Can AI write your purpose, vision and values? Oh, and should it?
Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash
As AI’s recent crop of large language models are sucking in users faster than ever, and have folks asking much more serious questions about bots taking over the workforce, we thought we’d put our own necks on the line and see whether ChatGPT could replace us as the architects of company purpose, vision and values. We finished up impressed, alarmed but ultimately reassured. Here’s how it went down.
“Holy shit!”
Sure, it’s not all that eloquent, but it about sums up Emily’s facial expression and my actual words. We’d just been playing with ChatGPT, exploring whether or not it could create a purpose statement and set of core values that would be half credible.
Well, it did. And it took about 9 minutes.
We’d created a few fictional companies and fed the bot briefs based on Within’s tried and tested methodology for codifying cultures - our “IRL” recipe for cooking up Purpose Frameworks.
Only one ingredient was missing: the people.
And the question it left us with was just how important is that ingredient in this particular recipe? There’s a good chance you probably know some people, you likely even work with some. And whilst you may love and cherish them, you may also have experienced that they can be a tricky ingredient to work with (like saffron, say).
So could we be stumbling upon a nifty way to shortcut the faffy business of soul-searching, dream-sharing and ultimately coming to agreement on a set of words to define what collectively we stand for?
BBQ sauce
Before we answer that, let me ask you something. Have you ever had real, Southern BBQ? The kind that’s been lovingly massaged with a cocktail of spices and salts, and then spent a day or two bathing warmly in mesquite smoke? Cue saliva.
And perhaps you’ve also tried the kind that comes in a box you can microwave?
Whether or not your tastebuds have been tickled by either of these, you can probably imagine that the experience of eating them is not the same.
Well to Emily, who hails from North Carolina, the very idea of microwaved pulled pork is outright sacrilege. And it has been my belief since we started Within a decade ago, that the making of purpose, values and visions takes woodsmoke and patience, not megawatts.
The versions the bots produced may have come in microwave-safe packaging, but the stuff inside looked mighty like it had been pulled off a grill by someone with sooty eyebrows who says “y’all” a lot.
So CAN the bots write your purpose, vision and values?
In short: yes.
The output from the Bot was really pretty good. I’ve seen companies take months, spend heaps, and come up with worse.
Take a look at what it generated when I asked it, with relatively little input, to suggest what Within People’s purpose and vision might be:
I admit to being a bit inspired by what it spat back at me, and may have even - briefly - wondered whether our actual purpose statement (to help people find purpose and grow) and vision (to create a blueprint for 21st century business) were up to snuff. More on the “briefly” in a moment.
Or take a look at this set of values it served up to a fictional tech company in a matter of moments, with nothing more than a few helpful prods from us:
I mean tell me you can’t picture a time-pressured leadership team not feeling pretty smug about that output? And it even had the good grace to congratulate us on growing our company!
Maybe the microwave ain’t so bad afterall…
Ok, but SHOULD the bots write your purpose, vision and values?
In short: no.
And there are three big reasons why:
1. Humanity: the power’s in the people
This is a matter of journeys and destinations. Having an articulated purpose, vision and values is helpful, but it really does make a difference how you made it. Microwave meals serve a niche that is about convenience and economy. Neither of which are confidence-inspiring characteristics for the foundations of your culture.
To circumvent the people and the process - and the diversity of imagination, passion and discussion that comes with them - is to rather spectacularly miss the point of the exercise. You see, done right, purpose, vision and values become the very DNA of your culture. The human stories and convictions they surface and ultimately represent are what give them power and credence. The alignment that follows in the wake of challenge and debate can bind splintered teams and last for years.
2. Authenticity: identity comes from within
Sure, not everyone in a company is usually involved in crafting these statements - especially if they joined the business after the deed was done. However it matters that real people made them in the first place, and that their authentic stories are what is passed down through the generations. (Think of that secret family recipe that makes your grandma’s pork taste better than anyone else’s grandma’s pork.)
To get to our outcomes, the AI scraped up what’s already out there and matched it up to what we’d said was important to us. This didn’t come from within a team, it came from some distillation of what’s already out there.
If, like Mark Twain, you believe there’s no such thing as an original idea, then that may not matter so much to you. But don’t forget point one, and be careful about point 3…
3. Representation: who's included in your culture
So maybe when we sit down to craft our purpose, vision and values, all we are indeed really doing is harvesting ideas and inspiration from our own experiences. At face value, it might feel like turning to ChatGPT for assistance actually broadens those horizons - after all, then we get the benefit of harvesting from the experiences of the whole internet.
However, one of the rather substantial accusations leveled at AI at the moment, is the amount of bias it contains and sustains (due mostly to who built it, and for whom). If you’re looking to create a culture that truly represents the people in your company, you are best of creating a process that allows them to be heard.
Yes it’s more labor intensive. But if the process is not inclusive, the results likely won’t be either.
So what’s the verdict?
After a brief scare, Emily and I are feeling quietly reassured that the work we do isn’t about to be swallowed up by a hungry bot just yet. And with that, ready to advise you not to take the shortcut route to cooking up your own purpose, vision and values.
I suspect there will be no shortage of folks who choose the microwave. They will likely be the same execs who’d cook up a purpose by themselves in a weekend, then serve it to their staff on mugs and mousemats.
The people who want to build a powerful foundation for their culture will invest the time and energy into a deeply human process, that centers on authenticity, inclusivity and shared stories. And, much like the BBQ chef tending to their smoker, they’ll savour the process just as much as the outcome.
Oh, and if you do want a headstart on defining your company’s DNA, take a look instead at Within’s Guides to Finding Purpose and Bringing Values to Life.