If you can dream it, you can do it. I saw this board last summer in a restaurant above the kitchen, and I was very curious because it reflected purpose and dreams. I asked a guy in the kitchen what it meant for him, for his kitchen, and for his restaurant. He was a cook, but he didn’t describe himself as a cook. Instead, he said, "What I’m doing the whole day is creating an excellent taste experience for our customers." He gave a completely different explanation of his role.
Then, another lady who worked in the restaurant joined our conversation. She added, "He is creating a tasting experience, but I want to create a whole experience in the restaurant." When you introduce yourself by your purpose, it changes everything. Earlier, I joined the last 15 minutes of the talk about Santander and heard about the importance of purpose—because purpose is who you are. Purpose gives meaning to what you do, what your passion is. It’s completely different from introducing yourself by a function because a function is fixed, but purpose is personal.
I want to introduce myself by my purpose. My name is Alice Hofmeister, and my purpose is: gather a team, set up the expedition, sail through the waves, explore beyond horizons. It’s not about discovering new landscapes, but about seeing things in a different way. There’s a whole story behind this purpose. I created it a few years ago with the help of a mentor who told me, "Be careful what you wish for, because everything may come true." And he was right.
Part of my purpose is team, because I don’t believe the future of work can be achieved alone. This is a bit of my team—my family, my husband in the background, and my youngest son. We were walking in the mountains, and he was afraid. "Mama, there are cows on the road," he said. I could have yelled and moved the cows away, but instead, I helped him overcome his fear, find his own way, and encouraged him to pass by. He did, and he was so proud that he didn’t need my help. He shined.
This is also me—not because I like being on stage, but because I love sharing stories. On our journey to the future, to becoming more business agile, to changing our ways of working and thinking, we cannot do it alone. We need practices, we need to learn from each other, and we need to bring those lessons into our companies and work. This is also me—I wrote my book, Purpose Driven People, now available for pre-order on Amazon. It contains my experiences, insights from experts I met along my transformation journey, and practical applications that may help you shape the future.
So why do we need to change? What is happening at the moment? The figures are clear: 54% of all employees need re-skilling and upskilling in the next four years, according to the World Economic Forum. 60% of employees are positive about technological developments and their impact on work. However, only 25% of business leaders believe employees are already using new technologies. There’s a clear gap.
Additionally, 98% of CEOs believe that purpose is well understood in their organizations. Yet, the lower you go in the hierarchy, the lower that percentage becomes. Only 35% of employees feel that the organization’s purpose aligns with their day-to-day work. COVID-19 has made this even worse. With fewer face-to-face interactions, it has become even more critical to reconnect, to listen to each other, and to ensure clarity in communication.
It’s not surprising that this gap exists across all levels and cultures. It stems from our history. Over 100 years ago, Frederick Taylor introduced the scientific management theory, creating hierarchical structures that divided work into smaller, repetitive tasks. It worked well back then, but today, it has led to disengagement and inefficiency. Our processes are still built on this outdated model.
In 1945, Douglas McGregor introduced Theory X and Theory Y—one based on distrust and control, the other on trust and autonomy. Yet, the shift towards trust has been slow. To move forward, we must trust people more and bridge the gap between managers and employees. This shift isn’t just a choice; our circumstances and ecosystem demand a different kind of thinking and working.
To keep up, organizations are transitioning to network-based structures, moving away from rigid hierarchies. Many are forming multidisciplinary, self-organizing teams without a designated leader. Leadership now focuses on setting direction—the "what"—while teams determine "how" to execute the work. They organize around customer journeys to create more value and operate closer to the customer.
However, traditional processes like budgeting, performance management, and governance must change to support this shift. Imagine playing Jenga—you remove one block, hoping the tower remains stable. Changing an organization’s structure is similar: every adjustment affects other parts. Stability must be maintained while increasing value for customers and employees.
The key is reconnection. Moving from hierarchy to networks requires us to rethink how we communicate and collaborate. When I started six years ago in an agile transformation at ING, we approached it in a siloed way. HR, communication, and business leaders each worked separately. Then, at a town hall meeting, an employee stood up and asked, "If we want an agile organization, if we want people to be involved, why is this approach so top-down?" That question has stayed with me ever since. Every transformation must start with a different approach.
From that learning, I developed the People Journey Circle, focusing on people and purpose as the foundation. Employees—including leaders—and customers must be at the center. Communication and awareness are continuous processes. We must identify constraints, role model behaviors, build communities, and foster learning organizations.
Imagination is key. This picture, taken in Central Park at a Business Agility Conference, reminds me that imagination is our most unique trait. It differentiates us from machines. When starting a transformation, we must ask: What will our company look like in five years? Not just in numbers, but in culture, behaviors, and experiences. Purpose must be meaningful and co-created with employees and customers.
Identifying constraints is crucial. If a process is a roadblock, people will find workarounds. Like in this picture, fences were placed on a road, but people simply walked around them. The same happens in organizations. If annual budgeting doesn’t align with quarterly agile planning, people find alternative ways to secure funding. The same applies to performance systems—if bonuses are individual but success is collective, is that fair?
Our biases shape how we see the world. For example, studies show that Japanese children focus on an object’s material, while American children focus on its form. Our upbringing, culture, and education influence our perspectives. We won’t change that, but we must be aware of it and communicate openly.
We need to foster collective intelligence. Swarms of birds never crash because they follow three simple rules: move in the same direction, avoid collisions, and stay together. Organizations can learn from this. Align around a shared purpose, address conflicts constructively, and prioritize teamwork over individual gain.
To become a learning organization, we must experiment, learn, and improve. This requires trust. We aren’t used to embracing failure, but we must. Learning means trying, failing, and iterating. Change is difficult because habits are deeply ingrained. Our brains form "highways" of thought patterns through repetition. To change behavior, we must create new "goat paths"—small, repeated actions that gradually form new habits.
However, under stress, we revert to old ways. During COVID-19, many organizations defaulted to hierarchical crisis management. That’s normal. But we must help each other get back on the new path and make it the new highway. If we do this together, we let people shine and achieve our collective purpose—not just for customers, but for the entire ecosystem.
If you want to know more, you can pre-order my book—it’s available for just €3 or £3 this month. If you have questions, please connect and ask. Together, we can shape the future. Thank you.