Pillars that unlock purpose, unblock barriers

Unlocking purpose, and unblocking barriers to change

I’ve spent three decades holding senior roles in public and private sector organisations, and one common factor has become painfully clear: we’re all too often guilty of confusing ‘activity’ with ‘progress’.

In the public sector, it often defaults to rearranging structures rather than rethinking purpose. Organisational charts change, but outcomes don’t. It’s the illusion of progress; busy work dressed up as transformation.

I’ve just completed a five-year stint as chief executive of Shropshire Council, guiding the authority through some incredibly challenging post-Covid times.

Leading an organisation of this size and complexity has been difficult - but also a huge privilege. I’m very proud of what we achieved together.

I can tell you from first-hand experience that barriers to change are rarely due to a lack of ideas. They’re down to execution. Good intentions stall when systems creak, when staff feel disconnected, when outcomes aren’t measured, or when the bigger “why?” is forgotten.

That’s why I passionately believe these four pillars – Purpose, Process, People, and Performance - are the foundations for unblocking barriers to change.

Private firms pivot fast because their survival depends on it. Councils, bound by legacy systems and accountability frameworks (not to mention blunt regulatory tools that can sometimes distort or distract the very systems they claim to improve) must learn to move with similar agility.

I’ve seen countless restructures announced with fanfare. New directorates are created, job titles are shuffled, and reporting lines redrawn.

For a few months, there’s a buzz of energy, but once the dust settles, the same challenges remain: underfunded services, overstretched staff, and outcomes that barely shift. At least from the outside looking in.

Contrast this with the private sector. Businesses restructure too, but the driver is usually sharper: profit, efficiency, or market survival. If a retailer reorganises its supply chain, it’s because customers are walking away. If a tech firm flattens its hierarchy, it’s to speed up innovation.

The stakes are immediate and measurable. A restructure that doesn’t deliver results is quickly abandoned, because shareholders and customers won’t tolerate the illusion of progress.

In the private sector, the market punishes failure more swiftly than the ballot box or any ministerial reshuffle ever does.

But there is one crucial piece of common ground here. Leaders in any sector must first define why their organisation exists today — not the inherited mission from decades past. Only then can process and performance align meaningfully.

Change fails when we forget that systems are human. Empowerment, clarity, and trust are the real accelerants of transformation.

PURPOSE is the compass. Without a clear sense of why change is happening, momentum quickly fades. Purpose connects the day to day grind to a bigger vision: improving lives, serving communities, creating value. It’s the antidote to cynicism. When people understand the purpose, they see beyond the disruption and recognise the worth of transformation. Purpose inspires resilience, reminding everyone that change is not just about survival but about progress.

PROCESS is the foundation. Without clear, streamlined processes, even the best strategies will collapse under the weight of bureaucracy. Too often, change initiatives drown in complexity: endless approvals, duplicated tasks, or outdated systems. By simplifying workflows, clarifying responsibilities, and embedding agility, organisations create the conditions for change to flow. Process isn’t about rigid rules; it’s about building pathways that make transformation possible.

PEOPLE are the heartbeat of change. No restructure, technology, or policy will succeed if the workforce isn’t engaged. I’ve seen projects fail because leaders treated staff as obstacles rather than allies. When people are empowered, trained, and trusted, they become champions of change. Listening to their insights, valuing their contributions, and supporting their growth ensures that change isn’t imposed -it’s co created. Culture shifts when individuals feel ownership.

PERFORMANCE provides the feedback loop. Change without some degree of measurement is blind. Organisations need to know whether new approaches are delivering results, not just activity. Performance metrics should be meaningful, not box ticking exercises. They should track outcomes that matter - customer satisfaction, community impact, efficiency gains - rather than vanity statistics. When performance is measured honestly, it highlights what’s working and what needs adjustment, keeping change on course.

Process clears the path, people drive the journey, performance keeps the wheels on track, and purpose ensures the destination is worth reaching.

A brilliant strategy can be undone by clunky processes. A slick system can be sabotaged by disengaged staff. Strong performance metrics mean nothing if they’re disconnected from purpose.

I’m a firm believer that it’s not about what you do in life, but what you learn along the way… and crucially, how you choose to use all of that information.

There are only so many conferences, masterclasses, speeches, and presentations you can attend before you start to question some of the fundamental messages, or feel they’re miring you in a web of contradictions.

Corporate leaders often chase fashionable management trends - matrix structures, agile squads, endless rebranding exercises. But the difference is accountability. If the new model doesn’t improve the bottom line, it’ll be exposed quickly.

In the public sector, by contrast, the feedback loop is slower and fuzzier. Outcomes like social value or community wellbeing are harder to measure, and political cycles which can pivot overnight on an election result often prioritise visibility over impact.

A politician may claim success by pointing to a new structure, even if the lived experience of citizens remains unchanged.

Working across both of these worlds has taught me that purpose is the missing ingredient in many public sector reforms. Too often, the question asked is “How should we organise ourselves?” rather than “What are we here to achieve?”

The former leads to endless tinkering with structures; the latter forces a deeper conversation about mission, values, and outcomes.

When I’ve seen public bodies genuinely rethink purpose and bravely break a generations-old mould, the results have been transformative. But those examples are all too rare.

During my time in adult social care, I flipped the perception of the service from one which was seen as a black hole of money and resource that just eats up and consumes everything you throw at it.

Instead, I invited people to think about it in a different way, as one of the biggest drivers of the local economy because of the number of people it employs, and its GVA. When you think of it that way, it starts to take on a very different image.

Because of an ageing population, we were seeing demand for social care services outstripping what the market could supply.

Focusing on the management of supply and demand, we began to look at how our input – the decisions we make – had a wider economic impact, positively affecting more than the council’s core responsibility to meet the health and social care needs of our communities.

This thinking empowered us to shape the market through smarter commissioning, and closer partnership with the likes of NHS Digital, the Local Government Association, ADASS, and various other partners.

Private employers tend to keep purpose front and centre: serving customers, growing revenue, staying competitive. Public employers could learn from that discipline, not by mimicking profit motives but by clarifying the social outcomes they exist to deliver.

Agility isn’t optional these days, it’s survival. When markets shift, competitors innovate, or customers demand something new, businesses pivot fast.

Decisions are made quickly, structures flex, and strategies evolve because the cost of standing still is existential. If you don’t adapt, you lose revenue, market share, and ultimately your relevance.

In councils and public bodies, change is slower, more cautious, and often tangled in legacy systems and accountability frameworks. I’ve sat in many meetings where the urgency was palpable; staff knew the community needed something different, faster, better, but the machinery of governance slowed everything down.

Procurement rules, statutory obligations, and political oversight all added layers of complexity. Even when the will to change was strong, the process itself became the barrier.

That doesn’t mean councils lack ambition or creativity. I’ve seen some of the most inspiring ideas emerge from public sector teams; initiatives rooted in fairness, inclusion, and long term social value.

The challenge is translating those ideas into action at pace. Where a private firm might trial a new service in weeks, a council could take months just to clear the approvals. By the time the change lands, the context has often shifted again.

The irony, I believe, is that both sectors could learn from each other. Private firms excel at speed, but sometimes at the expense of deeper purpose and a connected workforce.

Councils must hold tight to their ethos of public service, accountability, and equity while at the same time rethinking their purpose.

In business, speed is often celebrated, but without checks and balances, it can lead to short termism or ethical blind spots. Councils remind us that change should serve people, not just profit. The trick is finding the balance: agility with integrity, speed with social value.

Targets should always illuminate, not intimidate. Councils must shift from compliance reporting to insight-driven performance learning.

The next evolution of local government isn’t service delivery… it’s co-creation. Citizens should not be viewed simply as customers, but as collaborators who can help to shape our civic purpose.