Common Purpose Blog

Juggling, juggling, juggling. It can be a great party trick but more pertinently, it’s what we do on a daily basis. You hear the phrase constantly in our organisation and so many others too – juggling is everywhere! Those of you not based in our Central Office in London might be surprised to know that we [...]

Earlier this year I turned forty-one. I started my first real job, as a trainee chartered accountant, at the age of eighteen whilst awaiting my A level results. For a year I worked five days a week, 8.45am to 5.15pm, with an hour for lunch and fifteen days holiday a year. This is the only [...]

This week’s youth unemployment statistics – nearly 1 million young people in the UK out of work – are sad and disappointing, but unfortunately not surprising! At Common Purpose, because we work with people across the UK and beyond, both employers and the unemployed, I have been hearing since the start of the year that [...]

Every year on 10 October we celebrate the Common Purpose 360 Day. It’s an invitation to anyone, anywhere to do one thing, big or small, to challenge the way they see the world. It’s a chance to step into someone else’s shoes; to shake things up; to gain self awareness; to broaden your perspective; or [...]

What is the definition of impossible?  If it is some Herculean but pointless challenge then there is no point.  However, if the impossibility comes from the failure of others to deal with a particular problem or opportunity it will always be a leader that attempts the challenge. I give a pressing example from my own [...]

Common Purpose is currently in its 21st year, in which time we have met and engaged with so many leaders all over the world. In celebration of this, over the coming weeks we will be featuring blogs from 21 guest writers – a group of people who represent the diverse nature of the leaders we [...]

I am not a native English speaker. So, as a prudent former banker, I looked up the definition of ruthless before attempting a response to this question. Ruthless is defined as “without pity or compassion, cruel, merciless”. This is hardly the way anyone would like to be remembered, except for the few so obstinate in [...]

Common Purpose is currently in its 21st year, in which time we have met and engaged with so many leaders all over the world. In celebration of this, over the coming weeks we will be featuring blogs from 21 guest writers – a group of people who represent the diverse nature of the leaders we [...]

Common Purpose is currently in its 21st year, in which time we have met and engaged with so many leaders all over the world. In celebration of this, over the coming weeks we will be featuring blogs from 21 guest writers – a group of people who represent the diverse nature of the leaders we [...]

Today, we are living in a world that’s about taking short-term decisions: CEOs who pray to at the altar of the devil called quarterly earnings, companies that react to rivals, politicians who are only worried about the coming election cycle and leaders who are in for the near-term gain. And then there are Steve and [...]