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Every year, the kids and I anoint an official "song of summer". 🎵 A tune whose timing, catchiness, and quality lands it on repeat at home and in the car, and somehow winds up defining the summer for us.

But this year, going into the final weeks, we had yet to ID our tune. Then -- decked out in our pinkest of pink -- we loaded the kids and cousins into the car, and went to see "Barbie".

The lights went down. The previews ended. I hit recline in that plush theater seat.

And I took a 25-minute dad-nap. 🤣

Alas, I won't weigh in on a flick you've probably seen more of than I have. But I was wide awake for the end of the movie, when Billie Eilish's touching song, "What Was I Made For?", hit the screen.

It's possible that riffing on "meaning" in issue #77 had already put "the why" on my mind. But once we saw the movie, and heard Billie's song, we had found our summer jam:

So this week, we dig into purpose. Not Barbie's, or yours, or Usman's, or mine -- not individual purpose. But the role of a shared, collective purpose at work: why it's crucial for organizations to define a clear -- and ambitious -- purpose for their employees, and how and why expectations of purpose are shifting over time and across generations.

Thanks for reading and exploring with us -- and have a fantastic week!

Aki + Usman

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#1

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#MTP #MassiveTransformativePurpose #Vocab

We shared the definition of an "Exponential Organization", from the book of the same name, in issue 71:

Today, we zoom in on the notion of an MTP, or Massive Transformative Purpose, and the role it plays in the outsized success of an Exponential Org. The authors explain that an MTP serves as a guide or "north star" for the interactions between and across employees and customers. And that eight years of research have made them more convinced than ever that "the MTP is the single most important attribute of a true Exponential Organization".

But why is this such an important trait? And why does having such a massively transformative purpose "punch above its weight"?

This idea of a "vacuum" -- that work (and leaders at work) are increasingly asked to replace more traditional sources of meaning and purpose in our lives such as religion, civic duty and community -- segues us nicely to our next story.

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#2

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#Purpose #ShiftingExpectations #GenerationalAwareness

This quote 👆🏻 is from an article by Elizabeth Faber, but she's not a journalist: she leads the People function at consulting giant Deloitte, which employs some 330,000 people worldwide.

It's worth noting, by the way, that Elizabeth's official title is "Chief People and Purpose Officer", and that she is based in Singapore 🇸🇬 .

Deloitte has tracked and surveyed its youngest employees for 12 years running, and its most recent survey of Gen Zers and millennials, which make up more than 80% of its workforce, led to meaty observations like these:

🎯 More so than generations past, Gen Z and millennial workers want to work for employers whose values align with theirs, and they are keen to drive societal change -- through purposeful work.

🎯 Younger generations also expect more from businesses in terms of embedding purpose in their work, specifically. Faber explains:

According to Faber, these generations hold companies to higher standards, and they vote with their feet, deciding to join firms based on the promise of purposeful work, and deciding to leave if that doesn't materialize.

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#3

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#Purpose #WhyNotWhere

What makes this quote so poignant is how it highlights, on the one hand, our collective fixation on where we work. While pointing out in the same breath that it's short-sighted of us to neglect why we work.

After all, the attention we give these topics -- like all our attention -- is zero-sum. So obsessing over "the where" distracts us from reflecting upon "the why". 🤔

Thanks for reading. 🙏