Too often, purpose is treated as something you declare, design, and disseminate. It's written on the walls, embedded into decks, and broadcast at town halls. But when leaders treat purpose as real simply because it's been said, they mistake narrative for reality, and control for coherence.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: It doesn’t matter what you say your organisation exists to do. It matters what your organisation actually does.

We've long been sold an orthodoxy of strategy that treats the organisation as an independent organism, competing in a market arena with fixed boundaries and clear rules. It's the image of chess boards, war games, or analytical grids. It is neat, discrete, and ultimately misleading. But organisations don't operate in arenas. They operate in ecosystems.