Organizational Purpose: The Secret To Creating A High Performing Workplace Culture

February is healthy heart month, which always reminds me of the word “love.” When thinking of “love” from a business perspective, who wouldn’t love to have a high performing culture? In last month’s Wellness Newsletter, I introduced the concept of culture first when developing worksite wellness strategies. I defined five distinct areas of wellbeing that are important to organizational culture: career, social, financial, physical, and community. In addition to those areas of wellbeing, there’s one more: organizational purpose.

Organizational purpose ties the five areas together, and here’s how:

To have a high performing workplace culture, you need to have the insight, discipline, and energy to achieve this goal. Culture should not be created by default, but rather with purposeful design through a unique business strategy that connects each and every employee to the reason why your company is in business (outside of making money).

What is the reason your employees come to work each day? What is the reason they chose their occupation? What is the connection between what they do every day and the greater good? If you can help them connect the dots and link their daily work to the vision of the organization, you’re on your way to developing your company’s purpose. This, in turn will support the creation of a high performing workplace culture.

Experts say that there are a number of things that define culture within an organization: purpose, behaviors, values, norms, rituals, traditions, peer support, recognition, rewards, climate, modeling, mentoring, recruitment, feedback, communication, resource commitment, and training and development. These are just a few. That said, redefining organizational purpose and making the connection to something larger than ourselves is the one thing that clearly sets the good apart from the great. What’s your organization’s purpose?