Why are we here?

Yesterday I spent a few hours in the pleasant company of some former police colleagues, as we gathered to remember our departed brother Richie Lloyd. You may have read the blog I dedicated to him a few months ago ( https://www.kbotraining.com/blog/loss ) It was an eclectic mix of some long retired, and others still serving. And as usual, when such an event takes place, all that is wrong with ‘the job’ is put right. Or at least it is in our opinion!

One of the conversations I had was with one of the chaps who was on my Roads Policing team and it led me to reflect upon how crucial ‘purpose’ is. I still find it slightly unsettling when speaking to clients today about their organisation’s raison d’etre. So many just ‘haven’t got round’ to establishing a mission statement. They might be operating quite successfully, but when you try and drill things down there really is no actual focus on either where they are going, or what they are trying to achieve.

We had a simple one in the police force I was in; “Keeping people safe”. Why was that important? one of the big reasons was the rather unfortunate habit the police have of trying to be all things to all people. It really isn’t a sustainable business model and is quite a lot to do with why they end up in a pickle from time to time. Having a simple mission statement like that made things so much easier. Every time someone came up with a new initiative, the question was asked; “Will doing this ‘keep people safe?’” . If the answer was ‘yes’, the next question was “but how much will it keep people safe?” If the answer was “Lots!” then it was worth backing, and got done. Otherwise, it might fall down the list of priorities. But it helped keep things broadly in lane and helped avoid mission creep.

It is the same with clear strategy. In Roads Policing it was very simple; Improve standards, reduce casualties and deny criminals the use of the road. If anything you were doing sat outside of that, you weren’t doing your job. And it is the same in whatever role we carry out; we have to understand why we are here. The Sociologist Durkheim posited a theory of ‘Anomie’. He argued people had to see a connection with what they were doing. Does the worker putting a widget in a thingummybob ever get to see the finished machine that it is a key component in. Similarly, in an ever more fractured and disenfranchised society, citizens need that clear understanding of how they fit in.

Within our own organisations, it will be a key element of recruitment and more importantly retention. And for those working for us, critical in keeping them engaged, productive and on track. Having simple touchstones to keep people reminded of the purpose will be a big factor.

So if you have a wizard of an internal coach, who can facilitate such a project, now is the time to get it done. And if you haven’t, there are lots of us out in the freelance world that would love to help.

Derek Flint Cert. Ed., MCIPR