Recommended Reading: Holacracy Basics — Understanding Purpose

Can you state the purpose of your work in a single sentence?

In Holacracy, every role and every circle has a purpose: the capacity, potential or goal the role pursues or expresses on behalf of the organization. Examples are short and powerful — “Amazing products that just work,” “No one needs to worry about basic systems,” “Books free of clutter.”

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This short explainer from HolacracyOne clarifies:

• Purpose vs. accountabilities: accountabilities describe specific ongoing activities; purpose describes what the role cares about and is reaching toward.
• Why purpose matters in self-organization: without a boss to tell people what to do, purpose becomes the guide for judgment and priorities.
• How to get started: you can often draw a role’s purpose out of a traditional job description — and even long-time Holacracy practitioners can use purpose far more deliberately than they do.

Read the full article in English:

👉 Holacracy Basics: Understanding Purpose — Holacracy.org

Future Organization Lab previously shared a Chinese adaptation of this article with our Chinese-speaking readers: 你能說出你的工作使命嗎？如何讓「使命」在自組織中發揮作用