The “Make Meaningful Work” Lab

From Sleepwalking to Sparkle

Background

Projects are part of a larger system we call “work”.

People want to spend more time on meaningful work and with teams who are engaged in making that happen. Projects where people’s skills and practice strengths are working well together to encourage people to learn, improve and thrive.

People spend considerable amounts of their time at work in projects that have little value by getting lost in the noise, speed and deliverables of the day to day work that we forget about why we are working on a project in the first place.

This results in feeling purposeless, stressed, unhealthy and in a state of “sleepwalking”.

So how can individuals and teams get better at:

Listening and reflecting on project stories as a first practice to then harvest other practices hidden from view, to contribute to a primary intention of wellness for individuals, communities and economies for an enlightened future society?

Sometimes you need to switch the radio off and listen intentionally and be aware of the current context without any additional distractions. This contributes to SPARKLE.

SPARKLE is to Seed and Practice to improve Attitudes to Reflect and Knit the capabilities & domains together to Learn & Evolve for better now and futures.

How can we help “Make Meaningful Work?”

To help answer this question we have created this lab to explore the following:

What is the future you want to create?

A place where individuals actively contribute to improving the wellness of their own and neighbours lives by:

• Creating an ecosystem that encourages people to thrive.
• Identifying critical practices to help people do the work that matters and to live purposeful lives.
• Creating trusted and supportive environments for continuous learning.
• Iterating and defining meaning for individuals, teams, organisations and communities as we reframe better nows and futures.

How do you track progress?

By taking individuals and teams on a “Make Meaningful Work” journey as informed by practices that will live in products and services including a framework, book, curriculum and a series of smaller learning events that will lead up to a kick off event in 2020. The journey includes helping people to :

• Wake up to see
• Confront boundaries
• Connect a few dots
• Sustain learning.

As part of that journey for individuals and teams we will:

• Log frustrations at in project stories at work today that block meaning
• Develop a Journal to log practices in the project stories
• Use a library of project stories to help harvest practices to share with communities
• Develop a Meaning Garden to demonstrate shared value
• Provide a Learning Portfolio to sustain practice of practices to nurture meaning and continuous learning.

How are you doing so far?

We have spent 5 years writing, speaking, traveling and defining and validating a framework. We now have a committed core team we call the “Sparkle Team” to help us develop a proposition and supporting products to support the framework in the lead up to “Make Meaningful Work 2020" and for the next 10 years beyond that.

So we are now bridging framework and proposition into products and services.

What are you NOT doing?

We could definitely be writing more about the project publicly but this will slowly ramp up as we head to a key event in the year 2020 titled “Make Meaningful Work” and as we collect years of thoughts into a book.

What have you learned so far?

People are busy whereby that are not able to look ahead. And that this busy mindset is contributing to tension and frustration.

People are also experiencing breakdowns in the current systems socially, politically and economically but are not sure they can do anything about it.

We have observed that by helping people share their project stories, this helps them vent their frustrations and also discover practices hidden from view that can connect to their own and others “meaning canvas”.

How can you help others?

By providing a space for people to share project stories in reference to time, context and other people and to help structure this in a way for people to practice practices and identify a learning plan for individuals and teams.

This will help people not just focus on the now but to also consider a few steps down the road to see futures and to know that they have a contribution in that.

What help do you need?

We are open to hearing from people who wish to share project stories as a contribution to answering how can we “Make Meaningful Work?” and as a way to harvest practices to contribute to a practice library.

This practice library will be made available to individuals and teams who are interested in creating shared meaning as a way to connect and bridge boundaries to then work on imminent problems facing the world today.

Sparkle Sessions

We are constantly running what we call “Sparkle Sessions” that encourage teach, learn, make, practice, reflect and action moments.

We need #sparkle to Seed and Practice to improve Attitudes to Reflect and Knit the capabilities & domains together to Learn & Evolve for better now and futures.

Lab Leaders — Dan Szuc & Jo Wong

Daniel Szuc and Josephine Wong — cofounders of “Make Meaningful Work”

Welcome to contact us at dszuc@apogeehk.com and you can follow project progress via “Make Meaningful Work”