In Wardley Mapping, Purpose is “the game” being played. It defines the scope of what you are doing and why you are doing it. It may be a moral imperative or just what motivates you to come to work every day.
Purpose is the first step in Wardley’s strategy cycle, which is based on Sun Tzu’s five factors in the Art of War.
Without appreciating the importance of the other factors — Landscape, Climate, and Doctrine — it’s common to take a shortcut in the cycle, jumping straight from Purpose to Leadership. This is “strategy by gut feel,” and it leaves too much to luck.
Your purpose isn’t fixed, it changes as your landscape changes and as you act. There is no “core”, it’s all transitional.
–Simon Wardley