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Attributes of the t3 framework:
the right stuff

The "right stuff" is about ensuring the right people are in place and ready to deliver. They feel strongly that they are working with a group of people they respect and can get the job done. The foundation of any team are the people who comprise it. The needs of any team go far beyond ensuring they "can do" the job itself (competence) and extend to areas that allow the team, and its individual members, to work effectively together in delivering the desired outcomes.

These include, for example, possessing a growth mindset, allowing people to adapt more effectively to adversity and solve problems that lead to a breakthrough (‘can do’ attitude). Openness to other’s ideas (a true team player), grit and positivity are other examples of traits of people that are important on any team.

Simply put, members of the team "can do, can do".

clarity & alignment

People and teams are clear on what they need to do and why it is important. High-performing team feel strongly that the direction is clear, and line-of-sight exists between their work and that of the teams or organization on the whole.

There is clarity in the vision, mission and objectives of the team and clarity in how such objectives cascade down to each and every member within it.

Clarity is nothing without alignment, at least over the longer-term. People who know what to do can certainly deliver some good results, within their own sphere of influence; however, alignment is vital for sustained execution excellence. Alignment suggests that people are committed to their role and what they need to do to produce good results.

Simply put, members of the team "know what to do."

empowerment

Empowerment is all about ensuring people have the freedom, support, and tools to deliver on what is expected along with the systems and process to work effectively together.

The nature of the way organizations are designed and the likelihood that most are populated by human beings leads to a natural dysfunction that often is referred to as silo thinking or behavior. Left alone, silo behavior and potentially relational-based conflict WILL arise. This calls for organizations to install a ritual that ensure these are outlined, clarified, and negotiated so that people can work effectively together in driving value for their customers, and the business.

Additionally, we find many teams that have too many priorities that are crippling the team’s effectiveness and/or leading to burnout. Typically, ad hoc demands from the business may be the culprit, and without a priority reconciliation process, frustration emerges.

Simply put, members of the team are "allowed and enabled to".

belonging

Belonging suggests that people fit within your organizational context—they "belong" here and are connected to the organization.

Organizations cannot afford to have disengaged employees—and yet, many in the workforce report being actively disengaged. Others are passively disengagement manifesting in some form of "quiet quitting." This results in lost productivity and an unhappy workplace in general.

While there are many factors that may be at play here, the most important one is a sense of connection people have with their company, a belief that they (the company) are doing the right thing (beyond making money) and that they are operating in a way that is consistent with making a real contribution to society. For newer generations of workers this is of particular importance. It all starts with purpose and values.

Simply put, members of the team "believe it's right to do".

agile execution

Agile Execution is all about how the team works together to adapt to dynamic conditions. It is our belief that no initial plan will survive for very long, placing a burden on the team to pivot consistently in order to deliver upon their strategic outcomes.

In today’s VUCA world, planning is taking on new forms as organizations recognize that within weeks after initiating any plan, it can be rendered, at worst case, useless, or in best case, intentions remain on track but how one gets there changes rapidly. The environment is simply too dynamic to invest months preparing, planning, and budgeting for a reality that may not exist in six months.

In our view, get the strategic intent right, plan on how to get there, and instill agile execution rituals that allow the team to adapt to the realities of executing against the plan.

Simply put, members of the team "will do what it takes with integrity".

togetherness

A sense of togetherness results when the teams do the other five attributes well, leading to sustained high-performance and lots of enjoyment working with fellow colleagues. No matter how remote a team may operate, leaders need to work to secure this sense of "togetherness" and, ideally, bring people together every so often.

In such teams, not only do you have exemplary engagement and behaviors from all constituent members but that final piece of "social glue" -- individuals motivated also by the very company of their team colleagues. This is the zone where intra-relationships are defined by shared levels of high professional respect and, indeed, deep friendships.

Team members bearing this attribute scale even greater heights (sometimes literally!) because not only are they passionate about what they do (as built on all the preceding qualities) but it is this comradeship that sits at the very nexus of this passion. There is no place they would rather be than with the companionship of their comrades and, with this fellowship, a sense of collective invincibility. For such teams, there is a mindset of "anything together".

Simply put, members of the team "build a legacy".

organizational health

BELONGING: the culture that holds high-performing teams together

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Steve Morrissey

Simon Sinek famously argued that people do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it. The same is true of the organizations people choose to join, stay in, and give their best to. The most capable talent in your industry will underperform, disengage, and ultimately leave if they do not feel a genuine connection to the purpose and values of the organization they work within. That connection, that sense of fit, of meaning, of belonging, is not a cultural nicety. It is a commercial imperative.

At Perpetual, belonging is the fourth attribute in our t3® (Team-to-Tribe) framework, and its position in the hierarchy is deliberate. It sits above empowerment and below agile execution — a critical bridge between an organization that functions and one that truly performs.

belonging in the t3® framework

The t3® model defines belonging as “believes it is right to do…” a signal that performance is driven not just by what people are asked to do, but by a deep alignment between the individual and the organization. Belonging is built on two interlocking dimensions: organizational purpose and company values. Together, they answer the two questions every person in an organization asks, often without knowing it: Why does this place exist? And Is this how I want to show up?

When both dimensions are strong, people bring discretionary effort, commit to shared outcomes, and hold each other accountable not because they have to, but because they believe it is the right thing to do. That is the hallmark of a high-performing culture and it is measurable.

the three pillars of belonging

1. purpose: the north star

Purpose is the why behind everything an organization does. Not the product it sells or the revenue it generates, but the higher-order contribution it makes to the world. Organizations with a clearly articulated, genuinely inspiring purpose give people something to orient around — a north star that guides decision-making, energizes effort, and creates meaning beyond the transactional.

The most powerful purpose statements are not crafted for annual reports. They are the authentic expression of what an organization fundamentally believes in. When leaders communicate purpose consistently, and when the strategic direction of the business visibly connects to that purpose, people stop being employees executing tasks and start being contributors advancing a mission.

The performance implications are significant. Purpose-driven organizations attract better talent, retain it longer, and generate stronger commitment at every level. In the consumer goods sector in particular, where brand, culture, and commercial performance are deeply intertwined, a compelling purpose is a strategic asset, not a communications exercise.

2. values: the behavioral contract

If purpose answers why, values answer how. They define the behaviors that are expected, celebrated, and held constant regardless of business pressures, leadership changes, or organizational growth. Values are the behavioral contract between an organization and the people within it.

The critical distinction here is between stated values and demonstrated values. Most organizations have the former. High-performing organizations have both. The gap between what is written on the wall and what is lived in the business is one of the most corrosive forces in organizational culture and one of the most reliably detected by the t3® diagnostic.

Leaders who model values visibly and consistently are the single most powerful driver of cultural health. When people observe leadership living the values under pressure, in difficult decisions, and in how they treat others, those values become real. When they do not, no amount of internal communications will compensate.

3. the behaviors charter: making values tangible

Values without behavioral definition are open to interpretation. The most effective organizations translate each value into a behaviors charter, a clear articulation of what good looks like and what it does not, at every level of the organization. This creates shared language, enables honest performance conversations, and gives leaders a concrete framework for recognition, development, and accountability.

A behaviors charter transforms culture from aspiration into architecture. It is the operational expression of values. The point at which culture becomes a management tool rather than a mood.

what belonging means for performance

The performance case for belonging is not anecdotal. When people feel that they belong, that the organization’s purpose resonates with them personally, and that its values reflect how they naturally want to operate, the results are consistently measurable: higher engagement, lower attrition, stronger collaboration, and faster collective decision-making.

In the t3® diagnostic, belonging frequently appears as the highest-scoring attribute in client assessments. This reflects a positive truth: most people want to believe in where they work. The opportunity for most organizations is not to create belonging from scratch, it is to be more deliberate about nurturing it, especially as organizations scale, restructure, or navigate change.

The warning signal is when purpose and values scores diverge from leadership behavior scores. In the diagnostic, questions such as “leaders in this business lead by example on the purpose and values” and “there is evidence of our values living and breathing in this organization” consistently score lower than the questions about belief in purpose and agreement with values. This gap matters. It tells you that people believe in what the organization stands for but they just are not seeing it modelled consistently. That is both a risk and an opportunity.

measuring belonging: the t3® diagnostic

Perpetual’s t3® diagnostic gives organizations a precise, quantitative picture of their cultural health. Belonging is assessed across six research-validated questions spanning both dimensions of the attribute (purpose and values) with scoring benchmarked against high-performing organizations.

* Sample scores from a real t3® diagnostic engagement. Target benchmark: 8.2 overall.

The pattern revealed in scores like these is instructive. Questions 3 and 4 — around the existence and personal alignment with values — often score highest. Questions 5 and 6 — around leadership modelling and evidence of values in practice — tend to score lower. This is the purpose-to-practice gap that Perpetual is built to close.

The diagnostic is designed to be administered at leadership team, functional team, or organizational level. Repeated over time, it tracks the direct impact of culture interventions, giving leaders the evidence they need to demonstrate return on their people development investments.

how perpetual helps

When client organizations come to Perpetual with engagement challenges, retention concerns, or a sense that culture is not keeping pace with their strategy, belonging is frequently where the work begins. Our approach is both diagnostic and design-led.

  • purpose discovery and articulation: we work with leadership teams to uncover and articulate a genuine organizational purpose — one that is rooted in the organization’s history and ambition, not manufactured for external audiences
  • north star and values design: we facilitate leadership workshops to define or sharpen the organization’s north star and translate values into concrete behavioral frameworks that guide how people operate day to day
  • behaviors charter development: we co-design charter frameworks that define what good and what unacceptable looks like against each value — creating the shared language that makes accountability real and recognition meaningful
  • culture activation: we help organizations embed purpose and values into the systems that matter most: hiring decisions, onboarding experiences, performance reviews, recognition programs, and leadership development
  • belonging audits: using the t3® diagnostic alongside qualitative insight, we measure where belonging is strong and where the purpose-to-practice gap is creating risk — then design targeted interventions to close it

the bottom line

Belonging is not a feel-good attribute. It is the cultural infrastructure that determines whether your organization can retain its best people, maintain performance through change, and build the kind of collective identity that competitors cannot replicate.

Organizations that invest deliberately in purpose, values, and behavioral clarity do not just feel better to work in. They perform better — consistently, measurably, and sustainably. The t3® diagnostic tells you where you stand. Perpetual helps you build what is missing. The journey from team to tribe runs through belonging.

Steve Morrissey | steve@beperpetual.com | beperpetual.com

about perpetual:

Perpetual is a team effectiveness and organizational design consultancy working with leadership teams across consumer goods and beyond. Our t3® framework and diagnostic are trusted by organizations committed to building high-performance cultures that execute.

Perpetual:  •  Executive Search  •  Leadership Development  •  Advisory  •  beperpetual.com

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