Make the mission meaningful

When Bill George was CEO of Medtronic, he used to bring in patients using the company’s equipment to meet the people involved with making the products. Why? To show his team that they’re not just making widgets. They’re work saves people’s lives. Performance and innovation can soar when people resonate with the mission of their work. I learned more about this concept when I spoke with Bill for my Leadership: A Master Class. Below is a recap of our conversation about making the mission meaningful for your team.

"Bringing Medtronic customers in to meet our team was the most important day of the year. We brought in six patients, one of them was my mentor, Warren Bennis, who came in who got a Medtronic defibrillator. He went out and met all the people on the production line. What did he do? He thanked them for the quality of their work that was helping keeping him alive, and then he came in front of three thousand people on our atrium, but also at that time another 20,000 watching on webcasting, telling his story.

Daniel Goleman

Full Story: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121220212057-117825785-make-the-mission-meaningful?trk=eml-mktg-condig-118-p1