What we do
Common Purpose helps people, organisations, cities and regions to succeed by broadening the horizons of their leaders and developing their ability to work together.
Common Purpose runs a number of leadership development courses for people at different stages in their career, as well as a range of customised courses and special events.
The courses vary in length and content but they all involve participants and contributors from the private, public and voluntary sectors. This mix is an integral and unique feature of Common Purpose courses, where the aim is to bring together people who might ordinarily never meet in their day to day working lives.
The courses are facilitated by experienced professional staff and contributors come from a huge range of backgrounds and sectors. For example: from the legal profession, business, finance, manufacturing, retail, transport, politics, through to those from faith organisations, community groups, charities and aid agencies. Contributors are leaders in their own organisations and therefore able to provide fascinating insights into how they lead and how they work with other bodies and individuals.
The format for Common Purpose courses is not to run classroom based courses. Instead participants are encouraged to step outside their usual environment and grapple with real-life problems at first hand.
This means they visit places they might never see or experience. For example, prisons; housing developments; manufacturing plants; stock exchanges; headquarters of public and private companies; hospices; charities and government departments. And there is an opportunity to see at first hand how decisions are made in a wide range of settings, including magistrates' courts, town halls, boardrooms, council chambers and Parliament.
This helps participants gain an understanding, not only of how other organisations function, but also how leaders in those organisations are held accountable in different ways. For example: a leader working for a political party may be held accountable in a very different way to a leader whose primary responsibility is for delivering humanitarian aid, or to a leader charged with delivering regular profits for shareholders.
The courses explore such differences and provide insights into how leaders in different organisations make decisions and the techniques they use. For example, participants from a not-for-profit organisation might examine the use of sales techniques used in a FTSE private sector company. Participants from the private sector might see at firsthand how conflict resolution techniques are used in the voluntary sector. In this way, participants are constantly encouraged to broaden their horizons when making leadership decisions and be willing to embrace new approaches.
Those attending Common Purpose courses vary: from participants who hold established leadership roles at work and in the community; to those who have held such a role, but are now looking to use their leadership skills in retirement; those beginning their careers and keen to develop their leadership potential; right through to young people at school who want to understand more about leadership and build on their existing experiences.
Each year, 3,000 people complete a Common Purpose course. To attract the widest range of potential participants from a diverse range of backgrounds, Common Purpose provides approximately 600 bursaries a year for those who could not otherwise afford to attend.
Since it was founded in 1989, in Coventry and Newcastle, Common Purpose has grown and now runs more than 80 different leadership development courses in 50 locations around the world.
We value diversity and constantly strive to provide equality of opportunity as an employer and in the provision and delivery of all our activities. We positively encourage applications from all sections of the community and are working hard to ensure that our courses and services meet the requirements of people with disabilities.
Why do we do it?
What underpins all Common Purpose courses is a belief that society benefits from people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures working together to help guide and shape the future of their organisations and communities. This is best achieved when leaders are able to realise their full potential, through broadening their horizons and establishing firm roots in their communities.
