Common Purpose – Adieu’

I guess I was a bit ambitious or maybe it was a sudden burst of inspiration on meeting Devi Shetty in the second session of Common Purpose that I thought I will write one pager on every single “Common Purpose” session which I attend. I had kept all the notes I had made in a file thinking one day I will just write … that was end of Jan and this is end June, unfortunately time is still a scarce commodity. With 2 kids at home & 2 unfinished projects at office some ball had to drop and the easiest one was obviously my writing – common purpose was subset of my overall ambit of my writing – something I am most passionate about.

The paragraph above symbolizes a similar pang which many of us felt on our ride back from the common purpose sessions. Although I am generalizing at this point, if the remaining 49 participants’ did not then “God Bless” because then all of you are able to put your hand – feet – mouth – mind where your soul is.

What did common purpose journey mean to me? Did it make any difference? Yes, It did. There are many training programs I attend and many I conduct and the only measure for any programme is the lasting impact the program can have on someone’s mind. Common Purpose is a program whose impact in my mind will be everlasting – I can relate it to the 5000+ saplings & around 4000+ DVD’s of “Inconvenient Truth” we distributed across India on the environment Day & the 20 odd young minds that assembled in my balcony to see the same movie, discuss it and make a resolution and make their entire family live by it.

Will the tree be planted? Will the tree survive? Will it bear fruits? Will the 20 kids remember their resolution? Will it make the world a better place to live in? I do not know & I never will but I know I could do something and I did….I think that has been my biggest learning across all common purpose sessions.

Believe in the purpose – Means will follow.

The Common Purpose Journey

It was with a mixed bag of optimism and skepticism that I joined the Common Purpose journey in January. Today, after attending 5 out of 8 sessions I look forward to these Friday sessions as half a day which pushes me to question my “sense of purpose”. And most of the weekends I am tormented till Monday Job List takes over like a giant wave which pulls me in and keeps me engulfed till the next session.

Do we have a purpose in life? For most of us who are nudging 40, our sense of purpose is limited to our jobs, our family (especially our growing up children) and of course our own self. Many of us grew up in lower middle class, got our engineering degree followed by an MBA and landed ourselves a good job which lets us indulge in our aspirations.

The corporate journey which most of us have embarked upon is a journey toward a milestone which keeps shifting every year. But we are happy running because there is a very well defined “sense of purpose instilled in us”. Most importantly you have a feeling that you are in control and there are enough metrics / parameters which defines – measures your purpose.

Every news bulletin on corruption / scam / judiciary have made us cynical and turn a blind eye to what’s happening around. We read, see, hear, discuss vociferously, but making us take an action is like climbing the Everest. Our “chalta hain” altitude or “what impact will this one action lead to” prevails in most of us including me. So, Can I have a sense of purpose for my society, people around me when I cannot have a control? The answer is a definitive “NO”

Some of us feel for the outside world, want to do something – something serious, impactful but the daily workload – office and family is so immense that we end up looking at doing things which will come easy literally at our doorstep. The last action I can remember taking is donating cloths which I do not need and felt very good that I have fulfilled a “common purpose of the society”. Looking back that’s a tokenism which I don’t think I can repeat once more and be proud of.

Most of us are happy to be in this cocoon like feeling of moving, progressing, learning…completely untouched by outside world.

Common Purpose shakes that belief ….It gives you that irrational feeling of jumping out of this comfortable groovy train, break out of this cocoon and make an attempt to fly.

For most of us “having a purpose” is to “make a rational choice or being objective or being result oriented”. I think Common Purpose turns that thought upside down - Purpose is all about “belief-passion-doing good” without expecting a result.

Following these are impressions of my meeting with few leaders who made a more lasting impression in my mind than all business books I have read till now.