www.commonpurpose.org
www.commonpurpose.org.uk

The facts about Common Purpose

Common Purpose UK is an educational charity delivering leadership training programmes to decision-makers of today and tomorrow, drawn from diverse sectors of society.

We are, and make no apology for being, highly successful in what we do. Of course, we have our critics and we welcome constructive and honest debate. However, some people have made the most extraordinary and in some cases highly defamatory claims about us. In the interests of fairness both to ourselves as an organisation and to the 25,000 plus people who have participated in our programmes over the years, we feel it is helpful to summarise our activities here and to respond to some of the wilder claims made about Common Purpose. We suggest that anyone who is interested in our work, should read these claims and form their own view. If having done so, you would like further clarification or information, please get in touch at untrueclaims@commonpurpose.org.uk.

Structure

• Common Purpose UK is an educational charity, registered in the UK under number 1023384. Its charitable objects, contained within its memorandum of association, are: "the advancement of education for the public benefit and in particular, but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, to educate men and women and young people of school age, from a broad range of geographical, political, ethnic, institutional, social and economic backgrounds in constitutional, civic, economic and social studies with special emphasis on civil and social awareness and responsibility in the United Kingdom and elsewhere".
   

• Essentially, Common Purpose is a training and leadership programme provider. It provides courses in leadership skills to people from all walks of life in all kinds of jobs and careers. What differentiates Common Purpose from other leadership programme providers is its emphasis on the benefits for all those who participates in its programmes and their employing organisations of engaging constructively with the communities in which they live and work and playing an active part in civic society.
  
  Common Purpose was set up in 1989 by Julia Middleton, its current Chief Executive. Before establishing Common Purpose, Julia was with the Industrial Society as Divisional Director of Enterprise and worked as Employee Relations Manager for the Belgian oil company, Petrofina. She is currently a trustee for the Media Standards Trust and for Alfanar, the venture philanthropy foundation for the Middle East. Julia was a founding trustee for Impetus Trust and the independent think tank Demos, and also was a trustee for the Media Trust. She has been an independent assessor for the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
   

• Common Purpose is an independent, not for profit organisation. It has no alignment with any political party, religion or other organisation whatsoever.
   

• Common Purpose’s charter outlines the vision, aims, and ethos of the organisation. Read the Common Purpose Charter. Common Purpose aims to give leaders the inspiration, the skills, the knowledge and the connections they need to produce real change in their work and potentially, in their communities or wider society. The Charter expresses its aim to identify opportunities and encourage leaders to become actively involved in civil society, but makes it clear that Common Purpose has no role in prompting or deciding what people choose to do.
   

• Common Purpose UK's 13 Trustees, lead by Chris Mathias, Chair, CMG partners, are listed here: Common Purpose UK Trustees. A list of Common Purpose Trustees in the other countries where it operates are available here: Common Purpose Trustees in other countries
   

• Common Purpose UK is managed by a senior management team, led by Chief Executive Julia Middleton, and consisting of a Managing Director, HR Director, Marketing Director, Curriculum Director, Finance Director and three Operations Directors.

Where Common Purpose runs programmes and events beyond the UK

• Common Purpose runs programmes and events in 70 places in 12 countries. Its international development is led by Alison Coburn, Chief Executive of Common Purpose International, who has worked with the charity for 18 years. These countries are France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Ireland, Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden and the UK. Common Purpose has recently started developing its activities in Israel and Turkey. Each Common Purpose country organisation is an independent entity, with its own legal structure and locally appointed board, operating under the legal requirements of the country in which it operates. Its connection to the Common Purpose Charitable Trust is via a licence agreement administered by Civilia/Common Purpose Forum, with any profits resulting form the licence fee being covenanted to Common Purpose Charitable Trust to further its work.

Common Purpose programmes

• Common Purpose runs a variety of programmes and is extending the type of programmes regularly. In the UK, we currently run 12 leadership programmes, for leaders and potential leaders at different life and career stages. Read about all Common Purpose UK leadership programmes.

• Over 25,000 people have undertaken a Common Purpose programme. Most are sponsored and supported by their employers, some are self-funding and some are bursary places funded by Common Purpose. On completing a programme, people are invited to become part of the Common Purpose 360 graduate community. This is an outward-facing network of leaders, middle managers with leadership potential and emerging leaders, over 18 years old, who wish to continue to learn and develop their opportunities by pushing their perspectives and horizons outwards, to produce positive change in their workplaces and the communities in which they live.

• In line with its charitable objects, Common Purpose runs leadership development programmes at various levels, all of which aim to improve the way organisations and society works by helping people in decision-making positions to be more effective. Find out more about the range of programmes run in the UK on www.commonpurpose.org.uk.

• Common Purpose programmes are deliberately cross-sector with as diverse as possible a group of participants on each programme. About a third of our participants come from the public sector, about a third from the business and commercial world and about a third from the community, cultural and arts fields. Common Purpose believes that bringing together a cross-sector group of leaders and potential leaders is beneficial to everyone in the group as it enables people to see how things work in other sectors and learn from each other.

• Common Purpose runs leadership development programmes for leaders and potential leaders of all ages, including young people at school, aged 13 to 15 years old. This programme, 'Your Turn', aims to give young people a sense of engagement, help them understand how society and the working world operate and intersect, while developing and celebrating their leadership potential. Places are funded by a contribution from each participating school and in part by sponsorship. Zenna Atkins, Chair of OFSTED, the official body for inspecting schools, said:
  
  "Young people have so much to offer to society. Common Purpose has recognised this through their leadership development programmes and award schemes which develop and celebrate the potential of young people. The more active, informed young people there are making a positive contribution to their local schools and communities - the better. I'm pleased to wish Common Purpose every continued success with their contribution to this through the Your Turn programme and CHANGEit awards."

• Common Purpose also offers customised programmes in addition to its open programmes. These are designed and delivered to meet specific organisational requirements. Clients have included PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, RENEW North West and Sheffield First Partnership.

Working with other organisations

• Common Purpose has no alliances with any other organisation. It has received funding and support from many of the country’s leading employers. Common Purpose works in partnership on projects and initiatives with highly reputable and independent educationan or funding bodies. Currently in the UK, these include the award-winning programme, What Next?, run in collaboration with the Said Business School, University of Oxford, and the London Collaborative, working jointly with The Young Foundation and the Office of Public Management (OPM). Earlier in 2008, Common Purpose and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation undertood research and produced a report about community links in West Yorkshire.

Income and fees

• Participants (or their employing organisations) pay a tuition fee in order to take part in a Common Purpose programme, as is usual with any training programmes. Common Purpose charges fees for its programmes to maintain its independence, to ensure it is never entirely reliant on sponsorship and to make the quality of the programme experience central to the sustainability of the organisation.
   

• Fee income generated from educational programmes relates directly to our charitable objects or 'primary purpose'. Read Common Purpose UK Annual Report.
   

• Common Purpose has always believed that ability to pay (separate from willingness to pay) should not be a barrier to an applicant entering a programme. We seek sponsorship to be able to offer bursary places to people who may otherwise not be able to attend a programme, and for audiences, such as young people, who could not pay fees. Bursary places are available on every programme, and about 40% of participants pay a reduced fee appropriate for their means.

Application process

• There is an application process for programmes so that we can ensure that participants are drawn from as wide a variety of sectors as possible and there is a peer level group on each programme. Applicants, usually nominated by their employers, are considered according to their current responsibility as a leader or potential leader and their anticipated contribution to the perspective and dynamics of the group and community.

• Every application is submitted to a local Advisory Group. These Advisory Groups are comprised of senior professsional people who have a wealth of experience across all sectors in the programme’s geographical area. They provide support, guidance and diversity to local programme staff. All are members of the Advisory Group in their own right, not as representatives of their organisations or communities. Advisory Groups make decisions on whether an applicant demonstrates that they fulfil the application criteria (current leadership responsibilities and anticipated contribution to the perspective and dynamics of the group). The Advisory Group usually only discuss individual applications on which there are differing views. It is not a condition of acceptance on the programme that participants must be able to pay the fee. Local Advisory Group members assess applications on merit alone.

What happens on a programme

• Common Purpose runs a wide range of different programmes which have expanded to meet the expressed needs of participants over the years that the organisation has been operating. All its programmes differ from traditional training and leadership courses by all being based on experiential learning. Participants don't just sit in meeting rooms, being lectured and studying abstract management problems. We arrange for participants to go out into their own communities, visit and talk to those in many different organisations and grapple with real life problems at first hand. Together they explore and work through real-life challenges from business, the public and voluntary sector. In so doing they learn about the areas in which they live or work, about many different kinds of organisations and issues and about themselves.

The Chatham House Rule

• Common Purpose adheres to the Chatham House Rule in all its programme sessions. This well-established and respected international rule states that: "participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed; nor may it be mentioned that the information was received at the meeting". Both contributors and participants must feel that they can talk freely and openly and it is invaluable in the learning process to get their insights. If the rule is broken, contributors would be unlikely to feel they could continue to speak freely, and future participants would miss out. The implementation of this Rule is a common feature of leadership development programmes, and is used by organisations such as the Royal Institute for International Affairs, NATO, the Windsor Leadership Trust and the British Council amongst many others.

Equal opportunities

• Common Purpose values diversity and constantly strives to provide equality of opportunity as an employer and in the provision and delivery of all our activities. We actively encourage applications from all sections of the community and are working particularly hard to ensure that our programmes and services meet the requirements of people with disabilities.

 Quality

• We constantly monitor the quality of our programmes: Every event is evaluated against a ‘value for time’ rating given by participants. We run an impact survey, we assess every session and we have a series of pre, mid, end and post assessment forms. We also have an extensive bank of impact stories from past participants and their employers. Read impact stories from Common Purpose past participants.

Impact

• Common Purpose runs surveys to understand its wider impact. In our 2007 survey of previous participants, 96% of respondents said that Common Purpose had a positive personal impact on them, 89% said because of the programme there was a positive organisational impact and 92% said that through the programme there was a positive societal impact.
   

• This 2007 survey into the individual benefits of our programmes found that 80% told us that they believe they have improved their overall effectiveness as a leader, 91% have improved their ability to see the wider context and their role in it, 85% have increased their willingness to engage with a diverse group/different approaches, 80% now look for innovation in different places and 78% have improved their ability to think more strategically. We also have many examples of collaborative working partnerships created by course participants as a result of meeting on our programme
   

• Common Purposes uses ‘value for time’ as a key performance indicator: 95% of participants say the programme is definitely a good investment of time and 90% have already recommended Common Purpose to a friend.
   

• We collect various impact measures and run regular assessment surveys and impact studies. Our aim is that, after completing a programme, the participants are better leaders in their jobs, organisations, and perhaps in society too – some participants go on to become mentors, school governors, sit on NHS Trust boards, set up community projects e.g. traffic calming schemes or other neighbourhood initiatives. There is often real transferability from the skills and leadership capabilities they acquire on programmes from their workplace to issues facing their communities.

Pro-bono support

• Like most other not for profit organsiations, Common Purpose benefits from the generous pro bono support of a wide range of organisations. This includes the free use of office space and assistance in kind. We are very grateful that most contributors to our programmes give their time without charge. This enables Common Purpose to keep its costs down and to offer as many as possible bursary places to those who would otherwise not be able to afford to attend our programmes. Programme day contributors and speakers often say that they find the process hugely beneficial. There is a two-way exchange of information, so that as well as the programme participants gaining from the specialist insights of the speakers, the speakers gain access to a richly diverse peer network of leaders, potential leaders and decision-makers from across the area - and have a chance to test out their thinking, to broaden their perspectives and generate new contacts.

Leading Beyond Authority

• Julia Middleton's book "Beyond Authority: Leadership in a Changing World" was published in February 2007. This sets out the case for Leading Beyond Authority, a new style of leadership where authority has to be earned rather than granted and where leadership skills used in the workplace in a particular position can be extended to achieve much in other aspects of life. Find out more about Leading Beyond Authority.

• Reviews of the book include those by Rosabeth Moss Kantor and Sir David Puttnam:

'In Beyond Authority, Julia Middleton offers a refreshing and original perspective on leadership. She shows us how to implement our dreams and overcome obstacles - including the obstacle that no one asked us to do it in the first place. This is the right book for bureaucracy-bashers and social entrepreneurs who want to change the world.' - Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School Professor and author of Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End --Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School Professor

'What you will learn from this book is worth more than money. Not only will you learn to lead beyond your authority, but also how to be a better leader within your authority too. If you were only to buy one book about leadership, then it should be this.' - David Puttnam, President of UNICEF (UK), former filmmaker --David Puttnam, President of UNICEF (UK), former filmmaker

Some inaccuracies about Common Purpose

A small number of persistent critics have, largely through the internet, made some untrue claims about Common Purpose. Ten of the most common inaccuracies are addressed below. There will probably be many more - we would ask people to read these and make their own informed view of the nature, and motivation, of these claims.

If you would like to report any of these claims or discuss them with us, please email us at untrueclaims@commonpurpose.org.uk.

“Is it true that Common Purpose...”

If you have any questions or concerns about Common Purpose which you are unable to answer by visiting our site www.commonpurpose.org.uk, or if you feel you or someone you know might benefit from attending one of our programmes, then don’t hesitate to contact

Joanna Thorpe

Marketing Director

Common Purpose

Email: joanna.thorpe@commonpurpose.org.uk