Discipline Keeps Your Purpose True

Have you felt the pull for your organization to take a stance on something outside its scope?

A client recently shared about feeling the need to take a side on a polarizing scenario. He didn't feel right choosing one, since his perspective was more complicated than a simple either or. This plays out the same way inside organizations.

Many contentious issues get framed as a simple binary choice, with a moral undercurrent that implies you are "right" if you choose one or "wrong" if you choose the other. Right versus wrong typically depends on the perspective of the person asking you to choose.

It reminded me of two organizations working towards creating good in the world who landed on opposite views of the same issue. One prioritized the place it serves, the other prioritized the people it serves. Both are reading this through their purpose, and both are justified in the position they took.

It isn't about right or wrong, it's about the discipline of a leader to keep their organization true to its purpose, protecting what it stands for rather than diluting it by taking on what isn't theirs.