In this case study, Nils will share how he dealt with a regular team meeting that was a massive waste of time. This realization is common when you look at your business processes through your purpose lens. Over to Nils.

I started a new role at a startup with an inexperienced leadership team, comprised of a CEO and a Head of Product and Strategy. The CEO was people-oriented while the other leader was analytical. I spent my first few weeks listening, observing and paying attention to my new world.

My first realization was that every single conversation was happening at Level 1. A prime example was the weekly 'all-hands' meeting, which was an epic waste of time. Team members would wait their turn to share a status update, then tune out for the rest of the meeting.

This phenomenon prompted me to start a conversation with the leaders. I was trying to understand why we were going through the motions. I explained, "When you're part of a high-performing team, this meeting will be a whole different experience." One of the other leaders said, "Can you give me a sense like on a scale of one to ten, where are we on the scale of being a high-performance team?" I said, "A three, maybe a four. Max." That blew him away.

He said, "I thought we were doing pretty good." I replied "Oh, sure. We're doing OK. But we're only doing fundamental, tactical stuff. There's a status update, a general discussion; we talk about what we're going to focus on, and then we go straight back to work. From that standpoint, we're not working as a team. There are no real relationships here." Again, he was reeling.

I explained how to identify a high-performing team. "When you have a shared identity, you attract people who want to live up to the team identity. This breeds excellence, because everyone is responsible and is an owner. Nobody intends to let the team down. So when you're wasting the team's time, they will speak up. This responsibility doesn't fall back on the leader. They don't need to play bad cop, enforce rules or dictate terms. Every single team member will keep the group accountable. That is a high-performing team."

Going out on this limb helped me to protect my team's time. Instead of accepting what was served up to us, I chose to speak up and drive change within my business. When you build a purpose-driven team, this will become your default operating mode.