A small start
Invite everyone to help shape one purpose sentence. Describe the contribution rather than a claim that the group will be the best. Do not ask people merely to sign a mission one organizer wrote alone.
When to use it
Use it before a shared project or when a team has a goal but lacks agreement about permission, credit, decisions, workload or responding to mistakes.
How to use it
Invite everyone to help shape one purpose sentence. Describe the contribution rather than a claim that the group will be the best. Do not ask people merely to sign a mission one organizer wrote alone.
Choose a few concrete commitments. Turn honesty into saying what is checked and what remains uncertain; turn respect into honoring the stated limits on someone’s story or photograph.
Define which decisions require consultation. Consider changes to facts, permission, speaking roles, deadlines or the project’s message. Clarify which small adjustments can be tried before the group checks the revision.
Agree on credit and practical support. Include contributors beyond the visible presenters. Say how someone can request help before a task becomes unmanageable, and how differing views can be raised.
Plan for a broken commitment. The person should hear what happened, explain without hiding the effect and help make a practical repair. A mistake does not automatically erase every useful part of the agreement.
Invite voluntary commitment, keep an accessible copy and name a review date. At review, compare actual decisions with the promises. Revise openly with the people affected rather than quietly relaxing a boundary under pressure.
A worked example
A practical illustration of the method.
A history team agrees to state uncertainty, honor interview permission and share decisions that alter the display’s message. It lists all four students and credits outside sources. When asked to promise constant positivity, the group instead commits to respectful feedback when frustrated. After the event, it reviews where the pact helped and where the process remained difficult. A qualified answer is more useful than a ceremonial perfect score.
Use it thoughtfully
Avoid grand slogans that give nobody a way to recognize whether the promise was kept.
Do not make signing a substitute for freely participating in the agreement.
A pact should not suppress honest disagreement or pressure someone to surrender privacy or consent.
From the book
A short agreement a group creates together about its purpose, values, and responsibilities to one another and the people affected by its work.
Living a Higher Purpose · Chapter 12: The Shared Purpose Pact, manuscript line 989
Excerpt from the author’s current manuscript; page numbers vary by edition. The practical instructions on this page are companion guidance, not additional quoted text.
Related chapters in this book: 12, 13, 15, 16, 42.
Read a sample chapter from this book → · Book details & print editions →
An educational reflection or planning practice presented by the book. Its values guide choices; this page does not claim the method is a validated assessment, treatment, or guarantee of results.
Put it into practice
Your next step
Use these prompts for a real situation or a made-up example. Younger readers can work with a trusted adult.
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