Michael Bremer
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Purpose You Can See: 60-Min Workshop With Metrics That Matter
Large white text reading Make Purpose Visible centered over a warm sunlit blurred office background with an oval underline under the word Purpose, clean typography first hero image for a blog on purpose driven leadership, 60 minute workshop, customer aligned metrics, and visual accountability.

Purpose You Can See: A 60‑Minute Workshop to Turn Platitudes into Playbooks

Strong purpose is not a poster, it is behavior you can watch. Michael Bremer’s Learn to See the Invisible is clear about this. Words on paper are easy. What counts is whether people can see the purpose in how you plan, decide, and act when the pressure hits.

Here is a quick story that shows the shift. Richard Sheridan of Menlo Innovations once said their goal was to reduce the suffering of people who use software. It mattered, yet it was hard to make real day to day. When they probed the why, they reframed it as, “Our goal is to return Joy to the development of software.” That simple change gave leaders and teams something they could live and check in real time. It moved from noble to actionable, and it shaped daily behavior.

“The most important choice you make is what you choose to make important.” That line sits at the heart of this work. Purpose that guides choices is purpose you can see.

What Real Purpose Does For Your Team

Bremer’s aim is practical. He asks leaders to connect work to something bigger than the task, then to build simple ways to stay accountable. This shifts attention from narrow activity counts to outcomes customers care about. It also builds pride and cooperation across teams, not just inside silos. When leaders make this link, people feel their work matters, and performance improves where it counts.

Run This 60‑Minute Purpose Workshop

You can do this with your team in one hour. Keep it light, honest, and concrete.

Minutes 0–10, Ask Why Three Times

  • Start with what you do in plain words.
  • Ask, why is this important, at least three times.
  • Name moments when the work felt meaningful for a customer or a partner. Look for actual stories, not slogans.
  • Watch for platitudes. Aim for a purpose that changes what you do on Tuesday.

Minutes 10–20, Bring the Customer Closer

  • Ask how customers use your output today.
  • If you can, include input from your customer’s customer.
  • Note what they value. This keeps the purpose anchored outside your own metrics.

Minutes 20–35, Put Your Metrics On The Table

  • Lay out current measures. Ask two questions with your team:
    • Do these measures help the people doing the work make better, faster decisions?
    • Do these measures align with the purpose you are drafting?
  • Beware the activity trap. If you mostly count tasks, not progress that matters to customers, call it out and adjust.

Minutes 35–50, Write One Sentence You Can Live With

  • Draft a single sentence that connects to customer impact and that you, as a team, can be held to.
  • Ask, would this change how we act during crunch time. If not, refine it.
  • When possible, float it by a customer and listen. A good purpose guides choices, it does not decorate a wall.

Minutes 50–60, Make It Visible

  • Pick one simple visual to track progress toward your purpose.
  • Keep two guardrails:
    • You can update it in under ten minutes if daily, or under three minutes per pass if more often.
    • Anyone can find the key issues in ten seconds.
  • Say how you will use it, what behaviors it should drive, and how long you will test it before you review and evolve.

How To Check Alignment And Avoid The Activity Trap

Here is a simple test that saves months of busywork.

  • Share your measures with your customer. Ask how your metrics affect their work. If you cannot draw a clean line to their outcomes, you are measuring for your convenience, not their reality.
  • Ask, do our goals and metrics hold us to something meaningful or just activity counts. If they are internal and disconnected from purpose, you are in the trap.
  • When you can, use measures that encourage cooperation across teams. Local wins that hurt the whole are not wins.
  • Keep the loop fast. Visuals should prompt better decisions, not just compliance. Try it for a week or a month, then check what changed and adjust.

Stories That Shift Behavior

Two short snapshots from the book highlight the deeper stake.

  • Menlo’s shift to joy shows how a clear why turns into daily habits. They made it normal for developers to talk with external customers. That made the purpose visible in the flow of work, not just in speeches.
  • At Autoliv, leaders tied purpose to keeping high paying jobs in Utah. That set a standard for cost, quality, and service that people could own. Leaders did not just tell people what to do. They built an environment where people felt safe to share problems and act on them.

These are not slogans. They are choices leaders made to turn purpose into practice.

Make Meaning Felt, Not Just Stated

People want their work to matter. “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” When leaders post measures that matter, keep them current, and talk openly about obstacles, people feel respect. They bring more energy to the work that is optional, the part that moves teams from good to great.

If your purpose is clear and it gets violated, examine it right away. Ask why it happened and what you can learn. Treat purpose as an experiment. You will refine it over time, and that is a sign of learning, not failure.

A Simple Way To Start This Week

Here is how you do it.

  • Ask why three times with your team.
  • Share your current metrics with a customer and ask how they land.
  • Post one visual that takes under ten minutes to update and shows issues in ten seconds.
  • Tell your team when you will review what you learn, and stick to it.

When the pressure rises, leaders reveal what they make important. Purpose without accountability is just a statement. The proof shows up in the small choices you make in front of your team.

What will your team see this week that proves your purpose is real, not just words?