Everyone knows the story of when John F Kennedy visited the NASA space centre that was to later bear his name, and his encounter there with a janitor carrying a broom.

When the President asked what he did for NASA, the janitor responded:, "I’m helping to put a man on the Moon."

I suspect the same janitor couldn’t have foreseen that so profound would his reply be regarded that it would become one of those iconic quotes cited by thousands of management consultants around the world when invited to teach organisations about their own purpose.

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The fact we don’t know the janitor’s name tells us the chat in the corridor probably never happened but the underlying vision conjured up by the tale is of someone who clearly understood his role in a complex structure and how he contributed to its ultimate goal.

All of our public sector leaders will have been on myriads of courses where they will have been exposed to countless and often misquoted quotes, including no doubt that of the fabled janitor.

I wonder just how many come away from them with a clearer understanding of their own purpose, and how many come away looking at niches to carve for themselves that are millions of miles removed from the reason the organisation they work for exists at all.

Today as we await the Supreme

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