Drive, Chapter 6: Purpose

The Purpose Motive

There has to be a bigger idea than just profit.  For many profit is less important that having a reason for doing the things you do.  Profit is nice and necessary to stay in business but giving your employees a purpose might be even more important.  Employees with purpose, autonomy and mastery will make your business even more profits, more than likely.
I have seen this in my own life.  I stayed at a job I loved, even  though i could have made more money somewhere else, because I had all three of these things.

Goals

Tom's shoes is a company that donates a pair of shoes for every pair it sales.  This is an example of what some businesses are becoming.  Places where profit is important but having a goal other than just maximizing revenue. Having a goal that is not just about money, can really help you and your employees find a purpose that will give them more meaning in their job.

Words

Words matter.  If you want to see what kind of organization you have, see whether the employees use they or we.  "They" companies are the opposite of what we are going for.  You mogur have a problem with purpose.  If you your employees care about the business and and how to make things better they will often use "We". A "we" company is the kind we want.  The employees care about coming to work, they care about helping the company survive.
We can help change this by helping our employees to see the why?  Why are we doing tbe things we do?  To make the world a better place?  To maximize our revenues?  Giving the employees a why can help them to see their purpose in the organization.

Policies

Polices can serve as a hindrance quite the opposite of what they were planned for.  By sitting forth a policy.  We are telling employees that this is the standard by which you will be judged.  The author gives an example of Affirmative action, by setting this policy the employees are  not trying to be more inclusive, they are trying not to get fired.  

The Good Life

The good life what is it and what does it mean?  The entire purpose of the book is summed up here.  Making money can contribute to the good life, but it is not the whole part.  To live the good life, we need to hack Motivation 3.0.  This means working at a place where you have enough money to live, and finding a place where you can find purpose and meaning in doing the work you enjoy. 

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