Do your employees know the purpose of your organization?

There’s this famous story of President J.F.Kennedy and Janitor. During a visit to the NASA space center, President John F. Kennedy noticed a janitor carrying a broom. He interrupted his tour, walked over to the man and said, "What do you do here?"

"Well, Mr. President," the janitor responded, "I'm helping put a man on the moon."

When we know the purpose, we realize that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves, that we are needed, that we have something better ahead to work for.

While working on different small ventures since the last 3.5 years, I found that in most of the start-ups, very few employees are aware of the vision and objectives of the company. In many companies, these statements can be found on their websites but never communicated to their employees effectively. Every employee is aware of his duties from his first day in the company. But very few companies focus on informing their employees why they are in this business. And in fact that’s the reason employees are not connected with the brand emotionally.

I believe knowing why we do what we do is essential for any small or big venture to sustain in the market. And it’s also important for the organization to convey this reason to every employee.To inform our team about these WHY's, I developed a ‘Why-Five Framework' consisting of five simple questions. I then conducted an interactive session on this 'Why-Five' framework where all the team members worked on identifying answers to FIVE different questions which are as follows:

• Why do you work?

• Why do you work at “your company name”?

• Why do you work as “your designation”?

• Why do you want to achieve your goals?

• Why do we want to become a leader in the market?

Rather than telling the company's vision directly, I asked them for their personal reasons to work for our company and tried aligning them with the company's vision.

As a result, they have understood the purpose, and now we all have a common objective and are moving in the same direction. There is a positive change in a way everyone has started working towards these common objectives. The participation of every team member has increased and overall productivity has improved.

During this time of uncertainty, when most of the companies are shutting down, knowing the reason for our existence is essential.

If you’re a manager, leader or CEO then ask your employees what’s the vision of your company. If they don’t know it then there might be a lack of connect and inclusiveness in the organization. And to bridge this gap, you can try using this 'Why-Five Framework'