The Power of Shared Purpose: Stop Doing Anything Stupid, Goofy, or Crazy

In August 2012, Best Buy was on the brink of bankruptcy.

The newly appointed CEO, Hubert Joly, was under tremendous pressure to prevent disaster and turn the big box store around.

And yet, instead of immediately slashing headcount and cutting expenses, Joly spent his first week on the job as newly minted CEO, working on the floor of a Best Buy store with a name tag that read ‘CEO in Training’.

You might think that’s an unconventional, if not outright crazy, way to spend your first week on the job as turnaround CEO.

But Joly knew what he was doing.

He knew that this front-line experience would help shape the initial shared purpose for his turnaround plan for the Big Box store.

And indeed, towards the end of his first week as CEO in training—and of course after thorough research and many interviews with people at the front lines up to the C-level—Joly settled on the initial shared purpose of his turn-around plan:

"Let's stop doing anything that’s either stupid, goofy, or crazy.”

This was it!

Joly realized that before a grand new strategy was called for, the dumb things needed to get fixed first.

As time went on and less stupid, goofy, or crazy stuff was done, Joly shifted the shared purpose at Best Buy to superior customer service, or—as it is still known today—to ‘Service like the Geek Squad.'

Through a clear shared purpose, he vocally and publicly empowered his knowledgeable Blue Shirts to do the job they were hired to do: delight customers.

For inspiration, you will find some shared purposes of the teams I have been a part of below.

In Joly’s words, "You empower. If you see something, do something. And it’s creating that sense that, yes, I can make a difference. I can create a world around me. Initially, you can think that’s going to be chaos. No, because if you have this purpose... "

By empowering his people through a clear shared purpose, Joly helped Best Buy escape bankruptcy and, over the course of the next year, triple the value of the stock.

An important lesson from Joly's highly successful turnaround of Best Buy is this: When you empower your people, do it publicly.

Let your people know loud and clear that you empower and trust them.

As a result, they will see themselves positively through your eyes and will work hard to live up to your expectations.