Turning Years, Turning Points
by Christos Tsolkas
Yes, it's been overused in the last few years. PURPOSE.
Yes, it can be an excuse or an advertising hook. PURPOSE.
Yes, it might be a philosophical nuance, driving some people to inaction. PURPOSE
But for me, it was an essential element of life; it was my book too.
Here are the soundbites of a podcast I enjoyed a lot, nicely produced by Rebecca Tapp back in July 2020, along with the @Decoding Purpose project.
Rebecca: Christos, I am going to kick off with a question that I ask every guest on the Decoding Purpose Podcast, whether you think the discovery of our purpose is an intentional decision or is the discovery of our purpose a type of fate or destiny?
Christos: Thank you for inviting me, Rebecca, into this highly intellectual space with a like-minded audience.
Purpose, meaning, and impact on the world can be discovered in both ways.
It can be an intentional journey, facilitated by externalities, may be assisted thru canceling sometimes, and can also be destiny.
Something happens somewhere that gives us a wake-up call.
It's called LIFE.
And life throws up unexpected obstacles and sometimes opportunities in our way.
Those obstacles or crises can help us or maybe force us to go deeper and discover what matters.
So, that's when you go back to the drawing board and refine or rewrite your purpose; what results are usually more authentic and in line with what you or your organization need to do.
It can be a Eureka moment.
Sometimes, a sense of purpose does not feel authentic because it has been manufactured or cooked up in the lab.
I don't blame anyone for this.
It's essential to work hard at determining, articulating, and operating with a sense of purpose, using your System-2 thinking, as Daniel Kahneman would say. Purpose is a cognitive exercise that needs programming.
Rebecca: While on the subject of destiny and fate — what a time to release your book 'The Gift of Crisis.' You released the book in February, and It's almost as if you predicted what was to come. Have you reflected on the timing since?
Christos: It was actually amusing because I have been working on this book for the last five years (AN: since 2015)
By then, very few people would use the word PURPOSE as everybody uses this word today.
It started as a collection of my personal stories, some blogging material just to tell a story.
It evolved thru the years, with research, stories of others, a kind of a framework, and a how-to concept.
But I was delayed, and I was feeling that this word, PURPOSE, is gradually becoming a cliché, and took the decision to go live last summer (AN: the year 2019)
I could not wait for anymore.
Then I started the publishing project.
Accidentally the process was delayed, and the book was aired in such a moment.
Of course, I did not imagine or anticipate the scale, scope, and speed of the crises we face now.
But I think my own crisis experiences helped me understand that things can change dramatically and unexpectedly.
And when I spent some time in Chapter 7 imagining Level One Problems or crises that could impact a business or society, it was not difficult to see that a pandemic or social injustice or economic inequality was just waiting to happen. You could also throw in climate change.
So then the question becomes, what do we do about it or what could we have done?
We could obviously have done more to prepare — contingency plans, what-if scenarios, alternative supply chains, etc.
But even beyond that, I think what this crisis and the social disruption show us is how important leadership is. The fundamental function of that leadership is to help us come together for a common purpose.
I think we've seen that kind of leadership here and there, but it's also been strikingly missing elsewhere.
For the most part, leaders now are thinking tactically (which is also necessary) but not in terms of vision or purpose.
***
Rebecca: Now, as I am sure you are aware, at this exact moment in time, the world is in a collective turning point as a result of Covid-19, and we are also witnessing The Black Lives Matter protests unfold globally, on the back of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis. When I was doing my research for this podcast, I noted that you experienced scenes that very much resemble the scenes we are seeing play out today while in Ukraine in 2013/14. Can you tell me about this time in your life, and why was this a catalyst for your purpose?
Christos: Human beings are very good at adapting to their reality.
We're wired to find ways to thrive and survive within the context we live in.
But this context can become very comfortable — even when it's not desirable.
Think of how we can put up with almost any misery for many years — a bad relationship, economic inequality, an unsatisfying job, an industry that's not delivering what people need.
Along the way, however, we develop assumptions and patterns of behavior that actually reinforce that context and inhibit any tendency to examine it, probing it, looking for better alternatives.
That's why the crisis is a gift.
It reveals that the current context, for whatever reason, is no longer sustainable, and it forces us to change.
And hopefully learn, grow, connect with others and find that more profound sense of purpose.
So for me, I was a very typical manager at that point in my career.
I had very tangible objectives for my business and my career.
Perhaps I had a bit more curiosity and impatience with the status quo than some of my peers but to little effect.
Then came the crisis.
I needed to reevaluate everything about the business, my role, and myself to become what we needed to get through.
I like turning points.
Intuitively, I have learned to detect those points when they come, and depending on the situation, I either increase the bet or pass and wait for the good times to come.
It is some sort of intellectual gambling.
None of the two, bad or good luck, lasts forever, so I believe in this theory called Return on Luck (ROL).
What do you do in those turning points is what finally matters.
I think I came through the other side more true to who I really am, even if my career took a very different path.
I also think the people I worked closely with in Ukraine feel as though their lives are more prosperous and more engaging as a result.
Again, that's the gift.
***
Rebecca: All of that said, when it comes to personal turning points in our lives, I know you did get to a point where you felt out of alignment working for big tobacco. Do you remember when you felt your personal purpose shift leading you to take the leap into becoming an innovation and business advisor? What does it feel like for someone going through that shift, and what's your advice?
Christos: Sure.
There are those kinds of crucibles, the moments when you turn.
Especially in a corporate environment, you need to check your happiness barometer regularly.
It reflects your inner self.
As an expert on yourself, you need to make judgment calls.
This was precisely what happened in my case.
You feel that the four walls of your professional house are sort of restrictive.
The fact that the house has expensive wooden furniture and offers you lavish dinners might not be aligned with a sense of freedom and sharing with the world without restrictions, policies, or geographies.
The feeling you are having when you do this leap of faith is that before, you were accessing 5% of the "world," and after, everything is visible and at arm's length.
My advice is to do frequent checks and continuously reconcile the dilemmas.
Life is a tree of YES and NO branches.
You never know how you would end if you answered YES instead of NO at any crossroad.
Then support whatever the decision is, close the book and start the new one.
***
Rebecca: Christos, I know that a core area of passion for you is decoding the business case for purpose. You have spent a considerable amount of time researching the intersection between organizations that disrupt or redesign and their inherent connection to a higher globally-focused purpose. These companies also happened to be the most profitable. My question is, why — what about this sweet spot creates brand gravity for consumers?
Christos: For several reasons, consumers today are not buying promises of performance or dreams or luxury only.
To a great degree, the world is open, transparent and accessible, fast; knowledge has been replaced with SEARCH.
Every anomaly is visible.
The problems people have are aggregating into serious Global One Problems.
So they need institutions and companies to find solutions to them.
Then they buy those solutions.
They consume or work happily for companies that offer not JUST performance or style but purpose too.
My simple definition of purpose is the IMPACT our PRODUCT or SERVICE has on people's lives.
Not just customers, employees, or stakeholders.
But COMMUNITY, SOCIETY, at scale. THE PLANET.
The "loftiness" of their purpose dictates the space in which purpose-driven companies play.
So the depth of purpose and whether this is incorporated into the business model and the innovation space they select to operate can make all the difference and lead to disruption, exponential growth, profitability.
These days, increasingly, people have the chance to reflect and understand their deepest needs.
And I guess those are to live in a world that's healthier, more optimistic, more connecting, more sustainable, more meaningful.
So businesses that align with that have almost limitless potential for growth because those needs are unmet, and you can just keep innovating to fill them.
***
Rebecca: While on this subject, in your opinion, what are the differences between personal purpose (i.e., the purpose of your employees as individuals) and organizational purpose?
Christos: Everyone has a personal purpose — whether they've discovered that or not — which may not be aligned entirely with the organization's purpose.
In fact, often, they're entirely out of line.
So the individual's responsibility is, within their power, to determine what matters to them and discover ways of expressing or living that within their work.
Small or large.
And the responsibility of the organization is to articulate its purpose truthfully so people, including customers and partners, can sign on to that deliberately, and the organization can be held accountable.
The value then is self-explanatory — you get more committed employees, more engaged customers, more word of mouth, etc.
***
Rebecca: Do you think these two areas of purpose need to be in alignment for an organization to scale, and if so, what does that alignment look like?
Christos: I do think the more alignment, the better.
That's why I love startups so much.
They usually start with a sense of purpose.
Let's fix this big problem and make the world a better place.
They are romantic.
If they're just about a new gadget, an established company could probably come up with it.
But they're usually more emotional and meaningful than that.
And the founders and first employees are usually very, if not wholly aligned with that purpose.
And that gives them the resiliency, fortitude, and determination to get through all the challenges and develop all the innovations and pivots to survive.
And if all that comes into place and meets a real unmet need in the market, then there's the chance to really scale.
And hopefully, the sense of purpose is so powerful and precise that it's part of the DNA as the organization grows.
Usually, successful companies take a while to lose that, a couple of generations, unless the founder sticks around or really selects successors well.
Think of where Apple is at right now versus a company like IBM.
***
Rebecca: So today, we are here to decode purpose and crises. We were just chatting about the success of organizations that disrupt, and I think it's fair to say that any organization innovating at that level needs to be comfortable with the unknown. They need to take risks. This idea also got me thinking about how a crisis somehow creates the same conditions in that in a crisis; we are also asked to respond to uncertainty. In both scenarios, purpose becomes the anchor. With that in mind, why does innovation happen at the intersection between purpose and uncertainty? Is this tension something we should be creating when we are doing '"business as usual" — is that the key to scaling at speed?
Christos: Absolutely true.
Innovation is at the intersection of purpose and uncertainty.
Sometimes that uncertainty is fast-moving and destructive — that's the crisis. Sometimes it's not as obvious — like an evolving market or a technology that's about to become obsolete.
Think of a KODAK moment.
Purpose gives you the directional sense of how to navigate that uncertainty. So what do we need to do here and why?
What will it mean to us and others?
Again, that's why crisis is a gift.
It forces the work. It speeds up things.
The more challenging thing is evolving and innovating when things are still good.
How do you look at a looming crisis, like a market shift, and make sure you get ahead of it?
How do you get people's attention?
How do you galvanize or manufacture the urgency for innovation to achieve scaling at speed?
You open people's minds, decrease friction, and let them win.
A leader who leads from purpose and has those conversations all the time can do this more efficiently and more convincingly because the connections are already there.
To me, it's the essence of leadership.
***
Rebecca: I was reading an article that you wrote earlier this year in response to the Covid-19 crisis. I absolutely loved a paragraph where you spoke about purpose being something that evolves. That if a purpose is stale, a crisis will expose that. Can you talk me through this idea in more detail because I do often think people think of purpose as an unchanging anchor, but I also agree that purpose 100% evolves due to the environment? What has been your experience of this, and what insights have you gained?
Christos: I talked before about going back to the drawing board and refining your purpose when a crisis arrives.
This doesn't mean any previous work was wasted.
Thinking about and living with purpose is almost like a muscle or discipline enhanced with practice.
But even though purpose is such a long-term and directional vector, we must also be willing, ironically, to let go of it when we need to adapt or respond to the demands in front of us.
I suspect that we're getting closer to our truth with every step or adaptation along the way.
How many companies have you seen employees' safety and wellbeing of employees as an element in their mission and vision statements before COVID?
The same goes for uninterrupted supply flow vs. cost.
When the crisis hits, purpose needs revision.
It's part of the art of living, too.
Whatever is flexible bends.
Whatever is adaptable survives.
That sounds easy until it happens in real life.
Each change is like a small death, and a letting go.
However painful that may be, the better we get, the better we navigate life and succeed.
I'm not at all saying that we need to be cold-blooded or heartless about change.
This requires an immense amount of compassion for ourselves, for the people affected by the change, and for the world.
***
Rebecca: In researching for this interview, I have also noted that you refer to a crisis as a galvanizing force. It is something that brings people together around a common bond. A common purpose. What have you learned about teams and the creation of a shared purpose?
Christos: Yes, speaking of compassion.
Compassion is at the heart of a shared purpose.
It is really about connecting and helping each other survive and thrive with more meaning, engagement, self-development, and support.
I think the ultimate purpose is around personal and collective growth and connection along an ever-changing journey.
I don't think we often articulate that openly in a business environment, but in the best settings, it's really there.
Think of how people get attached to each other through work and shared experiences.
The best teams bring that to the surface openly.
It takes vulnerability and courage because it is scary and easier to hide our needs and feelings.
***
Rebecca: Christos, I know you are passionate about innovation and the exponential impact of technology. What role do you think data and emerging technologies will play in influencing the creation of a better world post-Covid 19?
Christos: We are very fortunate that this crisis arrived right now.
Imagine, even ten years ago, if we didn't have the digital capabilities we have today.
No zoom meetings.
No distance education.
No telemedicine.
We also can inform, trace, track.
Almost everyone on the planet carries around a device that didn't really exist 20 years ago.
We're also on the brink of a massive change in healthcare as wearables and monitoring devices come into play.
Many industries were already facing massive disruption, which COVID has accelerated.
But the urgency for change is now apparent.
The ones who get it have the opportunity to survive and grow massively through innovation.
Also, we haven't had a clearer sense of common purpose since the world wars probably.
Countries like Greece, my original home, exhibited a phenomenal pace of digitalization and use of data in days.
Without the crisis, the exact change would have taken decades. And they won COVID, for now.
***
Rebecca: I am at my final question for the day — If you reflect on your personal, professional, or collective experiences of crises, what is it about a crisis that rips away all of the illusions or false beliefs, asking us to accept a more profound truth. I know this is a big question, but I keep asking myself, especially in response to climate change, and now with what we have seen with Covid-19. Why do you think it takes a crisis for us to ignite change, even if we could have changed (by choice) before the crises?
Christos: I think the gradual elimination of comfort levels leads to your most profound truth.
All fallacies, biases, misbeliefs are coming up.
Pealing an onion.
It is the space where existential questions kick in.
Alcoholism is a severe crisis.
In 12 Step Programs like Alcoholic Anonymous, they have a concept called "Rock Bottom."
It's that point when the life you're living, or your behaviors or your patterns, are simply no longer sustainable.
You can't fool yourself anymore.
You're stripped down to your most honest truth.
Who am I?
What kind of person do I want to be?
Do I have the willingness to change?
What kind of support or help or inner strength must I summon?
Where do I want to go?
You might not even have the answers, but you're finally asking the questions — honestly and truthfully.
This is the motivation for change.
The kind of change that leads to something better, more fulfilling, more true to our values.
Right now, the world may be at a kind of rock bottom.
There are probably many different ways we can go and still survive.
But we also have an enormous, perhaps unprecedented, opportunity to make things better.
I say, yes, we take it.
CTjan22
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Christos Tsolkas is an Independent Business Advisor, Entrepreneur, and Author of the new book, The Gift of Crisis: How Leaders Use Purpose to Renew their Lives, Change their Organizations, and Save the World.
He has spent more than 25 years in positions of significant responsibility (general management, sales & marketing) with multinationals in the fast-moving consumer goods sector, leading senior teams to achieve high performance and change. His educational background is in chemical engineering & business, and he is dedicated to continuous learning.
