Find Your Why: a practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team pdfdrive com

CONVERSATION 2: WHAT’S YOUR CONTRIBUTION?
(
10 MINUTES)
In each of your stories, what was the specific contribution your
organization made to the lives of others?
Express it in the form of a basic verb/action phrase: “to (verb).”
Working in the same three teams, participants should start a fresh flip-chart page and write down
the verbs or action phrases that capture the essence of the contributions implied or expressed in
the stories about what made them proud. Before the teams begin, clarify the goals of this
particular exercise by explaining that:
Verbs are important because our ultimate aim is to discover a WHY that is actionable, not
merely descriptive.
The verbs/action phrases should not be aspirational. This is about what people in the company
have done, not what they hope to do or be.

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The verbs/action phrases must be directly linked to one or more of the stories the team
identified earlier. This link is vital. If it is missing, there is the risk that the task will turn into the
type of branding or marketing exercise in which words are chosen because they “sound good.”
Tell the group they must support their action phrase with a story that clearly demonstrates the
connection.
FACILITATOR TIP
A good way to keep people on the right track is to have them try to complete the phrase “In this
story we showed up and we ed.” Tell them the blank must be filled by a verb. (For example,
see
here
—“More Tribe Examples.”)
Since the teams will consider stories that occurred in the past, the action phrases will likely be in
the past tense. However, we want to use the infinitive form of the verb—“to ”—since that will
help us later in the process.
Each team should come up with at least ten verbs/action phrases and no more than will fill a
single flip-chart sheet.
You will generally find that people are able to engage in and complete this conversation quite
quickly. Ten minutes is usually ample time.
Here are some of the verbs and action phrases that appeared on La Marzocco’s list when Peter
did the company’s Why Discovery:
to engage
to enrich
to build
to connect
to bring together
to inspire
to trust
to enjoy life
to love