Because work is tribal

Your organization wants to make the world a better place.

Parse this carefully. It’s not enough that the world be a better place. What your organization wants is to be the one that makes the world a better place.

Suppose some other organization comes along and makes the world a better place in much the same way that your organization had imagined.

That would be no good at all.

The other organization would profit and your organization would lose.

The other organization’s employees would be paid and your organization’s employees would be laid off.

Seen in this light, making the world a better place is incidental, except insofar as it allows your organization to thrive.

It’s your tribe against all the other tribes out there, fighting for survival.