It's been emotional!

Don't worry about the tennis; it's the tears that count!

When Andy Murray broke down in tears during his runner up speech at Wimbledon in 2012, it was a turning point in his career. Not only in his tennis career – he then went on to win an Olympic Gold Medal and the U.S. Open – but in his ‘public’ career. It was the moment that he was accepted and started to be cherished by the British media and the British Public. Andy Murray has always been a fantastic tennis player, but it wasn't until he showed his human and slightly more fallible side that people started to believe in him. Emotion is very powerful.

Recently I've been thinking quite a bit about emotion and the role it plays in inspiring change. My instinct when it comes to selling in sustainable business practices has always been to move away from emotion and stick to rational arguments; after all, the struggle has always been to get leaders to see sustainability as core to the business so how would bringing emotion into it help? Of course communications to engage employees and consumers could depict human stories in a conversational and approachable way, but not the communications to Senior Leaders or Management. My view on this is starting to change.

In his book, Start With Why, Simon Sinek makes the compelling argument that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it” – you might remember this from my blog on 21st April. Simon argues that inspiring people with why you do what you do, appeals to the Limbic part of the brain, which is separate to the area of the brain which processes rational, analytical thought and language. The Limbic brain is “responsible for all our feelings, such as trust and loyalty…It is also responsible for all human behavior and all our decision making” (Ch.4). Based on this, the easiest way to persuade or convince your audience to make a decision or take action, is to appeal first to the heart and then to the mind. As Simon points out in his book “I can’t help but wonder if the order of the expression ‘hearts and minds’ is a coincidence…Why does no one set out to win ‘minds and hearts’?” (Ch.4)

So, we need to bring more emotion to the table. The increasing focus on a company’s purpose – the why – enables us to do this whilst remaining within the comfort zone of most business leaders. Over the past few months, I have been working with a U.S.company to help it articulate its core purpose. Last week, the purpose was unveiled to the wider leadership of the organization and, considering that the audience was predominantly made up of middle class men, it was a surprisingly emotional event; there were tears! On reflection, it isn't that surprising – a purpose makes the connection to the broader ‘why’ of the business; it demonstrates the human/social impact of the business beyond generating profits and, inevitably, provokes people to question their own values and motivations. However, it was incredible to see the energy, enthusiasm and inspiration as every member of the company’s leadership team understood the positive, human impact of what they do every day.

Ultimately, in order to influence change within the corporate world, we need to tailor the message to suit whatever type of organization or people we are dealing with. However, emotion and business, particularly as we move towards business as a force for social, environmental and economic good, are not as far apart as they first seem.

People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it

Back in the days when I was fundraising for a nonprofit, my communications always focused in on the 'why' – what is the need or problem and why is it important that we address it now. Of course, the funders that I was talking or writing to were interested in what we were doing to address the problem, but, ultimately, the reason that they decided to make a donation was based on the difference that they thought it would make, the positive impact that they would have on the cause in question. Learning to present the 'why' in a compelling way was fundamental.

The importance of the 'why' reaches far beyond the realms of the fundraising world. Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why, gave a great TED talk back in September 2009 that explains the importance of the 'why'. It’s a great talk and I would thoroughly recommend watching it but, in short, the key point is that what inspired leaders and inspired organizations have in common is that they focus on why they do what they do, rather than simply what they do. He uses the example of Apple which sells its products by sharing the core belief that is driving the business – as Simon Sinek puts it, they say to us, “Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make computers. Want to buy one?" It seems so obvious but it’s amazing how few companies actually do this.

However, where understanding the ‘why’ can be really powerful is in terms of understanding the broader purpose of a company – the reason it exists and what it brings to society/the world. Apple is actually an interesting example because it hasn’t done this. Whilst Apple clearly understands the ‘why’ in terms of product strategy and marketing, it has been slow to recognize, articulate or act on the social or environmental opportunities of the business. You could say that it's only identified half its purpose. In today’s world, consumers want more than that – they want to understand the ‘why’ of a company from a product/business perspective as well as a social perspective. By understanding and articulating their ‘why’ or ‘purpose’, companies are in a much stronger position to drive authentic, sustainability activity, derived from the core of the business.

Purpose - A Unifying Force

Purpose is what everyone's talking about on both sides of the pond - and, what's great is that it's not just sustainability or corporate responsibility professionals doing the talking, it's people from all across the business world. Just today, Jock Mendoza-Wilson, Director of International and Investor Relations at System Capital Management, posted a blog called Business with a Purpose from Davos.

So what exactly is meant by the term purpose? The way I would describe it is that a company's purpose says what an organisation does beyond generating profits; it expresses the value that the company brings to the world, what the company stands for, and, essentially, why the company should continue doing what it does. A good example is Coca Cola's purpose: "to refresh the world, to inspire moments of optimism and happiness, to create value and to make a difference". This statement demonstrates Coca Cola's commitment to doing more than selling a product to make a profit - in fact, the purpose immediately establishes 'creating value' and 'making a difference' as central to the business and therefore central to generating profits.

Establishing a purpose is beneficial for motivating and inspiring employees because it makes them feel good about what they do; it encourages suppliers to build sustainable business practices into the way they do business; it builds trust and loyalty among consumers because they can see the positive impact on their lives and the world around them; and, ultimately, it helps the business chart and stick to a course that is sustainable and generates both stakeholder and shareholder value. There's some interesting discussion of this in Salterbaxter's Directions Report 2012: Profits from Purpose.

Most of all, I believe that the real power of a purpose lies in its ability to unite people at all levels of an organisation and therefore help drive change. Whilst sustainability or corporate responsibility goals have - more often than not - divided individuals or departments within a company, a purpose helps unite them behind a common cause. Everyone understands what the purpose means and how it relates to the day-to-day business operations. What's more, it can add more depth to what a company does - opening up opportunities for employees to innovate and think about how they can adapt what they do to align with the purpose - from senior management to graduate trainees.

Over the years, one of the biggest challenges has been getting sustainable or responsible business to the top of the agenda, mostly because, unless there was a key sponsor among the top decision-makers, it's often been seen as something separate from the core activities of the business. I believe that the development of corporate purposes will help to change this  - the right purpose will help drive understanding, inspire action and innovation and, ultimately, accelerate positive change.