Thank you.
It was five o'clock in the morning when I got the call. By 5:15, I am racing north towards DC. There's a flash behind me that tells me that I just got another speeding ticket on the way to work. If you know DC, you know what that means. I hightail it, though.
I get to the outer gate, which is like a toll booth with armed guards, and show my credentials and they let me through. Then I get to the inner gate—not like a toll booth at all—and those guards are really armed, with really big things. You've got to sit there, not while they check your ID, but while they check all the other things they have to check, and then you get inside and you park. Then you get to the outer door of the building, and it's a biometric thing, and you've got codes and things like that. Then you get to the inner door of the building, and it's a biometric thing, codes, things like that. Who you are, what you know, something you have—that sort of stuff. Then you get to the secure part, and from there you've got three or four more doors, and the last one, I swear to you, looks like a bank vault from some cartoon that you're hacking or breaking into, just to get into the office.
About 5:45—that's how long it took to get from my house, screaming there. I sit down at my desk and I open my email for the emergency, and it turns out… President Obama had been double-charged for a sandwich, yet again, on Air Force One. I know. It's terrible.
When you think about the White House Communications Agency, you probably think about whitehouse.com. You think about some of the press-release stuff we see and all that. That's not what we did at the White House Communications Agency. I was part of the internal team that basically figured out: what does the President need to run his day? What does his team need? Some of the service that supports him. We were the backbone that supported. We were the voice of the White House, and we helped with things like that.
Why do I tell that story, of all the stories of the White House, to open it up? Because I want you to understand: this place ran like a business. We had a CEO. And I don't know if you guys realize this, but the President fills out expense reports. I certainly didn't realize this until I worked there—until the infamous double-sandwich issue. I don't know if he's got an assistant somewhere, but I love to believe he's sitting there going, "I didn't ask for cheese on that." I'd love that.
But that's our day. We go to a cubicle. After you get through all the madness to get in there, you're in a cubicle, doing normal stuff, doing normal work. But the thing I think separated us is, A, the iconography—that's hard to miss when you walk through the door. And B, more people than in this room, and we all had a singular purpose: to be the best at what we do, and to support the administration, because we knew that was the house of democracy in the US, and partners across the world. We knew we were there for a unifying purpose.
We had every branch of military, National Guard, Coast Guard. We had contractors, government civilians, consultants—we had a Microsoft guy. I don't know why we had a Microsoft guy, but he was the Microsoft guy. We had them all, and they were all in one room. When something happened—and it doesn't matter if it was a sandwich or something more global—we were all there, and we were all on a mission.
Now, when you think about Washington DC and the harmony in that place, I feel like maybe it's not that "one mission" deal. This is generally what you expect. I don't know if you watch the news lately—I try not to, because I want to stay sane. But politics in America… you think of an organization like that and you think of all these different people: different cultures, different branches of service, different upbringings, different needs. You think they might be like that, because you've literally got a President there and people have feelings about that, especially in a polarized society. But what we knew is, as we stepped through that door, we were there to support the same mission, the same purpose.
When I see this picture, I don't think about the White House, or honestly any federal org I've supported. How many of you work in finance, or with a financial company? You know this picture, then, right?
A couple of years ago—we'll put the White House aside, put a pin in it, we'll get back to it—I was working with one of the world's large banks, a global one. It was beautiful. You walk through the doors, they've got these towers of glass, and a cafe where they literally brought in gourmet chefs, Michelin-star chefs, to run the thing. Happy hour would open in their giant cafe at 4 PM, and all the bankers and the coders and everybody would go have their thing in the cafe. You had gourmet coffee in the morning, and you'd drink a cup and it would feel like heaven—and then you'd sit at your desk and hate your job all day long, because nobody agreed on anything and they didn't know why they were there. That's the problem.
I've had another experience, a different financial organization. You've probably recognized the slogan—at least some of you in the room will. They had T-shirts that said, "We make home possible." When you walked through the door, the cafe was under construction. The buildings were a quarter mile apart, and there was a bridge you walked in the rain that didn't have a roof. It was not the most elegant place. It wasn't that multi-billion-dollar complex of the other financial institution. But I was happy every day I went to work.
The difference was: one talked about shiny stuff—Michelin-star chefs, profit motive. The other wore shirts saying, "We make home possible." In that organization, I was part of the modernization effort. When we got together, we didn't talk about technology, AWS, DevOps—we did all those things. We didn't talk about Scrum and Agile—we did those. Portfolio rationalization—we did those. We got together, wearing our shirts, and we said, "I'm here to make home possible. I am here to make it work for people." That's why I'm here. I do a job, I go to my desk—but the mission is clear.
If the other financial institution had that mission, that purpose—that I create liquidity, I create capital, so our nation can expand, so the world can expand, so people can get loans—if I showed up with that mindset, plus the Michelin-star chef, it'd be all right. The only difference between the two financial institutions was their investment in the purpose and the mission, and the understanding of why they were there.
I've seen that working with automotive manufacturers, tooling vendors, everywhere else. The main difference between successful organizations that I enjoy waking up and going to work to—even if the coffee is terrible (I don't really think about it anymore)—is the unity of purpose and mission.
I want to see this, honestly. When I was at the White House Communications Agency, I saw this a lot. I saw us reaching in to do it. It wasn't just because the President's there at the end of the day and he's got to have his sandwiches. It was because we knew we were part of something greater. We knew when we showed up, our work made a difference.
Be honest here: how many of you wake up in the morning and go, "I'm going in today because my work makes a difference"? A couple of people. You're brave. I've woken up in the morning and said, "I'm not going in today, or ever again, because this sucks." It's not a way to build a sustainable business, right? It's certainly not what you want.
But when I think back to every single place I've stayed with, that I've enjoyed, that I've added value to, that I put my all into—it had a purpose. If you think about your business—and a lot of people probably don't think this way, whether you run the business or you just work there—do you know the purpose of your business? You can't say shareholders, and you can't say profit. What does your business do for society, or for your community, or globally?
I've worked with Veterans Affairs before—the VA. Any of you ever worked with the VA? Their mission is really clear, and it's easy to get behind. No matter how you feel about anything else: we are supporting the nation's veterans, because we don't do enough to care for them. We had an initiative to get homeless veterans off the street. That was it. That was the mission. And you know what we were talking about? Mobile devices, web screens, how does it feel to [inaudible], and all that. People forgot what the mission was. They were building out these elaborate things, putting it together and not testing it properly. They didn't realize homeless veterans have cell phones. We just asked, "What's the mission? What are we building? What are we building first?" "Well, we're putting these computers and libraries and stuff." They're not going to libraries, guys. They've got cell phones. They're homeless veterans. They're not in the Stone Age. They just need homes. If you put the mission upfront in everything you do, you solve the problem a heck of a lot better.
I don't want you to just rely on my experience. There are numbers out there. I had a hard time, because we've got limited time, limited slides—but I picked a survey, a study by McKinsey, that tells us why people leave their jobs, which is pretty powerful. People say you don't quit a company, you quit your manager—somewhat, to an extent. But if you look at this, 50% of people leaving their jobs give these as their top three reasons: they're not valued by the org, they're not valued by their manager, and they don't feel like they belong. Do you stick around and do your best work if you don't feel like you belong there? If you don't even know why you're there?
I've taken clients—because I'm a consultant—and I've been driving on the way there and gone, "I have no idea what I'm doing." I turned around, went back, and called them out. I was like, "What are we even doing here? What's the mission, man? What's the goal? Don't say money, don't say agile, don't say transformation. What are we doing to change the world today?" When we get to that point, we can start to make things better. Your workforce knows it. Your people know it.
Have any of you ever quit a job because you didn't know what you were doing? Have you ever quit a job because the company didn't know what they were doing? More hands on that one. I knew what I was doing—it was the rest of them that wasn't.
But it's not just this. We've got studies by Harvard Business Review, Ernst & Young, Forbes. Did you realize that organizations that state upfront that they are purpose-driven outperform the S&P 500 tenfold—by a factor of ten? That's huge. Just by having a purpose-driven organization. Purpose-driven organizations: 20% more growth—growing out to different regions, different markets—20% more than organizations that say they're not really purpose-driven, or haven't figured out their purpose.
Here's something that should really scare you, or maybe tune into it if you're in that C-suite somewhere. Out of all the CEOs surveyed, 80% said they know purpose is important in an organization. They know it creates more money, happier employees, less churn—all the things you want. 80% said that. Half of those 80% said, "I don't know how to do that."
It's more than just a slogan on the wall. Have you ever heard "Do no evil"? Who's that? Google. Do you feel like Google does no evil, ever? Do you see the smile on Amazon boxes? Do you ever see it on the drivers? There is a huge difference between your slogan on the wall—the stuff that goes up here—and the stuff that goes in here. Your leadership has to understand there is a big difference.
I love marketing for what marketing is. I love branding, I enjoy it. But marketing and branding are not enough to know your purpose. Marketing and branding are not enough to convince anybody to come to work, do their best, and be all that. Marketing and branding are not enough to align all the people in this room to march the same direction. It takes more, man.
You can't drive efficiency in an organization if everybody's going a different direction. You cannot drive loyalty in an organization by metrics, numbers, or slide decks. You do it by unifying behind a purpose. I guarantee you your org has a greater purpose than probably what you've discovered—unless you're a purpose-driven org that says, "This is our part. Maybe we're not changing the whole world, but we're doing this. Does everybody agree?" Then the people who don't agree, they can leave. Because that's what it comes down to: you're either on board—we're on purpose and on mission—or we don't have time, because we can't have the chaos of not being aligned.
I know when I work with an aligned organization, with an aligned team—and it only takes a few individuals to create that alignment, a very small team to drive that feeling. Have you ever felt that? "This is good. I know what I'm doing." Maybe it's in your charity work, or your family life, or your church, or whatever inspires you. It's a good feeling, right? "I know what I'm doing. I know why I'm here." It's a rush. Can you imagine that every day at work? Don't take speeding down the 9-to-5 just to get it—that's a different type of rush I just happened to enjoy at the White House. There's more to it, man. There's purpose here. There's reason here. The numbers don't lie about that.
The big question is—it sounds great, purpose is great—how do you do it? Because we can't all be president, right? How do you do it? The CEO's asked: how do you do it? I can tell you how we did it at the White House, and how I've seen it work elsewhere, because I've taken these things to other organizations and helped.
I can't do it alone, though. It takes clear vision and purpose, and thinking about it, from leadership. It takes the leaders of your organization, your team, your department, thinking about it and saying, "What is our real purpose here?" Is it a profit motive? Which is cool—we all want to make money. Or is it a profit motive plus liquidity for the world, feed the world, home the world? What part of society are we adding to? Are we bringing joy? Are we creating equality? Are we giving more? Are we doing something? There's something there in your organization. It's always there. If you just reach a little further, you can find it.
Leadership has that purpose, that mission. Then you slap the logos on the wall if you want to. But what you really do is get out there and talk to every single person in the org. In a purpose-driven organization, I should be able to walk up to the front desk and say, "What do you do here?"—and they tell me their purpose, not their job. I go to the back office: "What do you do here?"—and they tell me their purpose, not their job. Everyone in the org should start with the purpose, and then know where they fit in it. You can't get that bottom-up. Leaders have to say it. Leaders have to tell you how your vendors, your suppliers, how your chain works to meet this purpose. They have to tell you how that initiative you're working on works to meet the purpose. If your leaders don't have that clarity, it's going to start to get muddy.
Leaders in this room: if you haven't thought hard about it, start thinking about it, and be able to tell me how every person in your org contributes to that purpose. Then I'll know you're starting to be a purpose-driven organization.
How many of you do OKRs now? Cool. KPIs? GQM? Any other acronyms? Cool. Do you feel like they create a purpose for your org? I like OKRs. It's just like—okay, right? Yeah, okay, right. Everybody started this mad rush: "OKRs give purpose. Google did it. Google's always good. Things are great. We read the book. John Doerr, awesome guy. I love all that." It's a really good concept. "We have no purpose. Let's change our program and portfolio to be OKRs, and we'll tie it to the same measures we did last year. Sounds good. Call it a day, guys. We wrapped it up quick." That's what it's become. We're measuring the wrong things.
If you have your purpose, and you know it, and how everybody fits in, then you've got your measures that say we're aligned to that purpose. And OKRs are great if they align to that purpose. Once you've got your measures in place, you do enablement activities to say: this is how we're going to align the org to those measures that follow that purpose. And once you've got those enablement activities, you go train and say: we're going to train on the things we just enabled, that align to the measures that support the purpose. And then you coach on that training, and you communicate it, and you document it, and you circle back and say: does everybody understand the new purpose? We just updated it. Here it is. Here is our purpose, our mission, our vision. Are we all on board? And if you don't agree with it, feel free to either exit, or tell me how to make it better—because we're all moving in the same direction.
And it's that. It takes full organizational change to embrace your purpose. But I guarantee you'll get better results. You'll get quicker, more efficient, and you'll drive results—the things you want.
At the White House Communications Agency, in under six months, we went through an agile transformation. We implemented full continuous delivery from having none. We shortened our downtimes—which are a huge thing when you're dealing with the President—from two hours weekly to minutes. We did all that while moving through, while supporting the administration. We did it because we had a clear purpose.
We got together in front of the podium every week, once or twice, and the leaders of the org—whether that was a colonel on staff that day, a different branch member, a government civilian—they would get up there and we would talk about it. They would say, "This is how you change the world this week. This is how you're going to do it next week. This is our win. This is our loss. This is what we do." Everybody in the org was there. It wasn't just senior leaders around the table—it was everyone in the org. We all listened, and we all cheered our successes. We all understood our failures, and then we marched on, because we were there in support of the mission.
You can do that in an enterprise as well. You can do that in a corporation. You can do that in a small company. All it takes is getting everybody together, in a room, shoulder to shoulder, and talking about your purpose. I know: if we can do it with Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, National Guard, government civilians, and contractors that were competing—sitting elbow to elbow and going on mission—if we can do it there, you can do it anywhere. If we can do it in DC, of all places, we can do it anywhere. I'm telling you, DC is crazy. I live there.
But the point is: we try so hard. "Let's rationalize the portfolio, put a program in place, stand up SAFe, do an ART. Let's go train the teams on Scrum. Scrum's not working. Put them in Kanban. Take the Kanban out. Continuous delivery? No. DevOps. DevSecOps? Sure, let's do that." We have all these conversations, and nobody goes, "What are we doing?" Because if you don't know what you're doing, you don't know where to start, and you don't know where to stop.
I think ultimately the point, at the end of this thing, is: if you haven't done it yet, or you don't know how—start there. Go out and say, "What's the purpose? What are we doing here?" If you can answer that, the rest of it is easy. It really is—because all you have to ask, with everything you do, is: "Does it meet the mission? Does it match our purpose?" Cool.
I feel like we're coming up on the wrap-up time here. But I want to end with one thing. One of the things we did when we all got together—and we found it very empowering, all branches of service—we'd stand there in the foyer, we'd get our update, and then the commander or leader of the day would yell out, "One mission!"—and everybody else would yell out, "One team!" That was it. We'd do it three times in a row, and we'd break.
You all want to try that here? All right, get ready. I'll say "one mission," you say "one team."
— One mission. — One team.
— One mission. — One team.
— One mission. — One team.
Break team.
That's the purpose. That's the power. Go make it happen.