Many organizations have mission, vision and value statements that define who they aspire to be. These statements may be helpful in guiding the organization, but they may not always resonate with the team. A purpose statement at the team level will focus on how that team contributes to the organization.
A team purpose statement – one that defines what the team does, why it matters and to whom it matters – can help team members understand the importance of the team’s contribution and how it aligns with the organization’s goals. This can also help your employees and others within the organization to recognize the value of your team.
How this can help
A process that engages your team in creating a purpose statement may be more important than the statement itself. This is because it provides opportunities for your team to come together, be heard and feel respected for the contributions they make.
This may help with:
- Collaboration: employees may be more motivated when working towards a unified goal
- Cohesion: increasing the feeling of being part of the team
- Inclusion: inspiring meaning by inviting different perspectives of what makes a great team experience
- Morale: communicating the value and strengths of the team to the entire organization can inspire pride among your team members
The process includes:
- Gathering input from team members
- Refining input with the help of team members
- Finalizing and communicating the purpose statement
- Using the purpose statement to help with decision-making
- Revising the statement if and when changes to the team are made
Create an invitation
Invite everyone who contributes to the work of your team. All perspectives can help you and your team identify the ways in which the work you do is meaningful. For example:
- Your payroll team might include bookkeepers, admin staff, clerks, customer service personnel, timesheet reviewers, interns, etc.
- Your facilities team might include custodians, technicians, health and safety professionals, event coordinators, etc.
- Your food services team might include cooks, dieticians, packagers, delivery service staff, health and safety professionals, dishwashers, volunteers, etc.
Suggested wording
Modify the following information to suit your purposes.
Help us create our team purpose statement!
We’re creating a purpose statement for the [name or function of the team] and inviting everyone who contributes to the work of the team to participate. This includes [name all of the relevant roles]. We value your thoughts and we would like each member to individually contribute what you feel is the purpose of our team, including:
- How we contribute and make a difference to the organization
- The impact we have in the wider community
- Who benefits from the work that we do
The purpose statement is intended to clarify, to ourselves and others, the importance of our team’s contribution and how that aligns with the organization’s goals – not focusing on the individual tasks we each do, but rather how what we produce as a team impacts the organization.
You can submit your responses using [this anonymous method*] to share what you think our impact is and who benefits from it, or you can email me directly if you prefer. Be sure to send your response by [date] and I will merge similar ideas and share the list with everyone, before we work together to create our team purpose statement.
Some examples to help you think this through include:
- A payroll team: Our purpose is to ensure all employees are paid correctly and on time. We come together as a team during times of system change or failure, late or incorrect reporting, or other challenges to consistently provide our best service.
- A facilities team: Our purpose is to keep the facilities safe and clean for customers and employees. We do this by being thorough in our work and diligent in identifying hazards and eliminating or addressing risks to health and safety.
- A food services team: Our purpose is to provide nourishment to employees and visitors. We do this by procuring the best ingredients, upholding the highest standards of safe food handling, preparing nutritious meals and providing reliable and friendly delivery.
Note: The term "anonymous method" refers to a specific approach the leader has in place to gather feedback without any identifying information. Some approaches include an online platform, suggestion boxes, online surveys, or a dedicated team email address that will not identify the sender. Be sure to replace “[this anonymous method*]” in your invitation with clear instructions on how they can provide their feedback anonymously.
Gather input
Encourage all team members to provide their feedback. This may take 1 or 2 reminders. Once you’ve received the feedback:
- Review the submissions from each of your team members, and feel free to add your own to the list.
- Remove any identifying information to avoid bias.
- Try to honour the voices of all team members by including their submission in some form, even if you feel it is outside of scope. You can direct the team during the final process to consider what is within and outside of scope.
- Merge similar ideas to avoid repetition.
- Share the anonymous and merged list with the team, and ask them to review it before you all work together to create the final team purpose statement.
Refine input
Bring together, virtually or in-person, as many members as you can to refine the team’s purpose statement. Begin with a review of the list created.
Sample instructions:
- We’ll use our list as a starting point and together refine and define our purpose statement.
- This is not about the specific tasks we each do, but rather the impact those tasks have and who they benefit.
- Some examples to help us think this through include:
- A payroll team: Our purpose is to ensure all employees are paid correctly and on time. We come together as a team during times of system change or failure, late or incorrect reporting, or other challenges to consistently provide our best service.
- A facilities team: Our purpose is to keep the facilities safe and clean for customers and employees. We do this by being thorough in our work and diligent in identifying hazards and eliminating or addressing risks to health and safety.
- A food services team: Our purpose is to provide nourishment to employees and visitors. We do this by procuring the best ingredients, upholding the highest standards of safe food handling, preparing nutritious meals and providing reliable and friendly delivery.
Facilitate a discussion, either in small groups or as one large group depending on how many team members you have, to answer these questions:
- Out of everything on the list, what do you think best conveys the value that we bring to the organization?
- Out of everything on the list, who do you feel benefits from the work that we do?
With these items, let’s go into groups of 2 or 3 and wordsmith a purpose statement that lets others recognize the value that we bring. I’ll take all of your statements, review them and put them together into one statement that combines your ideas, and I’ll share this with you for your feedback.
If writing is not your strength, engage someone on your team to help with this. In some groups, it may be possible to write the final version together, but that can also be more complicated when you have several different perspectives.
Finalize and communicate the statement
If the entire team was not involved in crafting the team purpose statement, you may want to circulate the statement created to all team members. Ask for any final feedback and integrate it, if necessary.
If your statement needs to be reviewed and approved at a higher level before finalizing it, make sure to include this step before circulating the final statement.
- Communicate the final draft. This could include encouraging team members to add it to their email signature, post it on your webpage, display it in your workspace, and share it with other teams, departments or the organization.
- Provide a way for anyone to communicate with you if they wish to acknowledge one of your team members for great service, or if they have any questions about your purpose statement.
- Be sure to communicate the purpose statement to all new contributors to the team as part of their orientation to the team.
Use the purpose statement for decision-making
The team’s purpose statement should be considered when making decisions about:
- Setting priorities
- Making changes
- Taking on new tasks
Where possible, ensure that decisions are in alignment with the purpose statement. If the decisions are outside the control of the team and do not align with the purpose statement, it may signal a need to revisit the scope of the team’s work and consider revising the purpose statement.
Revise the statement as needed
Repeat the process when the team members or their scope of work changes. If you wish, you can extend this process as described below.
Take it even further
Depending on your team, you may want to take this process further by considering other aspects of your team. This part does not necessarily need to be shared with others but could be helpful in defining team norms and expectations for existing and new team members.
You may wish to bring your team together virtually or in-person to discuss any additions to the purpose statement that:
- Reflect your team’s goals in terms of inclusion, belonging, environmental awareness, and community action.
- Define the critical competencies the team strives for to serve the purpose that has been defined. For example:
- Payroll team: Accuracy, consistency, attention to detail
- Facilities team: Thoroughness, awareness, diligence
- Food services team: Safe food handling, nutritional knowledge, culinary skills
- Describe how team members may overcome potential challenges or obstacles to achieve their team’s purpose. For example:
- Payroll team: Respond to system failure or changes, adapt to staff turnover
- Facilities team: Repair equipment, adapt to lack of resources
- Food services team: Adapt when dealing with food spoilage or supplier delays
- Define what is non-negotiable in ensuring quality of your team’s work. This is intended to set a standard for good teamwork. For example:
- Payroll team: Double checking all work, weekly balancing of all accounts
- Facilities team: Regular daily inspections of the entire work environment
- Food services: Regular health and safety checks, ongoing menu updates
- Define where the team can take reasonable risks. For example:
- Payroll team: Processing pays manually based on last pay when the system fails
- Facilities team: Leaving regular duties to help with an accident or hazard
- Food services: Substituting menu items due to lack of ingredients
Share this webpage with anyone who is a team leader seeking to clarify their team’s purpose and value within their organization.
Additional resources
Team agreement process. This process is used in collaboration with adult team members to develop their own agreement about how they will interact at work. It is intended to support a high-functioning, inclusive and psychologically safe team.
References
- Lüthy, A. (2023). From the Mission Statement to Value-Oriented Corporate Management. In Value-Oriented Leadership in Theory and Practice: Concepts-Study Results-Practical Insights (pp. 79-93). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
- Poleac, D. (2023). Assembling and Leading Mission Driven Teams A Strategic Design Framework. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence (Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 976-985).
- Toh, S. Y., Tehseen, S., Mahmoud, A. B., Cheok, J., Grigoriou, N., & Opute, J. (2022). Mission statement effectiveness: investigating managers' sensemaking role. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 27(2), 329-345.