I watched the hit film Bridge of Spies recently and
it made me think a lot about the power of purpose and values.
In the film, we see the tension in 1960 America
between the overwhelming national sense of purpose in maintaining US security
and the national values of justice and freedom as a lawyer fights to ensure a
fair trial for a suspected Russian spy.
The national paranoia about the Soviet threat triggers a witch hunt
mentality when Rudolf Abel is charged as a Soviet spy in New York. His
appointed lawyer, James B Donovan, previously an insurance lawyer, who
begrudgingly takes the case, gets pilloried on the subway and his house is
attacked.
Donovan starts by, in his mind, simply doing his
job as a lawyer by seeking a fair trial, but gradually he gets drawn into
defying public sentiment and appealing to the Supreme Court in order to see
that justice is done. Abel’s case
becomes linked to that of Gary Powers, a US spy pilot who was captured after
his plane was shot down over Soviet territory.
Donovan ends up going to east Berlin with the CIA to negotiate a
prisoner swap at great personal risk. He
pulls it off and Abel is exchanged for Powers on Glienicke Bridge in which
connects East and West Berlin. Donovan also manages to secure the release of
Frederic Pryor, a graduate student who has been arrested in East Berlin, at the
same time.
Back in the US, Donovan is finally hailed as a
national hero, having endured public hostility since the trial began. He came to realise that when your purpose is
at odds with your values, trust your values. He did what he believed was right,
in spite of pressure from many sides to serve the national interest first.
In business, leaders can also benefit from
trusting their values, especially in times of turmoil. Communicating a very
clear sense of purpose enables people across the organisation to
develop a shared view of why they exist as an entity and an understanding of
what they are trying to achieve together. There is a shared mission around
which people can unite and flourish. It is up to leaders to help people make
sense of this and how their roles relate to the purpose of the business. After
all, people typically want to know that what they do at work has value, and is
something of which they can be proud.