#41 🧭💡 Four ways to increase your mission-context fit
To make more impact in the places you (decide to) contribute
Your main everyday contribution, articulated in a simple phrase like in the examples shared here last time, is ideally fitting the contexts in which you’re active.
Mission-context fit feels like being in flow, being energized by the impact you’re making, receiving constant positive realtime feedback1 and being confident in the value you offer to (that specific) world.
Mission = everyday contribution
Context = place for contribution: community, company, NGO, group of friends etc.
Reality is less than ideal, so it’s always about searching for this mission-context fit, especially taking into account that:
Each of us evolves and so does our mission;
The people around us, and the context we’re active in, also constantly evolve.
There’s even the saying of “finding” or “not finding your place in the world” that speaks exactly about this mission-context fit.
So even though we’re having a period of a nice mission-context fit in a certain context (e.g. in the company we’re working, with that special client, in that awesome community), things will probably change.
Same goes for the opposite: even though we’ve having a period of disconnect, of less mission-context fit, when we don’t feel in flow and being energized in that context, things will probably change as well.
In my experience, I’ve found four ways of increasing your mission-context fit, or to better find your place in the world:
1. Adjust your mission to better fit the context
If the context is important for you and it’s hard to change, then a viable approach would be to explore ways to adjust your mission - to see whether other types of contribution are more valuable for the people in the context you’re active in.
For example, my mission of sharing knowledge has evolved as people around me, in various contexts, became busier and with less time and patience for complicated ideas. That’s why the kind of shared knowledge I’m now contributing with aims to be easy to understand and easy to apply.
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2. Aim to adjust the context to better fit your mission
As contexts can change and each of us has an area of influence, the other approach that can help for a better mission-context fit is to act as a change maker, shaping the context towards being a place where you can truly live your mission, where you can truly make a contribution.
For example, in all the companies I’ve worked in, I’ve always encouraged the culture of sharing, organized sharing sessions and internal communities, helped people organize sharing sessions and internal communities, increased the visibility of moments when people around me shared knowledge with their colleagues, added a motto about sharing knowledge in my signature and various other actions. It has been an approach to shape my context to be able to make a bigger impact with my way of contributing.
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3. Find a new context better fit with your mission
There are always other contexts, other places for contribution that might be better fit with your mission. Exploring such potential contexts might help make the decision to switch contexts: find a job in a new company, or in another part of the same company, or in another city, or in another country; find a new community where your contribution is more valuable; find a new NGO; find a new social group etc.
For example, while being a power user and contributor to professional associations and communities of practice, when I found myself in a context - in this case an association or a community - where I couldn’t share knowledge with the other people around there, I decided to find a new one where I could make this kind of contribution.
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4. Create a new context better fit with your mission
There is also the option to create new contexts - new businesses, new communities, new associations etc. - that are matching your way of contributing from the start. While creation involves lots of energy and usually comes with a high risk of failure, making it happen comes with a great deal of satisfaction as your mission is being lived through the new context that you’ve created.
If you co-create new contexts with the people around you, you’ll probably do this with people that resonate with your mission and allow for co-evolution of your missions as well. The culture of the new business or of the new community will reflect, at the beginning at least, your way of being in the world.
For example, when being at a point when I needed a specific learning and/or practice context and I couldn’t find it around me, I’ve created one. Some recent examples are: a series of co-development sessions around organizational challenges, a learning network around Strategy & Organization topics, a series of conversations around Personal Strategy, a sharing group around growing newsletters, a sharing group around posting on LinkedIn, a follow-up group after a Foresight course, a sharing group around Complexity Science etc. Some of the contexts I’ve started and grew huge (after I navigated towards other interests) are the largest volleyball group in Bucharest (3700+ members) or the largest HR community in Romania (14900+ members).
Here’s a visual summary of the ideas above:
Your turn
Which of these approaches would you try in which context?
In your experience, is there another approach that helped you?
As a strategic adviser and lifelong learner, Bülent Duagi works with Directors in 🇷🇴 Tech companies to help them make more impact with the limited resources they have at hand, by:
🧭 having a clear strategy that enables better and faster decision making;
🤝 organizing better to both run operations and implement strategy with the available bandwidth and budgets;
🚀 implementing strategic initiatives and programs in an efficient and effective manner, paying attention to the people side of change;
⚡️ intentionally developing proper internal capabilities that are sustainable in the long run.
Not talking here about formalized feedback sessions, but everyday interactions with the people around you and how they’re encouraging you to keep going or adjust your way forward.