving for long-term value—or as we hear it formulated in the episode: “purpose alone is not a magic bullet and it never belongs in a conversation by itself; purpose + vision + long-term value is the power equation.”
L&D as the great Trojan horse
Like other organizations we’ve heard from across our purpose journey, EY also believes L&D has a major purpose contribution to make—and again, that that has to be more than just ‘training’ or ‘learning’ as abstract concepts, but as inspiration and a means to find connection with colleagues and the wider organizational purpose: “We view the role of L&D as having a role in helping people become better performers, colleagues, leaders, better people… helping people discover and activate their purpose and vision almost immediately makes them better in all of those categories.”
Purpose as a vector for inclusion and belonging
A perhaps surprising side effect of formal purpose education: not only does it make you happier in your job, it can also make you a better colleague. “When you discover your personal purpose, and you realize that the personal purpose and vision, and you realize that that combination is unique to you, something also happens: you realize that everyone else has a unique, personal purpose and vision and that the diversity of that uniqueness is required to make up a team.”
More about EY’s ideas about purpose can be found here.
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