In a Teal organization, the ego driven desire for self-preservation is replaced by a powerful drive to do work that has meaning and purpose. The concept of 'being the best' becomes a hollow aim unless the organization is doing something worthy of the energy, talents and creativity of the people who work there. The Teal paradigm accepts that each organization has its own identity, life force and calling. Brian Robertson, the founder of Holacracy, uses the term evolutionary purpose to indicate that organizations, just like individuals, have a calling and an evolutionary energy to move toward that calling:
What is the organization's identity? And what does it want? … The metaphor is like the parent-child journey: … we recognize our child has its own identity and its own path and its own purpose. And just because I might be really excited at the idea of my child being a doctor, that doesn't mean I get to project that on my child. There is a harmful, co-dependent process when I do that. We've learned as parents that the healthy parent's journey is a differentiation process, and ironically that differentiation of parent and child allows each to have their own autonomy and identity more fully, which then allows a more conscious integration where we are in relationship and interconnect, but it's a relation of peers, of equals. … It's us humans that can tune into the organization's evolutionary purpose; but the key is about separating identity and figuring out "What is this organization's calling?" Not "What do we want to use this organization to do, as property?" but rather "What is this life, this living system's creative potential?" That's what we mean by evolutionary purpose: the deepest creative potential to bring something new to life, to contribute something energetically, valuably to the world. … It's that creative impulse or potential that we want to tune into, independent from what we want ourselves.[4]
The evolutionary purpose is not the same as a vision statement. A vision statement usually reflects the ego-driven state of consciousness of the management team, who decide what they want the organization to be.
The evolutionary purpose of a Teal organization reflects the deeper reason the organization exists. It relates to the difference it wants to make in the community it operates in, as well as in the marketplace it serves. It is not concerned with competition or outperforming others; it is serving the 'greater good' that matters. Some examples are:
For Teal organizations, this transition to evolutionary purpose has profound implications for how they view such fundamental concepts as competition, growth and profit. While Orange organizations seem to be obsessed with beating the competition (as exemplified by the title of the ex-CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch's. book, Winning), Teal organizations seem to lose the very notion of competition. Since the Teal organization truly lives for its purpose, anyone that can help to achieve that purpose is viewed as an ally, not a competitor. For an example of this in practice, see "Concrete Examples for Inspiration - Buurtzorg" below.
Growth, in the same vein, is only an objective insofar as the purpose can be manifested on a larger scale, but never an objective in itself. Buurtzorg, for example, actively helps patients build a network of support with their families, friends, and neighbors. It basically tries to make itself irrelevant in patients' lives as quickly as possible, which it does very successfully: a 2009 study showed that Buurtzorg's patients get released from care twice as fast as competitors' clients, and they end up claiming only 50 percent of the prescribed hours of care. Buurtzorg's core strategy- helping patients become healthy and autonomous- in fact comes down to pursuing less growth, not more. Similarly, Patagonia is famous for having run full-page ads reading, "Don't buy this jacket." The ads were part of its "Common Threads Partnership." Patagonia reckons that many of us in the developed world have enough clothes in our closets to keep us warm for a lifetime. And yet we keep buying new clothes, which are environmentally harmful to produce and will end up in a landfill. The Common Threads Partnership takes a serious stab at reducing (making clothes that last longer), repairing (Patagonia repairs clothes for its customers), reusing (the company resells your used clothes on eBay or in their stores' Worn Wear section), and recycling (you can return your old clothes to Patagonia and they recycle them). Will this initiative harm Patagonia's growth in the short term? Yes. Every repaired and every reused jacket is one less jacket bought. Will it increase its growth in the long term, through higher customer loyalty? Perhaps. But Patagonia's decision wasn't driven by forecasts and financials. The company chose the path its purpose called for.[8]
The notion of profit changes fundamentally in Teal as well. Increasing shareholder value has become the dominant perspective of Orange Organizations. It states that corporations have one overriding duty: to maximize profits. In many countries, this perspective is legally binding; management can be sued for decisions that jeopardize profitability. Under the spell of shareholder value, public companies focus relentlessly on the bottom line. Teal for-profit organizations have a different perspective on profit. Profit is necessary and investors deserve a fair return, but the objective is purpose, not profit. Teal founders often use the same metaphor: profit is like the air we breathe. We need air to live, but we don't live to breathe. Tami Simon, the CEO of Sounds True, gives the definition of a business's purpose: "We have this idea about business- everything we do has to help us make more money, be more productive or whatever. But that's not my view of business. My view of business is that we are coming together as a community to fill a human need and actualize our lives".[9]
In Teal Organizations, profits are a byproduct of a job well done. Philosopher Viktor Frankl captures this well: "Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side -effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself."[10]
The purpose of a Teal organization is rarely static - thus the term "Evolutionary Purpose". It will evolve over time, as the organization itself grows and adapts. For example, Buurtzorg, the Dutch homecare organization, was set up to "help sick and elderly patients live a more autonomous and meaningful life."[11] Its activities have grown beyond looking after the elderly, and it now focuses on helping "patients become healthy and autonomous".