The role of purpose has been getting increased attention in organizational science. This notion is at the center of Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why and is the topic of a feature article in Harvard Business Review’s July-August 2018 issue. The article presents a robust framework and an eight-step process for building a purpose-driven organization. It’s authors’, Robert Quinn and Anjan Thakor, are pioneers in the relatively new field of Positive Organizational Scholarship and make another important contribution with their organizational purpose work. A key point they make is that “every organization has a pool of change agents that usually goes untapped. Once enlisted, they can assist with every step of the cultural change.” This exact point is at the core of Redinger’s work in building future-ready companies through the EHSS and risk management functions. We assert—and have seen—that these two groups equate untapped resources because of their traditional compliance orientation.
