V O LU M E 5 , N U M B E R 10

Reflections
The SoL Journal
on Knowledge, Learning, and Change
FEATURE ARTICLE

Bringing “Mission” to Life
Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis

Commentary
Tex Gunning

Commentary
Peter M. Senge

ON THE WEB

Emerging Knowledge Forum
Effecting Change in Complex
Social Systems
Hilary Bradbury, Sissel Waage,
Ruth Rominger, and David Sibbet
Cultivating Energy Fields
in Organizations
C. Will Zhang and Mette S. Husemoen

Gerald Gay

Published by The Society for Organizational Learning

ISSN 1524-1734

reflections.solonline.org

FEATURE

Bringing “Mission” to Life: Corporate
Inspiration from Indian Communities

Karen Ayas

What would you do to build a deep sense of pur-the connection between shared personal experi-pose within your organization, enhance performance,

ence and deep organizational change, they sought

and make a difference in the larger world? Whatto build a community of leaders through a pro-kinds of developmental experiences would you

found learning journey in India. While the specifics

design to accomplish all this if you had sufficientof this effort are beyond the reach of most organi-resources? In this issue’s feature article we see

zations, Unilever’s continuing experiment has

how one company, Unilever Bestfoods, Asia, tack-changed the lives of its participants, and yielded

led those questions with the help of a team led byimportant principles for building a purposeful andcoauthors Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis. Recognizing

committed organization. — Paul M. Cohen, Senior

he idea that vision, mission, and values can guide a business and provide meaning for
its members and customers is well established.1 Business practitioners and theoreticians
alike agree that clarifying and committing to one’s own aspirations creates a strong personal sense of purpose, which in turn energizes organizations and makes them more effectivein the long run. Yet, in so many cases, companies’ statements of this sort merely hang on thewalls of corporate offices or appear on coffee mugs and plaques. They carry no real meaningfor employees, who generally don’t – either individually or collectively – embody the mission
or any shared aspiration to live it. As a result, “official” statements of purpose and belief areoften seen as empty rhetoric.
To build a sustainable, profitable food and beverage business in Asia, Unilever Bestfoods(UBF) sought a new way to create a genuine mission and infuse it with personal values. UBF
began by closely connecting the senior leaders of 17 independently operating national companies in the Asia Pacific region, and including in the strategy and operations of the regional
business the next layers of country marketers, supply chain managers, and staff. Behind thiswas a desire to build the capacity of this entire leadership body to think and feel together,that is, to operate as a community of leaders.
As Tex Gunning, the president of Unilever Bestfoods Asia (UBFA) put it, “Community isimportant. It stands for a safe environment in which to share. If we as leaders start to live indenial about our fears, doubts, and anxieties, and the differences of opinions amongst ourselves, we will never get convergence; we will never get the sense of a powerful team pushingin the right direction.” That would require more than individual input, challenge, and creativity; the aim must be to cultivate and draw from collective intelligence and will.
Next, this community of leaders embarked on a series of annual journeys to different
locales in the region to inform themselves about their markets, gain deeper, hands-on

T

Philip Mirvis

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Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis O Bringing “Mission” to Life 1© 2004, Society for Organizational Learning. All Rights Reserved.

By Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis

understanding of local customs and consumer preferences, and inquire into their own functioning as a leadership body. Gunning, as well as other Unilever leaders, led memorable
retreats into the forests, jungles, mountains, and deserts as a means to launch, calibrate, andrefresh change efforts. Drawing on the practices of whole-system intervention, community
building, small-group process, and individual development, these “learning journeys” were
aimed to open eyes and minds, and stimulate heads and hearts.
Picture, in this instance, nearly 250 company leaders, from top corporate officers to local
brand managers, spending two to three days in ashrams, spiritual centers, microenterprises,
and charities in India. They tend to the needy, offer what
Journey Characteristics
help they can, and wonder how swamis, selfless caregivers, and community entrepreneurs are able to accom• Individual and organizational development
plish so much with so few resources. In a desert• Action learning principles
campsite, for three days thereafter, they reflect on themeaning of their experiences, talk over its relevance for• Led by senior executives
them, and rediscover what a true mission is – and to• Individual, team, and collective work
what a great business should aspire.
Though the experience deepened their understanding• Corporate citizenship through community service
of communities they served, there was more to this• Holistic experiences that engage mind, heart,experience than market research or community service.
body, and soul
Gunning expected that as the leaders learned about the• Documented as a learning history
people and circumstances of the communities they visited, they would also ponder the meaning and implications for their own leadership and business practices.
The mind-opening and heart-rending experience of being with people who dedicate theirlives to service sparked the desire of Unilever’s leaders to build a business that would serve a“higher purpose” – promoting the well-being of everyday Asians and reaching out to thepoorest of the poor. As we shall see, this community immersion experience helped to awaken
latent aspirations and values, and gave to UBF a new and distinctive mission, and to so many,a personally relevant sense of corporate purpose.
Though these methods may be beyond the scope of some organizations, we believe thatthe components of the company’s learning journey (dubbed its “Journey to Greatness”),
can be instructive for every organization that wants to build new leadership capacity and abetter world.
This article describes in brief the learning journey of UBF Asia leaders, looks into the lessons learned from the communities visited, and considers the implications of this experiencefor developing a community of leaders. UBF Asia’s Journey to Greatness had started with agathering of leaders in Guilin, China in 2003. This second leg, in India in 2004, provided newmeaning and direction for efforts to transform the business.

Experiencing Communities in India
Leaders from 15 countries in the Asia Pacific region assembled in India, divided into 27
groups, and then traveled by train, bus, or car to local communities. Destination sites included
Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, the Dalai Lama’s monastery, the Sikh Golden
Temple, the Brahma Kumaris Headquarters in Mt. Abu, and the Baha’i Lotus Temple, as well
as cloth-spinning communes, the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), and ashrams.

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The travelers participated in a series of individual, team, and collective activities with ample
time for solo reflection and collective dialogue, which took place amid the wonders of nature
or in locales of historical, cultural, or spiritual significance. The experiences were planned tostimulate rational and emotional responses and many involved physical activity. The practiceof yoga, tai-chi, and/or meditation provided complementary “soul work.”
The visits had elements of service learning – engaging people in need, helping to serve
them, and learning from the outreach effort. This learning took the forms of recording observations, feelings, and insights about community practices and needs, and then talking withcolleagues in informal and structured group settings during several days thereafter.
The leaders were asked to assume the role of anthropologist for the visit. They were to use
their five senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch – to understand what was going onin the communities and to rely on their sixth sense – intuition – to connect to the universal
rhythms of human and community life. The leaders were urged to pay attention to preconceived cultural or intellectual assumptions; to be sensitive to their feelings and judgments; andto open up to what they might experience during the visit.
Many were surprised at what they saw, finding some aspects dispiriting and others delightful. Said one, “Looking at the Sikh community, I cannot overstate the power of common
values. People can simply work together in perfect harmony without a formal organization.”
Said another, who visited the Mother Teresa center, “The sisters and volunteers really inspired
me with their humility, selflessness, courage, and mostly their faith. The energy they have toserve the poor, the disabled, [and] the ‘left-over’ really touched me and honestly I cried during
the visit.” Most connected deeply with people they met who were contributing what they
could to humanity. One participant offered:The
UBF Asia
campsitein Jaisalmer.

Gerald Gay

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Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis O Bringing “Mission” to Life 3

You go into their place and it is full of really sick and dying people, but the atmosphere is not that of misery but of joy and love. [My coworker] and I were told tomassage some people who were just flesh and bones. And this volunteer who had
been there for 14 years, a guy called Andy, came to us and said, ‘Look, this is how
you’ve got to do it. It improves their blood circulation and bedsores. But most importantly, it’s the human touch, that they’ve missed for years, that you give them.’
So there’s so much love and affection in that place. And you just get sucked in, andstart doing things that you thought were impossible for you to do.

Certainly the leaders deepened their understanding and appreciation of what it takes tolive in community: “We had the experience of visiting Mother Teresa’s missionary sisters in
Kolkata. They didn’t have a vision, I felt. They had a
mission. And their mission was something that they,each and every nun, could achieve on that day, which isreally to give love, to really give love to the mostunwanted, the most downtrodden individual whom they
just take off the streets.”
Understanding and appreciation, in turn, provokedbroader considerations: “A new challenge arose for me.
How could I be worried about my job and ‘how muchtea we sold last week’ when thinking of all those that are
giving their lives to care for people for whom life seems to have been so unfair. This was a
gap I could not bridge and I struggled with the rest of my group to see the link between thosecommunities and our business-driven environment.”
The 200 leaders concluded that, to bridge this gap, they would have to revise their mission
and corporate purpose.

I struggled with the restof my group to see the link
between those communities
and our business-driven
environment.

Rediscovering the UBFA Mission
The result of the business leaders’ collective inquiry was a shared aspiration to make theirwork more meaningful and more relevant to the communities they serve in Asia. Said one,
“I started getting the feeling that my work need not be confined to producing and selling as
efficiently as possible but has a higher purpose of community service to the people of Asia.
Maybe I can call it [a shift] from a mercenary to a missionary view [of our business].” Said
another, “In the context of the larger things in the world, I feel I can do a more fulfilling
job – something bold that I will be proud of, something that has the humanity that I havevalued.”Ongoing dialogue brought participants closer to the conclusion that organizations have tobe driven by their missions rather than by numbers and processes. “We should be able toserve the larger community by being relevant for them – not by just being providers of products,” said one. “How else can organizations like Brahma Kumaris and the Missionaries ofCharity be managed without systems, procedures, and controls, and yet handle millions ofdollars effectively?”
The leaders also talked about what kind of organization they would need to fulfill thisaspiration: one in which people would be willing, in effect, to “volunteer” their time andtalents. One person asked, “What can I contribute to society, and have I fulfilled my duty to

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A joyful
start to the
day in thedesert ofRajasthan.

Gerald Gay

humankind?” She then answered her own query: “We could all work toward leaving alegacy that transcends the borders and barriers of culture, religion, or race.”
An imperative emerged: the leaders needed to put flesh onto these caring aspirations andtranslate them into a mission and a way of life that would emphasize the healthful, nourishing aspects of food. Consider one of their statements:
We want to be responsible partners, with the people of Asia, to provide health,vitality, and the development of children and families through better food andbeverage. We can do this by earning the trust of people everywhere [through] having
authentic standards for what is right food. We can do this by being at the leadingedge of nutrition science and technology. We need to be actively involved in communities [and] to understand all their needs, especially the needs of the economically underprivileged and children. We need to do so with humility, truth, andauthenticity. That means we have to do what we say.

Another added, “With tremendous power and privilege comes responsibility. Our new
mission, whatever the semantics of it may finally be, will allow our work to have more impact. Our lives will take a route closer to the missions of those we have visited here in India.”

Building a Leadership Community
Community building among the top leaders of UBF Asia had started during the 2003 gathering in Guilin, China. They shared stories of the influence of “mom and dad” and talked
deeply with one another about their personal and business lives. This fellowship seemed tocarry over to the gathering in India:

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Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis O Bringing “Mission” to Life 5

UBF Asia
leaders in
dialogue.

Gerald Gay

I feel very close to the UBFA group. There was some weird sense of bonding thatdeveloped even though I didn’t know more than half of the people. I really can’t
explain it well but it was a sense of oneness or being together. It is strange because
I felt this even when we weren’t talking. It was a nice feeling. For the first time I
experienced it outside my family. Maybe this is what we call community feeling.

For the majority of leaders the biggest change since Guilin was moving clearly and significantly toward becoming a community, or “family,” as they referred to it. Said the Indian
senior leader, “From [being] professionals doing what we thought was our functional responsibility we have become a team, and the entire team today works as a family.” Added another,“We began dialogue meetings to communicate to everybody in the business, very transparently, what we intended to do. Every quarter we personally met with young managers todebate, dialogue, and discuss every issue in the business – whether that meant brands, or
people, or our own customer. There is now clarity. We believe that we have progressed quite
significantly in all our leading brands, as proven by the recent launch, which we are all quite
proud of.”
What are the elements of building a leadership community? And how does a learningjourney contribute? UBF Asia’s experience suggests four cornerstones of the building of such
communities.

1. Self-Knowledge and Commitment
The process starts with what Chris Argyris (1982) calls psychological commitment, which isborn of self-knowledge and the free choice to band with others. Many corporate programs
cultivate a leader’s self-awareness through, for instance, personality tests, 360-degree feedback, coaching, and myriad forms of experiential learning. Personal reflection on one’s life
course and the sharing of life stories with others also serves this purpose and helps to build asense of common humanity among a group of leaders (Mirvis and Ayas 2003). This journey
to India opened up new vistas of human experience and provided a personal window for
UBF’s leaders to see themselves afresh, as is manifest in this individual’s comments:
This fantastic experience made me stop and think about who I am and the purposeof my existence. I had a few impressions about myself which I thought were reality,
and I saw them being shattered. . . . I commented to myself that I should move on
from intellectualizing about what I should be doing to actually practicing. Because
only then, I believe, will I get better, become a better human being.

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Reflections O Volume 5, Number 10

When we went into communities, and saw the kinds of devotion, dedication,and selfless service that they were providing, to be honest, for a while I was a little
uncomfortable. In seeing how they’re committed to training the blind people, how
they were committed to . . . building hospitals and training centers and all that, afeeling of guilt and discomfort arose: am I doing something wrong that I’m notable to commit myself to such selfless service?

2. Group Dialogue

To build community andfoster learning, leaders
must have the capacity
to talk openly and deeply
with one another. . ..

To build community and foster learning, leaders must have thecapacity to talk openly and deeply with one another – regardless of communication constraints wrought by power andpolitics. In China, the UBF Asia leaders’ first experiences withthinking and talking together through dialogue were mixed,
at best. In India, by comparison, the leaders strove to speak
authentically, build on comments, challenge gracefully, and help new thoughts and intentions
to emerge. Said one, “Last year it was hard; it was painful to talk so openly as we were so
new to each other. This year, it was great to see that words just poured out from everyone. We
are starting to see the connections with each other.” The process was maturing to the point ofcollective thinking. “When we talk about building this community, we are very serious about
it,” added another, “so it takes time for us to progress, to make it happen.”
What helped open communication to emerge so strongly? More time together and familiarity were factors, no doubt. So were practice with dialogue, experience in sharing personal
stories and expressing vulnerability, and a degree of psychological safety established from pastencounters. Furthermore, some of the norms of building community in a circle – speaking
personally, listening thoughtfully, raising difficult issues, and talking from the heart – while
originally “foreign” to these Asian leaders, were proving agreeable (see Mirvis 2002).
Another factor was, in our view, the subject matter of the journey. Said one leader, “I rank
the Indian outbreak as the most experientially enriching trip I have ever taken. It has brought
about in me an increased awareness into the purpose and virtuous values of life. From therich dialogues and sharing we had, I also got a much deeper understanding of the meaning ofcommunity and the journey. I feel that we, the UBF Asia community, are well on our way.”

3. Inquiry into Purpose
Also essential to building community – and an implicit goal of the UBF experience – is what
Peter Vail (1996) calls its “purposing,” or establishing the mission and vision. There was deepreflection and conversation about applying the experiences and insights of the visit to India
to the mission of UBF Asia. Consider these reflections:
Connecting with poverty in India reminds us that UBF, as a member in Asia,
has strong social responsibility. We need to build our business success while taking[on] our social responsibilities. [We must help to protect the environment, help torelieve poverty. . . at the same time, these actions will help our business grow.
If you believe that creating community awareness can make this a better world
then you will do it whole-heartedly without even thinking about what’s in it foryou. This changes the paradigm of thinking that we are selling to consumers.
Instead we are serving our communities.

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Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis O Bringing “Mission” to Life 7

I was struggling with the concept of community in a business corporation suchas ours, but the layers unpeeled slowly over the days. It is a very powerful thought
and I am still trying to soak it in. I saw a deeper meaning of life in all this. The
real-life community program in the beginning really touched me as I saw voluntary
work, devotion, sacrifice, purity, truth, understanding, belonging, affiliation, caring,working together in a responsible and dedicated fashion like a family, a sense offulfillment, and so on. While family is central to me in personal life, similar core
thoughts need to be internalized and become a way of life in work life.
I think a great community really happens when there is complete clarity of purpose.

Certainly there was difficulty in coming to terms with a mission so consequential. Somepeople spoke of risks – “a heavy burden of responsibility” and “fear of not living up to
expectations.” Others mentioned doubts – “too idealistic, no connection to reality,” and stillothers, competing expectations: “We are obsessed by numbers and we are paid to maximize
them. This is clear and will always be the case.” There was, importantly, space in the circle
to express these doubts and challenge prevailing sentiments. True community, in M. Scott
Peck’s (1993) formulation, is born of inclusiveness and comes into being as a group transcends differences. John Gardner (1995) terms this “wholeness incorporating diversity.”

4. Bringing Mission to Life
Passion. Purpose. Community. Fine words and uplifting sentiments, but a vibrant community
must then transform intention into a way of life. In sharing their final thoughts and feelings on the challenge, some participants found the prospect
energizing. Said one, “I am excited with the idea of creating
something magical and I am committed – realizing full-well
the newfound meaning of this word community – to making
this happen.” And another, “We now need actions, not words.
I will be a missionary for our mission. I’ll actively ‘preachand convert,’ in the very positive sense of those two words,
everybody in Unilever.”
Others were more daunted: “What still concerns me is how
I will make this transition with my own selfish interests – career
growth, financial security, being in the ‘good books’ of my bosses, saying the politically
acceptable things, taking shortcuts, putting myself ahead of others, etc.” Or, as anotherremarked, “This mission cannot coexist with bad business performance or in the absence ofimmediate action to bring it alive.”
Will this community of leaders be able to deliver on the promise of their mission? The jury
is out and will be for a while. A shared aspiration and declaration of intent are not enoughto bring the mission alive. Truly caring for the needy in Asia abounds with difficulties. It
will take tough business decisions that might threaten the core business. In the case of giant
multinational corporations, moreover, their sheer size and presence can be a threat to local
enterprises and can impede investment in local communities (Korten 1995).
Even so, UBF Asia has begun making major investments in children’s nutrition, to enhancetheir mental and physical performance, and by reaching out to the poorest of the poor with
inexpensive foods and community-based distribution systems (see Prahalad and Hammond
2002). The power of intent – a noble mission – and the belief that you genuinely want to live

This mission cannot
coexist with bad businessperformance or in theabsence of immediate
action to bring it alive.

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Reflections O Volume 5, Number 10

Unilevermanagers
with Tibetanmonks in
Dharamshala.

Philip Mirvis

by that intent are clearly demonstrated in the case of the children’s nutrition effort. Says the
project leader:
We couldn’t do this project from the existing business system. The moment wedefined the mission, the world opened up. We found out that there are billionaires
who want to donate millions to help us bring products to enhance mental andphysical performance of the poorest kids; that in India there are many communities
that would distribute our products for free to the communities that they serve; andthat research institutes would dedicate researchers to help us solve the technological problems.

UBF Asia is also partnering with development agencies and working with local companies
to enlarge its community of leaders and expand its definition of itself as a socially responsible
company:With the kind of community and mission-driven approach that we have in UBF
Asia, it is possible for us to make a difference to our society and still be in business.

The moment
we defined
the mission,
the world
opened up.

And it is important for us to be in business because that that is the only way wewill continue to make a difference to society.

Take tea, for instance. The corporate contribution to society might be as subtle as communicating the goodness of tea and bringing health, well-being, and enjoyment benefits
through new offerings. But it might also be about decreasing iron and vitamin deficiencies in
the population, providing herbal extracts that boost immunity, adding exciting flavors thatmake it more attractive to kids, or making the right kind of tea available to the masses. “Itis not only about providing wellness through the tea,” explained the head of India Beverages.
“It’s also thinking about what else we can do for the Indian household and doing all of thatthrough a brand which genuinely cares for its people and the community. We can connect
emotionally with Indian society by sponsoring festivals and important occasions, andaddressing key family aspirations and concerns, like good education and well-being.

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Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis O Bringing “Mission” to Life 9Keyy Lessons from UBF Asia Leaders
Unilever Bestfoods Asia’s experience in India suggests
nine principles that other leaders and organizations canapply to their structured learning journeys. Participants
described those principles as follows:
Being open and nonjudgmental“Within minutes I’d gone into judging people without evenrealizing that that’s what I was doing. I found out that
all along I had actually been judging the Hare Krishnagroup as being the hippies or the lost souls. What I
learned is, actually, I am the lost soul. So I think notpassing judgment is what I have to learn.”
Seeing and understanding for yourself“The visit to Dharamshala emotionally moved me. I saw
how deeply integrated Buddhist philosophy is in their lives.
I have never seen such a deep level of a religion in action
with such passion. As a Buddhist myself, I realized how
I have never questioned the philosophy so deeply. I realized
how serene my life would be if I really made it a part oflife and that of my family as well.”Doing what you believe in“I went to the Krishna Temple in Bombay, started by a70-year-old man. It taught me that if you really believe
in something, it’s never too late to start. At the age of70, this man sailed to the U.S. on a free ticket on amerchant ship, with the objective that, [because] there’s
so much richness in Indian Vedic literature, he must
translate it and make the world benefit from it. He
pursued his mission of making people find a purposein life, especially those who feel a spiritual hollowness
in their lives. From then on, until the age of 84 – some
15 years – he traveled the world 14 times, translated
thousands of Indian Sanskrit books into English, andcreated 350 temples now across the world, and nearlya million devotees.”
Unconditional giving“I became aware of the power of unconditional loveand giving at Prayas, a house for underprivileged children.
When we started feeding the children during lunch, they
were extremely reluctant. In fact, the officials at Prayas
told us that these children are normally poor eaters!
Traditionally, these children used to stand in a queuewith their plates and food was given to them one by

10 Bringing “Mission” to Life O Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis

one. We made a difference – we made the children siton the floor and personally served food to them witha lot of love and caring (reflected in our talking andtouching them). Suddenly we saw the surge of emotions,children opening out and asking for more – so muchso that we couldn’t believe our eyes and had to bringseveral rounds of servings. The power of love andaffection: I was totally unaware of, so far, in life.”
Service to others“As a human being, I derive the highest degree ofjoy and satisfaction when I do something that makesothers around me happy.”
Sense of belonging“Money is not the biggest motivator, but a senseof belonging, a purpose beyond numbers is a bigger
motivator. This realization hit me with a lot of force at
Ashadaan, the community I visited, and got reinforced
throughout the journey.”
Organizing around purpose“I was astounded by the workings of those places– everybody radiating the same energy and happiness, no one giving instructions, but yet, everythingworking!”
Common goals“We are not a religious group. But UBFA’s successrelies on people . . . we need people who hold thesame belief toward our business, who fully commit
to make our business a success, [and] who canconsistently drive through hard work.”
Taking responsibility“Reflecting [on] my role in our company, I hold the
responsibility, as a manager, to help company strategy
formation, and [be] actively involved in the implementation of company strategy. We shall avoid the ‘working
for the boss’ mentality. We shall not take the ‘wait andsee’ approach. We shall not be followers. Together
with my team members, we shall consistently drive
the implementation of company strategy.”

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Sustaining a Community of Leaders
It is uncertain whether UBF Asia’s community of leaders will be sustained. No doubt its continuity of membership will be challenged by personnel moves and turnover; and its constancyof purpose by competitive pressures, business conditions, and the sheer enormity of its newly
discovered mission. To the extent that a community of leaders takes on a life of its own,
practices of self-management and self-organization are posited to emerge (Kofman and Senge
1993). And, in the community-building vernacular, the community organizes in line with an“unseen” order that is both generative and healing. This transcendental state goes by many
names. Spiritualists liken it to a state of grace (Peck 1993); a recent research study gives it the
prosaic label of “group magic” (Levi 2003); and learning theorists describe it as “presencing”(Senge et al. 2004). On these matters, one of the Asian leaders reflected, “I realize that words
like ‘emotions,’ ‘feelings,’ [or] ‘moods’ may not sound businesslike. However, once used intheir best and sincere form, [they] have real consequences for getting work done. I began tounderstand that building a resonant culture, one where all of us can bring out the best in us,
would bring us to greatness.”
Throughout the journey to India, the leaders looked afresh at their intentions and asked:“What is a truly great company?” One insight was clear: a great company has a noble mission.

We met the principal of the Ramakrishna College. He quoted from Jim Collins’s
Good to Great. A monk talking about Collins’s ‘greatness’ concepts! It took us alot of time to really recover [from] that shock and listen to him. But you could see
his aura. He said, ‘Look, whether as an individual or as a corporation . . . 90% of
our energy is wasted in building an image which is not our real self. If that energy
is actually spent in exploring your own uniqueness – which you all have, the greatness that is there inside you – you will be really on a journey to greatness. Otherwise you’re just wasting your time. That’s the real lesson of [the] greatness conceptthat you’ve been reading in the books.’ It was really something that I have notbeen able to get over since then. Every time I sit with myself, alone, his words
keep ringing in my ears.

Frankly, there was no “master plan” to make mission the centerpiece of this gathering inIndia. But as eyes opened and leaders saw a larger web of relationships in which businessplayed a vital part, the necessity of doing so emerged.
If we go back to the communities that we served – Mother Teresa’s ashram – I don’t
think any of the sisters ever says to herself ‘I won’t meet the commitment of feeding
the sick and the dying today. At our recent major product launch, we managed tomeet that level of commitment because we were able to share and communicate apurpose which was compelling for the entire beverages business in India. Only when
we have a purpose and we have commitment to disciplined action do we feel that
we’ll truly show commitment and accountability.

Does it go too far to suggest that the UBF Asia leaders saw a new world “seeking to emerge?”
The president concluded the journey with these reassuring reflections on their time together:
I’m very glad the conversations we had were not about top line and bottom line,
not about margins, not about cost cutting, not about central charges. I’m glad thatthe conversation was about caring and sharing.

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Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis O Bringing “Mission” to Life 11

We genuinely want to be concerned for people and want to help them. I think once
we get this right the rest will come into place. The profits will be there because weare just heading in the right direction. Once we are focused on bringing value to thisworld and we know that we are not self-centered, but people centered, a lot of things
will fall into place, because a lot of things we do will be driven by that passion.

Endnote1 As set forth in The Fifth Discipline, these attributes provide a set of governing ideas: vision is the“what” – the picture of the future we seek to create; mission is the “why” – the organization’s answer
to why we exist; and values are the “how” – how we act to achieve our vision.
References
Argyris, C. 1982. Reasoning, Learning, and Action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Collins, J. C., and J. I. Porras. 1997. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. New York:
HarperBusiness.
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Vail, Peter B. 1996. Learning as a Way of Being. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

12 Bringing “Mission” to Life O Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis

Reflections O Volume 5, Number 10

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Philip Mirvis is an organizational psychologist

Karen Ayas is a founding partner of the Ripples

whose research and private consulting centers on

Group, a management consulting practice special-large-scale organizational change and the impact

izing in growth strategies and change management.

of company life on people. The author of eight

She is on the faculty of Rotterdam School of Man-

books, he has taught at Jiao Tong University,

agement, Erasmus University, and adjunct faculty

Shanghai, China and the London Business Schoolat Babson College. The author of several books

and is adjunct faculty for the University of Michigan’s

including To the Desert and Backk with Phil Mirvis,

Graduate School of Business.

she is on the Board of Trustees of the Society forpmirv@aol.com

Organizational Learning and is coeditor-in-chiefof Reflections.
karen@ripplesgroup.com

reflections.solonline.org

Karen Ayas and Philip Mirvis O Bringing “Mission” to Life 13

FCCROOOM
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Commentary
By Tex GunningIn our journey to grow our business from “average”

statements would become irrelevant if we lived

to “good” to “great” we have learned somethingout the same values everywhere we operate.

very simple. Average leaders take care of themselves and their families. Good leaders take careof themselves, their families, and others. Great
leaders do all that and more. They also wantto make a better world.
Tex Gunning

How do we carry through our intention to havea positive impact on the world? What all thesecommunities teach us is that we must continuously practice self-knowledge and self-awareness,so that we can see in new ways and learn to

Likewise, average companies take care of them-

suppress our negative reactions. Through medi-

selves and theirr families – their direct stakeholders,tation – whether yoga, or individual or collective

such as employees, directors, shareholders, andreflection – each of us can keep the mind sharp

suppliers. Good companies take care of not only

and ask: am I doing the right thing or not?

their direct stakeholders, but also others in the

Doing community service reminds us about ourcommunity. And great companies not only takeown humanity and what we really enjoy doing:care of their stakeholders and others, but also want

caring and giving to others. These tools can help

to change the world, to leave something behind

us assess whether we are living the virtuousthat is better than the world that they found.

life each of us authentically desires.

To serve humanity we don’t have to work for NGOs

I do believe what has been the biggest insight(nongovernmental organizations) or nonprofit organi-for me: that meaningful businesses, with mean-zations. We can be much more effective and create

ingful intent, provide meaning for the employees

a much larger impact through our work in Unileverthat join them. With this idea, we are heading

and UBF Asia. If our intent is not limited to taking

in the right direction. Once we get this founda-

care of our stakeholders, but extends to havingtion right, we can then talk about social respon-

a positive impact on Asia and the world, then we

sibility, which is not one of the things a company

can live out our personal meanings in life throughdoes “on the side.” It is a process of learning

our business.

to connect with the community to care genuinely

Large companies provide a vehicle for action.

for people.

If our business decides – and it is a choice –After our community service experiences in India,

that its mission is to make a difference in thepeople generally felt a strong desire for an organi-

physical, nutritional, or economic well-being ofzation that would be far more sensitive to commu-

Asians, then we all become volunteers. Paid volun-

nities. However, to become that, we also needteers. And when we are guided by a common

a growing organization that is financially sound.

mission, we need many fewer policies to direct

I do not see that as a contradiction: it is quite

our work. Half of our policies, training, and values

possible for us to have an organization that

14 Commentary O Tex Gunning

Reflections O Volume 5, Number 10

is socially responsible; sensitive to people, com-

If you can create a business that does meaningful

munities, and consumers; and able, at the same

work, you will get better productivity, clearer thinking,time, to generate enough wealth to have sus-

and more alignment. You will create, at the same

tainable growth. It all depends on our own

time, a congruent company culture based on

mindset.

meaningful virtues and values. People who servethat business will be sharper, more committed, andClosing the big gap between our current reality
and our future vision starts with our intent. Once
that is clearly established, we then find ways toachieve the vision. For instance, we have a kids’vitality project that delivers products that help
children enhance their mental and physicalperformance. We wanted to bring the project tomore purpose-driven than other businesspeople.
Such an enterprise appeals to universal humanneeds and encourages us to be more truthful andto check continuously to see whether we are on
the right path. The new generations of leaders
must redefine the purpose and the meaning ofbusiness.

the poorest-of-the-poor regions. From the existing
business system we couldn’t do that profitably.
But the moment we defined the mission, the world

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

opened up. As Karen Ayas and Phil Mirvis notedin the article, we suddenly discovered astonishing
resources: millions of dollars in donations, no-costcommunity distribution networks, and institutional

Tex Gunningg joined Unilever in 1982. He held
a variety of director and chairman positions prior
to his appointment in 2001 as business grouppresident of the new Unilever Bestfoods, Asia.

researchers available to us for solving technology
problems.

reflections.solonline.org

Tex Gunning

Commentaryy 15

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Commentary
By Peter M. Senge

Peter M. Senge

This article should become a point of reference

Third, mission is what connects us, both to one

for everyone engaged in the challenge of fostering

another and to the larger world. Undoubtedly,

genuine mission and purposefulness in organiza-

one reason most pragmatic institutions (suchtions – not because it has all the answers, or evenas business) shy away from working seriously

answers many of the profound questions it raises,

to develop real mission is that they fear build-

but because it does a great job of placing mission

ing genuine community. I expect that manybuilding, or “purposing,” in context. This briefbusinesspeople will think that the very personal

article can dissolve some of the pervasive, destruc-comments attributed to UBFA members in thistive, and long-standing confusion about the naturearticle are inappropriate for business. They areof mission in business. Ayas and Mirvis maketoo revealing. They are too emotional. They makethis possible not by saying anything new, butparticipants appear too vulnerable and too

by saying something real.

human. Being connected is not comfortable.

First, mission is personal and immediate. It is not
lofty or abstract. It is not even, ironically, about
the future. Purposefulness is intrinsic to the present
moment, when I am aware that what I am doingis truly meaningful. I can feel connected to alarger or shared purpose only when I have someclarity about my personal purpose, or “who I am
and the purpose of my existence,” as one of the
UBF Asia (UBFA) members expresses it.
Second, mission is active and concrete. Althougha sense of purpose connects our present actions
to a desired future, the moment we try to understand it conceptually, it disappears into an oceanof abstract symbols and “warm, fuzzy feelings.”
This is the inherent problem with all statementsof mission or purpose. Simply put, mission is nota statement. Its power cannot be held in symbols
or captured by words. Mission is an imperativethat we feel “from the inside out.” It manifests inactions that we feel we must do, despite whatever uncertainties or difficulties might accompany
them.

16 Commentary
B i i “Mi Oi Peter” M.
Lif Senge
K

Seeing “a deeper meaning of life,” as another
UBFA member says, implies that our sense of
meaning before the current moment was notvery deep and may, in fact, have been shallow.
Do businesses really want to open themselves
up to such soul searching? It’s a lot more comfortable not to care, and to ensure that employees stay focused on meeting quarterly goals.
Fourth, and perhaps most radical, mission
requires making direct contact with the outside
world in ways that are alien to most of us. The“learning journeys” that groups like UBFA in
Unilever are starting to take sound innocent
enough – until you do one. I’ve spoken withmany people who have found them to begenuinely life changing. There is no substitutefor firsthand experience in “sensing” reality –setting our rational intellect aside and directly
experiencing the world in which we are conducting our business. People are not numbers
and serving people means knowing them directly.
It means understanding their life circumstances,because it is within those circumstances that aAd Phili Mi i

Reflections O Volume 5, Number 10

business might make some actual contribution.

managers whose real purpose is to make money

An organization’s mission expresses its place intrumpet mission and values statements, it simply

the larger world and how it intends to contribute.

reinforces people’s view that all the lofty rhetoric
is really just a strategy to manipulate them into

Years ago I discovered that one of the World

working harder.

Bank’s most effective programs began with
Washington, D.C.-based bank members simply

None of this implies that UBFA does not itself

spending a week in a village in a place such as

face these very dilemmas. As part of a large multi-

Bangladesh, Ethiopia, or Guatemala. Prior tonational business apparatus, it is more familiar

that, the bank’s members did all sorts of things

with numbers than with purpose. It reports finan-

to “help” people living there, but the members

cial results to investment analysts like all other

did not know the villagers. They did not know

public corporations do. For every senior or middle

their resourcefulness or the ways in which they

manager who has begun to internalize a larger

were helping themselves under difficult circum-

mission, there are undoubtedly several others who

stances. They did not know their stories andstill wonder “what this has to do with the business.”songs. They did not know their fears. As one
World Bank executive put it, “I had to cometo terms personally with the reality of poverty.”
Who can read the account of the UBFA manager massaging the sick and dying people atthe Mother Theresa center and not understandthat without this contact there can be little
real mission to help India?

But there is no doubt that, like a few of theirmultinational corporate counterparts, Unilever isserious about change. It is engaging with a major
multinational nongovernmental organization (NGO)to do an independent assessment of the social
impact of its food business in southern Asia, andis creating partnerships with several other corporations, NGOs, and local and national governments

There are many reasons why the ideas expressed

to make global agricultural food chains more sus-in this article conflict with mainstream manage-

tainable. Ayas and Mirvis talk a bit about both thement practice, but none is more important thanconflicts and some of the shifts in strategy andthe deep belief that the real purpose of busi-

operations in “bringing mission to life” in UBFA’s

ness is to make money. Despite the eloquencebusiness practices. But this is a story of beginningsof mission and value statements, most people

rather than endings, of developing a genuine sense

in most organizations experience mission asof orientation rather than plans and delivered

something far different from what Ayas andresults. It’s an important story because, as theMirvis describe. Most people experience busi-

adage goes, “if we do not know where we areness, as Arie de Geus puts it, as a machine forheaded, almost any destination will do.”1

producing money. What are people to make of
this gap between reality and rhetoric? Ideally,

Endnotethe gap can motivate a genuine aspiration to
grow a more responsible business. Unfortunately,
it more often generates deep cynicism. When

reflections.solonline.org

1 A. P. De Geus, The Living Companyy (Boston:
Harvard Business School Press, 1997).

Peter M. Senge

Commentaryy 17

ABOUT THE AUTHORPeter M. Senge is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan
School of Management, and the founding chair ofSoL. A renowned pioneer in management innovation,Peter is the author of the widely acclaimed The Fifth
Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning
Organization (Doubleday/Currency 1990).

18 Commentary O Peter M. Senge

Reflections O Volume 5, Number 10

Reflections
The SoL Journal
on Knowledge, Learning, and Change
Volume 5, Number 10

Editorial Team
Editors-in-Chief
Karen Ayas and Peter M. Senge
Senior Editor
Paul M. Cohen
Managing Editor
Nina Kruschwitz
Publisher
C. Sherry Immediato

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