Alignment activity: Team Purpose

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To create alignment around the team’s purpose, you can use the “Team Purpose Canvas” attached. Teams sometimes neglect in their purpose statements to talk about the larger impact on the organization or the world they want to make, and this canvas supports the team in thinking not just about WHAT they do but WHY they do it.

Activity instructions:
1. Explain the importance of creating alignment around a shared purpose
2. Explain the difference between a purpose statement and a vision statement: a purpose statement describes what we do and why, a vision statement describes where we want to go – what we aspire to achieve together
3. Hand out the template and have the team, in small groups of no more than 5, work through the template until they draft a statement
4. Ask groups to post their templates in the front of the room and read their purpose statements
5. Once all groups have shared, ask the team to list out words and phrases that most resonate with them, writing these on a flipchart
6. Ask groups to go back and come up with a second pass at their purpose statement that reflects the feedback from the team
7. Share the second drafts and have the team vote on the wording they like best
8. Explain that this is the final purpose statement or that the statement will be finalized by 2 members of the team by a specific date (depending on what you have agreed with the team leader and how much additional organizational alignment is needed)
9. Optional – have the team select from a set of image cards something that reflects their purpose statement and use these images or metaphors on your purpose slide

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