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Purpose to practice

Purpose-to-Practice (P2P) helps groups design initiatives that are both meaningful and actionable from the very beginning. 
What Is Made Possible
  • Shared clarity and alignment: P2P starts by co-creating a compelling purpose—why the work matters to everyone involved and to the broader community.
  • Holistic design: It guides participants to shape five essential elements together:
    Purpose – the “why”
    Principles – the guiding values and rules
    Participants – who needs to be involved
    Structure – how roles, responsibilities, and decision-making are organized
    Practices – the day-to-day activities and behaviors
  • Collective ownership: Because all stakeholders contribute to shaping the initiative, there’s stronger commitment and shared responsibility.
  • Adaptability and scalability: The structure supports creative adaptation and makes it easier to scale efforts as the initiative grows.
  • Inclusive co-creation: Especially useful for large initiatives, P2P allows many voices to shape the future together - building momentum and trust from the start.

  • Time needed

    120 minutes

  • Preparation

    1. Miro Board (online) or paper (F2F)
    2. Split into smaller groups (4 people) - prepare the rooms online in Teams

  • How to start

    1. Invite participants to the design of their new initiative in order to specify its five essential elements: purpose, principles, participants, structure, and practices.

  • Step-by-step and timing

    1. Introduce the idea of P2P, the five elements, and related questions, and hand out blank worksheets. (5 min)
    2. Purpose - to clarify, ask the question: “Why is the work important to you and the larger community?”. Use 1-2-4 to generate individual ideas and stories for Purpose. (10 min)
      • In groups of four, compare, sift, and amplify the top ideas (10 min)
      • As a whole group, integrate themes and finalize ideas for Purpose (10 min)
    3. Move to the remaining P2P elements, in turn, repeating the three steps of 1-2-4-All.
    4. Principles: “What rules must we absolutely obey to succeed in achieving our purpose?”
    5. Participants: “Who can contribute to achieving our purpose and must be included?”
    6. Structure: “How must we organize (both macro- and microstructures) and distribute control to achieve our purpose?”
    7. Practices: “What are we going to do? What will we offer to our users/clients and how will we do it?”
    8. After each element, ask, “Has this element shed new light that suggests revisions to previous elements?” 5 min.
    9. When all elements have been completed, ask participants to step back and take a close look at their draft of the five elements together. Ask them to use What, So What, Now What? in small groups to make sense of all of the possible next steps and prioritize them as a whole group. (15 min)
    10. After the initiative has been launched, invite the participants to revisit their P2P design periodically and adapt elements based on their experience.

  • Hints

    1. Crafting a powerful, wildly attractive “purpose” is the most important step: you may want to use Nine Whys, Appreciative Interviews, or TRIZ to deepen the conversation
    2. Start with one 30-minute, very rapid cycle covering all five elements to illustrate the need for a strong and clear purpose: without one, it is easy to come up with a half-baked design

  • Examples of use

    1. To strategically plan new initiative or challenges

  • Link with other Liberating Structures

    Link with:

    1-2-4-All

    9 Whys

    Appreciative Interviews

    TRIZ

    What 3 debrief

  • Link to Liberating Structures page

    Purpose to practice

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