One of the things we can’t neglect when thinking about the future of work is for organizations to align on a sense of purpose.  Many organizations who are investing in enterprise collaboration tools and strategies to a good job of messaging and conveying value but where many fall short is on being able to align the organization as a whole on a sense of purpose.  Atos Origin does a good example of this but publicly conveying their goal of becoming a zero email company by the end of 2014.  Another company that does a great job of this is  TELUS which set out an aggressive goal to have 30% of their almost 40,000 workers work full-time from home by 2015.  These are organizations who are truly planning and seeking to impact the future of work.

So how does an organization go about aligning on a sense of purpose?

At a very high level there are a few things that need to be done:

  1. Set out an ambitious goal that is going to significantly impact what it means to work at your company.  This goal needs to be something that all employees can relate to and easily understand.
  2. Convey this goal (or sense of purpose) to the company at large, and if possible communicate this with the general public as well.
  3. Make sure this goal is consistently being reinforced within the organization
  4. Create public updates and announcements on the progress of the organization as it moves towards this goal, Atos does this quite well with their “zero-email” blog along with public appearances, interviews, and events that they host.  This makes sure that everyone inside and outside of the company knows what the big picture is.

These four things should be the foundation of helping your organization align on a sense of purpose around the future of work.  The investments that are made in enterprise collaboration tools and strategies are all being driven by this sense of purpose that everyone at the organization shares.  It’s the driving force behind change at your company.

Before doing anything else, make sure your entire organization can align on a sense of purpose around the future of work.

If you’re interested in the future of work make sure to take our survey, you will get a free copy of the report when it becomes available!

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