The State of Meaningful Work

Early in the conversation Kemba shared the insight that creativity flourishes in organizations that have a deep sense of purpose. The fast feedback cycles in the House of Representatives help create a shared sense of purpose that reinforces creativity, as they quickly get to hear and see if their constituents like the proposed polices.

Allison, Head of Diversity and Social Responsibility at an innovative private equity firm, shared the story of President John F. Kennedy visiting NASA for the first time and encountering a janitor in the hallways: When asked by the President “What do you do here?” The janitor replied “I’m helping to put a man on the moon.” Conveying how an organization was able to clearly connect its purpose to even the humblest contributor.

With most of our organizations not being NASA when it’s mission was era-defining and its importance was broadcast by the President, the story prompted a discussion of how we can similarly create this connection to a higher sense of purpose between the individual and our own organizations.

Story itself became a theme: Stories can convey emotion, much more than facts. These emotions can bind and convince members of their contribution to the greater goals of the organization. More time and resources should be spent helping develop these skills, as they are needed to have motivating managers, the key link between leaders and front-line staff. If managers can tell great stories, the manager quality increases and the organization comes closer to the individual’s association with the greater good, similarly to what JFK’s NASA story conveyed.

If companies create work that is narrative based it will create “unfair advantages” in employee engagement, motivation, and connecting organizational purpose to the individual. It is a truism that Allison highlighted that we would all do well to remember.  We need to think deeply on how we can create work that is narrative based, share those stories, and embed them in our own organizations.

At this point, a question came from the audience about how you can bring purpose to more transactional jobs. This brought answers such as redrafting the job structure; trying to reshape the job and team to be able to create the whole product, rather than a component; and the, somewhat, provocative idea that organizations should be more democratic and allow transactional-based workers to have more say and autonomy in how their jobs are defined. Agreement coalesced around how all of our organizations need leaders who listen.

Our fantastic moderator, Seth Green, chimed in with the point that Loyola University of Chicago created the Baumhart Scholars MBA, the first MBA to focus on marrying purpose and profit. Something I wasn’t aware of, and very pleased to see that someone had courage to create such a program that presents a different worldview to the typical MBA.
[Btw, if you ever find yourself sitting on a panel with Seth as the moderator, you are in good, good hands. He’s absolutely top class]

Given the times, the conversation moved on to remote work and how to provide meaning to team members you can’t easily see. Dr. Vivian Greentree made the comment that “Work is no longer separate from home.” Extending the idea that organization and leaders who listen, need to remove obstacles blocking members from feeling that they are a part of something bigger, finishing with the importance of acknowledgement.