Start with Why: Purpose Workshop at LIZ

A workshop report from the other half of my work

I usually write about coaching here. This article is about my other role: business development at Lichtvision, the lighting design firm I co-founded in 1997. The two worlds are more closely connected than they appear, and that is exactly what this article is about.

Why a purpose workshop?

In late January 2026, we withdrew with the future leadership team of Lichtvision for two days at Paulinenhof in Bad Belzig. The reason: Lichtvision has existed for nearly 30 years. The company has grown, six locations worldwide, projects from the Pergamon Museum to Shanghai. But it is precisely in such phases that a question easily fades into the background: why do we do what we do?

In his book Start with Why, Simon Sinek described an observation that I see confirmed again and again in everyday business life: most companies can clearly state what they do. Many can explain how they do it, their methods, their processes, their differentiation. But only a few can articulate precisely why they do it. And this why, the purpose, is what attracts people, guides decisions in uncertain situations, and holds a team together when things get hard.

Sinek's Golden Circle model, Why at the centre, then How, then What, is strikingly simple. But the practical work on it is anything but simple. You cannot formulate a purpose at a desk. You have to work it out together. And specifically with the people who are supposed to live it.

Why I didn't facilitate it myself

This is where the connection to my coaching work comes in. As a systemic coach, I know: I cannot coach in systems in which I am myself a participant. That is not a theoretical limitation, it is a fundamental rule. Anyone who is part of the system has their own interests, blind spots and emotional entanglements. You cannot be a participant and a neutral process facilitator at the same time.

At Lichtvision I am not neutral. I am a co-founder, I helped build the company, I have an emotional connection to its history and an opinion about its future. All of that disqualifies me as a facilitator of a workshop on shared purpose. I could run it methodically, but the results would still be skewed.

So I brought in support.

Gilmar Wendt and the art of arriving at the why

Gilmar Wendt is the founder and chief strategist of GW+Co, an award-winning London-based strategy consultancy specialising in business transformation through collaborative design. I have known Gilmar since my time at Zumtobel AG, he had already done impressive work there. His clients include companies such as Yale and PayPal.

What sets Gilmar apart is his methodical approach: he brings a structured process that draws the answers out of the team instead of supplying them. He brings together people from different functions and hierarchical levels and creates a frame in which honest conversations about identity, direction and ambition become possible. Exactly what a purpose workshop needs.

Two days at Paulinenhof

Paulinenhof in Bad Belzig, a historic four-sided courtyard, 45 minutes from Berlin, was a deliberate choice. Away from the office, away from daily routines, into a space that allows for concentration and openness.

The participants were the future leadership team of Lichtvision, the generation that will lead the company over the coming decades. The point was deliberately not to involve only the founders or the current management. The point was that the people who will shape the future also help define the purpose.

Over two days, we worked out together:

Purpose, Why does Lichtvision exist? Not the service, not the projects, but the deeper drive. What moves us to get up every morning and shape spaces with light? What would be lost if Lichtvision didn't exist?

Mission, What do we concretely do? The translation of purpose into action-oriented statements. What do we deliver, for whom, and how do we differentiate ourselves?

Vision, Where are we going? The picture of the future. Where does Lichtvision stand in five, in ten years? Described as what we want to have achieved, beyond revenue targets.

From purpose, mission and vision we then derived concrete strands of action, measures and projects that translate the strategic direction into operational reality.

What I learn from the dual role

This workshop showed me again why the dual role, coach and head of business development, is not a contradiction, but mutually enriching.

As a coach, I bring the conviction that sustainable results only emerge when people are involved. That a purpose dictated from above is not lived. That the method matters more than the facilitator's opinion. All of that made the workshop at Lichtvision better: I knew what a good process should look like and brought in the right expert for it, instead of facilitating it myself.

As head of business development at Lichtvision, I in turn bring the experience that grounds my coaching: I know what it feels like to build a company, to navigate through crises, to hold a team together over decades. I know what purpose means in practice, and what happens when it is missing.

Simon Sinek says: people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. That applies not only to customers. It applies to employees, to partners, to your own leadership team. And it applies to the question of why someone gets up in the morning and goes to work, at Lichtvision or in any other organisation.

Knowing your own purpose isn't a marketing exercise. It is leadership work.