‘Meaningful Work’ isn’t lofty, it’s local
Making Meaning Work in Organisations
The zeitgeist knows that meaning matters. Organisations and leaders are increasingly investing time and energy in articulating their identity in a way that genuinely connects with employees’ hearts and minds. Whilst there are lots of different ways to do this, compelling identity has to include some expression of: why we are here (purpose), where we are headed (vision), how do we do things (values), where we will focus (strategy), and what we will measure (targets). I’m a big fan of organisations that find a simple, coherent, and motivating way of pulling this all together into something that can be scribbled on a napkin or explained in a casual conversation. But if we want to unlock the power of meaning in organisations this is the beginning not the end.
Don’t get lost in the lofty, we live in the local
Sometimes senior leaders miss an important point: the “big picture” has extra motivating force for them because it’s also closely connected to their day-to-day. Feeling deeply connected to something is connected to having personal agency, so it’s understandable (inevitable) that further down the organisation the macro isn’t enough.
As well as a Lofty Us (“I feel connected to our big picture”), people need a Local Us (“I feel connected to what is right in front of me”). As well as a tribe you need a family. I saw an academic look at this via psychologist @alexanderhaslam
“leaders help to promote health and well-being in the workplace by creating and developing a sense of shared identity among those they lead”
And it’s echoed in this article with the suggestion that “People leave managers, not companies”.
So what can we do?
We need anyone who is responsible for people to realise that part of their job is meaning making. Not parroting the big picture, but engaging with the same questions on a local level: Why we are here? Where we are headed? How do we do things? Where we will focus? What we will measure?
In an ideal world the big picture stuff (purpose, vision, strategy etc) is simple and clear and managers can translate this for local teams. But that’s the exception rather than the rule — often big picture questions get fluffed, forced, or simply cant stretch across everything an organisation does. When what is served up by senior leaders is not motivating or helpful enough, we don’t want meaning to lay down and die. We need local leaders to feel the imperative to construct and shape meaning for those around them. This gets teams connecting more deeply and feeling a sense of meaning in their work.
At Let’s Go our focus is helping get local collaborative teams work better by provoking these conversations at the project level — our model is proving helpful to 1000s of leaders across banking, telecoms, NGOs and pharmaceuticals. But more important than any particular model or approach, is that you don’t get lost in thinking about lofty meaning. Because meaning is most powerful when it’s local.
And it seems that, when we do this, the benefits are felt through the whole organisation. You get to the macro benefit by building strong local teams.
“Cooperation flourishes best when each individual has strong, reciprocated connections to a small number of others. In this case, cooperation spreads locally, along these connections, leading to clusters of cooperators who share benefits with each other.”
So, what meaningful conversations do you need to encourage?
