Good Decisions – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

Where good and bad choices come from

Are there good purposes and bad ones? Or only good ones? I have asked myself this many times, and the answer is always the same. When an action causes harm, it doesn’t come from a purpose. A purpose, by definition, seeks the good of the person and of others. A team’s purpose seeks the common good and the best use of the resources entrusted to it. A company’s purpose aims to be the compass that guides the ship to a safe harbor. And a country’s purpose? Could a country’s purpose be to wage war? No. A well-defined purpose does no harm. It doesn’t seek evil, and it doesn’t set out to hurt people.

Over the years I have partnered as a coach with people, companies and teams to put a great many purposes into words, and the evidence keeps telling me the same thing. When people describe and discover the why behind things, or why they are in this world, it is telling that they never set out to harm anyone. Quite the opposite. A well-articulated purpose is the foundation on which many companies, people and teams make sound, focused and confident decisions.

Does evil exist? Of course. Does evil have a purpose? No. Whatever harms someone or does wrong has nothing guiding it, which is why purpose turns out to be the best moral compass anyone can have. It is the rock in the sea we can always cling to. Those who cause harm do so out of ignorance, as the Stoics would say, an ignorance so deep it is often hard to overcome. Sadly, those who don’t know their purpose are ships adrift. Some countries lost their way long ago. They were unfaithful to their purpose, and once that happens, correcting course is very hard. Hard, yet never impossible: as long as there is life and will, the course can be corrected.

Good decisions are born from purpose. That is where the very best for a company, a country or a person always comes from. The guidance we all need, or are searching for, is already inside us. Our duty is to dare to discover it and let one of the most powerful levers we have for running our lives do its work. Many organizations today put great emphasis on their purpose while keeping their vision, mission and values in view. It has become especially important to bring to life the words that gave birth to the organization, or the words that define the identity of a group of people who want to become a team. The best decisions have ethics and morals at their core, and values, purpose, vision, mission, promise and the rest give consistency to the ethics we must always pursue.

What separates good decisions from bad ones is that a good decision has a purpose behind it. Without a purpose, a decision fails the test.

Warm regards and all the best

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. I dedicate this post to INCAE, an institution that is clear about its purpose in this world: "Transforming lives for a better future in Latin America." INCAE transformed my life in many ways. In fact, thanks to INCAE I was able to start a family with my wife (also an INCAE graduate) and give my children a better quality of life. This week’s news saddened me deeply, especially for everyone who works at INCAE (faculty, administrative and operations staff), and because a great opportunity is being lost in a great country I hold close to my heart. I hope the decision is reversed and things soon return to normal. I haven’t lost that hope.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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