The promise of purpose
Purpose was once the rallying cry of modern organisations. Today, in many places, it feels tired.
I still remember the first leadership teams I worked with on defining their organisational purpose. Rooms often buzzed with energy and excitement. People leaned in, engaged in lively debates and shared their dreams and aspirations. Conversations flowed, mingling ideas like a vibrant cocktail. Connections formed, each word building bridges between minds and hearts. It was definitely not about slogans or taglines. It was about meaning. And it always felt great.
When done well, purpose feels like oxygen. It clarifies decisions, aligns teams, and creates energy that no incentive programme can replicate. Employees stop asking Why are we doing this?, because they can see the thread that links their work to the bigger picture. Customers feel it in how they are treated. Partners feel it in how decisions are made.
That is the promise of purpose.
But over the past years, I have also seen the shadow side emerge. What was once a spark has, in many organisations, turned into fatigue.
Imagine this…
You join a town hall. The slides flash a bold purpose statement: We exist to change lives. It sounds good. But when the Q&A begins, the questions do not match the words.
- Will there be more budget cuts this quarter?
- Why do approvals take so long?
- What is being done about the lack of career progression?
The dissonance is clear. Leaders talk about changing lives. But employees want to know if their daily frustrations will ever evolve. The purpose statement feels distant to them, like the corporate wallpaper in their office.
That is purpose fatigue.
Why purpose gets misused
Purpose fatigue does not happen because the concept of purpose is flawed. It happens because of how organisations use it.Purpose is often seen as just a communications project, not a key strategy. Leaders seek an inspiring line for annual reports but avoid the hard work needed to align behaviours, decisions, and systems. Employees see the difference immediately.
In my work, for example, I see three recurring patterns:
- Purpose as branding. Purpose statements get polished by marketing teams until they sound beautiful but at the same time lose all the grit it had. Employees hear them and think: Nice words. But what do they mean to me?
- Purpose as compliance. Purpose becomes something to memorise for the intranet, not something to live by. Leaders quiz employees on the statement but never change how they lead. It becomes a test and not a tool.
- Purpose as distraction. When organisations face difficult trade-offs, leaders sometimes use purpose statements to sugarcoat reality. The result? Employees see purpose as something from a spin-doctor and not as strategy.
The tragedy here is that most leaders often have good intentions. They want people to feel inspired. They want to unite the organisation. But by reducing purpose to words without the effort and weight that comes with it, they unintentionally create the opposite effect. Employees disengage, not because they dislike the concept of purpose, but because they no longer trust its use.
Purpose is powerful when lived. But it can become toxic when misused.
The illusion of alignment
The danger is that leaders often believe their people are aligned around purpose because they can recite the statement. A slide is shown, heads nod, and the leadership team feels reassured. But alignment is not memorisation.
Research by Ernst & Young and Forbes Insights shows that 98% of CEOs believe their employees understand the organisational purpose. But this drops to about 50% for Vice Presidents. It declines even further for middle management and lower levels. A significant purpose gap.
Real alignment is when teams make decisions the same way leaders would, even when leaders are not in the room. It is when behaviours consistently reflect the values that purpose represents. It is when trade-offs are explained transparently in the light of purpose, even when they are painful.
I once worked with a team who proudly told me, Everyone knows our purpose statement by heart. When I asked how it influenced their last three strategic decisions, the room went silent. That silence said more about alignment than any recitation could.
The illusion of alignment or purpose gap is dangerous because it gives leaders false confidence. They believe purpose is embedded, when in reality this is only the case at surface level. And when the next wave of change comes, that illusion collapses pretty quickly. Leaving employees sceptical and leaders surprised.
The cost of purpose fatigue
When purpose is misused, employees experience fatigue in ways that are both emotional and practical. They don’t just roll their eyes at slogans. This affects how they show up to work, the energy they bring, and their willingness to go beyond their job description.
Without an authentic purpose, three patterns emerge:
- Cynicism: People roll their eyes at every new slogan. They may comply, but they hardly or no longer engage.
- Disengagement: Without a meaningful connection to the ‘why’, employees focus narrowly on tasks. Initiative and creativity shrink rapidly.
- Fragmentation: Teams create their own interpretations of what matters, leading to silos instead of coherence.
The real cost goes beyond employee morale. Purpose fatigue leads to slower decisions, missed chances, and organisations that focus more on themselves than on customers. Strategy turns into a set of disconnected initiatives because the glue of purpose is missing.
I also note that leaders can underestimate this. They believe fatigue is a communications issue: We need a better campaign. But fatigue is not cured by more words. It is cured by coherence. When employees start to see that purpose drives real choices.
What a real purpose looks like
So, what does it take to turn fatigue back into energy? In my experience, the answer is not a new statement. It is living purpose in ways that employees can see and feel. Real purpose is experienced in the moments that matter. In the meetings people attend, in the trade-offs they make, and in the conversations they have with customers.
In high-performing organisations, I notice five shifts that are relevant:
- Purpose shapes trade-offs. Here, leaders do not just talk about purpose. They use it to explain decisions. We chose this path because it delivers on our purpose, even if it means delaying something else. This transparency builds trust with employees, even when the decision is hard.
- Purpose guides behaviours. Values are not always abstract. They show up in how people treat each other, how they run meetings, and how they solve conflicts. Employees do not need posters to know the values; they can feel them in the culture you create together.
- Purpose connects past and future. Strong purposes link organisational roots to future ambitions. They feel authentic because they honour history while guiding evolution. This makes purpose believable for employees. It does not become a trend, but a continuous thread.
- Purpose informs structure. Purpose is not only a cultural message. It shapes governance, roles, and rhythms. For example, at organisations I support, Obeya walls often become the visual backbone that links priorities to outcomes. In practice, this makes purpose visible and actionable.
- Purpose is co-created. Employees are not told the purpose; they are invited to shape and validate it. This creates ownership that no communication campaign can match. Purpose becomes ours, instead of theirs.
When these shifts are in place, employees no longer see purpose as a burden or a slogan. They see it as a compass. Energy returns because people feel their work matters. Fatigue turns into fuel.
The Twinxter Change Journey
When leaders ask me why purpose initiatives fail, my answer is always the same: because they stop at the words. Their purpose is written and not lived. It is announced and not embedded. And employees are quick to notice when the gap between promises and practice grows too wide.
I have seen this pattern across industries and geographies. That is why we built a practical way to close this purpose gap. Our Change Journey helps organisations move purpose from imagination to integration. A journey that starts with vision but ends with rhythm and results. It ensures that purpose isn’t just a launch campaign that fades away. Instead, it becomes a living system that guides strategy, culture, and behaviour daily.
Here is how it works in practice:
- Explore. Align on purpose, vision, mission, and strategy. Without a shared narrative, purpose remains abstract. In this phase, leadership teams build clarity on what the organisation stands for and where it is going.
- Design. Co-create the future way of working so that purpose is reflected in daily behaviours and decisions. This is where structures, operating models, and processes are redesigned to make purpose tangible.
- Empower. Develop leaders who can let go with confidence and high-performing teams who can act with autonomy, always anchored in purpose. Empower means creating trust, clarity, and aligned autonomy across the organisation.
- Grow. Scale what works through rhythms and frameworks, ensuring purpose becomes a living operating system, not a forgotten slogan. Growth is about cadence, learning loops, and visual frameworks like Obeya that keep purpose alive.
Why this matters
This journey is not an academic framework. It’s the hard-earned knowledge gained from helping organisations manage big changes. Here, purpose often risks turning into just another buzzword. When leaders walk this path, they move beyond fatigue. Employees stop hearing purpose as a slogan and start experiencing it as strategy.
And the shift is visible. Decisions and processes speed up because priorities are clear. Engagement rises because work feels meaningful. Trust grows because employees can see words backed up by action. Instead of a glossy campaign that fades after launch, organisations gain a compass that shapes their future.
That is the difference between purpose misused and purpose lived. And it is why the Change Journey has become the foundation of how we help organisations rediscover energy, coherence, and resilience in the midst of constant change.
From fatigue to fuel
Purpose is not a trend, its real and here to stay. But when misused, it creates fatigue. Employees stop believing, and the very tool that should unite becomes a source of scepticism.
The challenge for leaders is to protect purpose from misuse. To resist the temptation of polishing it into a shining glossy or marketing campaign. To live it through decisions, behaviours, and structures. To invite employees into shaping it and not just memorising it.
When this happens, purpose shifts from fatigue to fuel. It becomes the invisible engine of strategy, culture, and performance.
So, the real question is this: Is your purpose to give your people energy or is it draining their energy?
If your journey feels stuck in rituals, reach out and let’s talk. I help organisations co-design adaptive ways of working where purpose leads, people thrive, and transformation becomes real.
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I look forward to connecting with you and collaborate to shape a thriving future for all.
Have a great day!
Alize Hofmeester
It’s my purpose to create space where everyone is able to thrive.
Human-centric. Purpose-driven. Value-based
Are you ready to change the status quo? Let’s talk accelerating change.
