Last week, we examined harvesting resources in a regenerative organization. This week, we’re looking at purpose and its organizational impact. The two ideas are deeply connected. How organizations gather, distribute, and replenish resources is ultimately shaped by the purpose they are designed to serve.
When I consult with an organization, I’m always curious about a specific question. Is the organization designed to be regenerative or is it unintentionally extractive? If it’s the latter, we have to consider that the organization is operating in a degenerative relationship with the world around it. This is where a strong sense of purpose can guide us back toward a more regenerative, healthier state.
Nature’s purpose is to preserve life. Nature continually organizes regenerative systems around species and ecosystem survival, creating conditions for life now, and for future generations. Every organization is also designed to fulfill a purpose. Unfortunately, our traditional worldview tells us that our purpose is primarily profit, but we know that’s a dangerous worldview.
Degeneration vs. regeneration
Our traditional organizations and their actions over the past century have led to a degenerating present. Systems with diminished vitality have left lasting damage for current and future generations.
As humans, we’ve created a standard in which organizations extract resources without regard for how this affects the quality of life for future generations. Many organizations exploit their employees, burning them out by treating them as resources to be used rather than people to be nurtured.
If we judge organizational purpose by the outcomes it prioritizes, such as profit and efficiency, we’ve built a system designed to enclose wealth and power. Our hierarchical structures do not align with the deep interdependence of our organizations or the world they operate in. We make choices that hinder future generations and erode Nature’s resilience, putting all of humanity at risk.
Fortunately, many people are questioning this approach to purpose today. They’re asking more questions and turning to the wisdom of the elders to help alter the course from degenerative to regenerative practices.
When it comes to our organizations, the Seventh Generation Principle teaches us that we, too, have a need to nurture future generations.
The Seventh Generation Principle is an Indigenous philosophy, rooted in Iroquois traditions, that encourages leaders to consider how their decisions will affect people and ecosystems seven generations into the future. Rather than focusing merely on short-term gain, the Seventh Generation Principle asks us to act as the stewards of long-term social, ecological, and community well-being. With this as our cornerstone view, we can tap into the infinite power of purpose.
Finding our true purpose
Purpose is different from a mission statement or company vision. In Nature, purpose is found in the interdependent relationships between and among all living species. For humans, it’s the anchor that keeps an organization from drifting away from its core values.
Organizationally, purpose lives in the space between us and the world we are embedded in. That makes it an incredibly powerful tool to help organizations shift from degeneration toward a regenerative state that will thrive for generations.
Finding the organization’s true purpose may feel like an overwhelming task, but, as always, it begins with curiosity. Two questions can help uncover and articulate your organizational purpose:
- What unique value or capacity does the organization bring to the world?
- What deep need can it meet within its community, region, or even the planet as a whole?
Purpose reminds us that no organization exists in isolation.
As I explored earlier in a post on interdependence and living systems, organizations cannot separate their own well-being from the health of the larger systems they depend on.
Purpose becomes visible in what organizations say and what they do. We can see it in the system patterns and behaviors that are repeatedly reinforced over time. Obviously, we also find it in the organization’s current and historic outcomes.
Moving forward with regenerative purpose
A regenerative organization’s purpose focuses on both the social and ecological well-being of the living species within it and the larger systems on which the organization depends. Using Nature’s definition, purpose becomes the organization’s most essential commitment.
Regenerative purpose is inherently interdependent—rooted in relationships, not things. Aligned with this type of purpose, our actions are now built on the understanding that the organization is embedded in a larger interdependent system. Relationships and interdependence become crucial criteria for every organizational decision.
This does not have to be a grand, sweeping change initiative. We can start by shifting some of our daily behaviors, including how we make even the smallest decisions. The next time you’re contemplating an action, practice by asking yourself a few questions first:
- How will this support current and future generations?
- Do we understand all of the long-term implications of the action?
- Will it enhance the system’s quality of life?
- Does the action help our organization thrive now, and in the future?
Hopefully, this little exercise will give you a taste of what it feels like to act in alignment with Nature’s definition of purpose. Over time, organizations become reflections of the purpose embedded in their choices. If those choices don’t support the well-being of people, their communities, and our planet’s ecosystems, the organizational systems—and the organization itself—will weaken and eventually fail.
The shift from a degenerating system to a regenerating one is, at its core, a shift in purpose. It moves us from just a few controlling most of the wealth and power, to nurturing the social and ecological well-being of present and future generations.
