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MEANING AT THE CORE: Work

The struggle for existence is a struggle “for” something; it is purposeful, and only in so being is it meaningful and able to bring meaning into life.¹ (V. Frankl)

We often separate our work lives from our personal lives but, in reality, they are intertwined. Our work lives take our time and energy and often dictate where we live, where we travel, and how we use our financial resources. Frequently, we bring the conflict we have experienced at work into our personal lives, and vice versa. When we consider the amount of time we spend “at work” (both paid and unpaid, such as volunteering), it should not be surprising that the search for meaning at work is—or at least it should be—an important concern. Whether we run a company, drive a bus, cook a meal, clean a hotel room, or help the sick and homeless, our work is a reflection of the presence or absence of meaning in our lives. In many, if not most, of our client engagements, when we ask people to share the most meaningful thing that happened in their lives in the last three months, interestingly, more than 90 percent of responses represent experiences from their personal lives, not their work lives. Very few participants seem to believe—or at least are not aware—that their work is or can be a source of meaning. Others simply hope that their work will provide meaning, but they don’t know how to access this meaning.

We believe that there is a crisis of meaning in the workplace. We’ve encountered many people who have shared with us that they feel something is missing: they are stressed at work, unsure how they fit with the group’s or organization’s overall purpose, irritated by their coworkers’ lack of empathy and trust, and overall feel disconnected and not fully engaged. The root causes of this lack of meaning are varied. Here are a few insights from our research, interviews, and experience at the Global Meaning Institute:

• Workers often bring the lack of meaning from their personal lives into the workplace. They may not really know what they want in life, so they just put in time at their current jobs, taking the paycheck but not caring about the work, coworkers, or the organization. They may be suffering from exhaustion, dealing with issues in their personal lives (such as divorce, the excessive demands of childcare or caring for elders, or various health issues), leaving them with little energy to devote to and engage with their work.

• Younger workers face their own lack of meaning in the workplace, often exacerbated by the gap between their expectations and the reality they experience. They often suffer difficulties transitioning from school into the workplace and are overwhelmed by the new demands that are placed on them. Younger workers have told us that they thought work would be more fun and a lot easier. Working for eight hours straight is difficult for those who have limited attention spans given their upbringings in high-stimuli, fast-paced environments. They often don’t have the patience to see a task through to its end, saying that they are bored, asking for more varied assignments than most organizations can offer, especially for entry-level jobs. Today’s youth are attracted to more flexible work arrangements that provide the freedom to complete the work in the way they find most appealing. Some shun the traditional hierarchy found in many organizations. Many young workers don’t want to work under stifling “command and control” rules and regulations that they feel result in a loss of individualism. For many young workers, their life experiences (for example, being asked at a young age which movie or restaurant they would like to go to, or simply co-creating a coffee drink at Starbucks) have taught them that they should expect to be equal participants in decision making, but this is not offered in most workplaces. Younger workers have complained to us that they want more access to the leaders and are disappointed when the leaders don’t ask for or listen to their ideas. Many younger workers want promotions and feel that they are ready to take on leadership roles, but these roles are proving difficult to attain given that many organizations have eliminated middle management roles and hollowed out their organizations by outsourcing jobs. In addition, many older workers are not leaving their positions or retiring until older, setting up another potential clash between the generations.

• Older workers have complained to us that they resent the lack of respect they sense from younger workers if they are not tech savvy. They say they feel like they don’t belong in the youth-oriented workplaces and miss the stability of the “way we used to do it around here.” Older workers feel pressured to always be “on,” having to constantly check email and perhaps make decisions before they feel ready. They especially resent spending too much time away from their family and friends.

• Many workers, both young and old, feel that the work is meaningless, lacking purpose. Innovation projects, which should be exciting to work on, feel like just another task that needs to be completed. Many workers have told us that there is far too much focus on the financial status of the organization and not enough on the “human side of work.” Many are tired of the “games,” the conflict, and the bureaucracy.

• There is also a loss of meaning as the relationship between the organization and the worker becomes more tentative. Many organizations, with the objective of lowering overhead costs and gaining more flexibility, are decreasing the number of full-time jobs and shifting the work to part-time or contract jobs, outsourcing jobs, or simply laying off workers and doing more with less. Workers, in response, have less loyalty to one organization, choosing instead to focus on short-term engagements and then move on. It’s not surprising that there are lower levels of worker engagement under these scenarios. If an organization is less committed to its workers, then workers will be less committed to the organization.

• Many people we’ve interviewed have questioned why they should be committed to leaders, when these leaders seemed to be so focused on getting as much as they can get from the organization. There are many cases of leaders earning excessive amounts of money. For example, at Oracle, executive chairman Larry Ellison’s compensation package was around $100 million, roughly equal to three thousand times a minimum worker’s paycheck.² (Of course, many people in the entertainment industry and sports figures also earn excessive amounts of money.) Workers are told that the organization’s stock price is skyrocketing, but unfortunately many workers don’t own any company stock. They see their leaders drive a Lexus or Tesla into the company parking lot, daily reminders of the inequality. Is it any wonder that some workers end up emulating their leader’s behavior, feeling like they deserve more and attempting to take as much as they can?

Disengagement

The evidence of this crisis of meaning is showing up in the low engagement scores commonly found in numerous employee surveys. The Gallup Organization, which has been studying engagement since the 1990s, has reported that only about 30 percent of the nation’s workers are fully engaged in their jobs. Alarmingly, these studies have shown us that the number of disengaged employees outnumbers the engaged employees. Based on its research, the Gallup Organization identified three types of employees along a continuum of engagement:

1. Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the company forward (roughly 30 percent of workers).

2. Disengaged employees are essentially checked out. They are sleepwalking through their workday, putting time—but not energy or passion—into their work (roughly 52 percent of workers).

3. Actively disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work; they are busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish (roughly 18 percent of workers).³

According to Gallup, these engagement figures have remained relatively flat over the past five years, despite all of the well-intended engagement investment initiatives that organizations have made.⁴

Other results from Mercer’s What’s Working Survey of thirty thousand workers in seventeen countries echo these alarming disengaged numbers. According to Mercer, nearly one in three workers (32 percent) in the United States were seriously considering leaving the organization; another 21 percent view their employers unfavorably and have low scores on engagement and commitment.⁵ In a global study conducted across industries by Steelcase, more than onethird of workers in seventeen of the world’s most important economies were found to be disengaged. One of the disturbing questions raised in this study was whether disengaged workers were, in effect, canceling out the efforts being made by engaged workers.⁶

With more than half of the U.S. workforce not engaged (including senior leaders, whose level of disengagement is also high), our workplaces are in trouble. This means that people are not working up to their potential, perhaps showing up for work but exerting little effort, wasting time, slowing projects, and not really caring whether the organization is reaching its goals. Some employees may pass work onto others, sabotage innovation and improvement initiatives, or even steal inventory, supplies, or money. Their negative attitudes can affect the rest of the group, creating a toxic environment for others.⁷ They may even not show up for work, claiming fake illnesses or disabilities. These employees stay for the paycheck and the benefits, but their negative or even neutral attitudes affect the whole organization. The level of employee engagement predicts how well an organization performs. Some analysts have concluded that ultimately it adds up to about a 22 percent difference in profitability when top quartile business units (with the most engaged employees) are compared to the bottom quartile (with the least engaged employees). Moreover, Gallup has estimated that the lower productivity of actively disengaged workers costs the U.S. economy about $328 billion.⁸ The additional costs of turnover—the loss of knowledge, potential lower customer satisfaction scores, and training efforts for new employees—contribute to the challenges facing organizations with low engagement scores.

The issue of meaningful engagement is not simply a matter of concern for corporations and other business enterprises in the private sector. On the contrary, this issue reaches across all sectors and industries. Leaders in health-care organizations, for example, are increasingly interested in ways to meaningfully engage employees because both disengaged and actively disengaged workers in health-care settings have an especially negative impact on the quality and costs of service—two issues that are central to health-care reform.⁹ According to Forbes, engagement is still the number-one concern, with 87 percent of companies surveyed considering culture and engagement to be their top priorities.¹⁰ In their attempts to increase engagement, many human resource departments are implementing such benefits as health care and well-being programs, telecommuting, flextime, job sharing, paid paternity and adoption leaves, continuing education, coaching, retirement planning, time off for volunteering, free food, standing desks, and even allowing pets at work. While some of these programs result in increased employee satisfaction scores, many do not. As we see from the Gallup and similar surveys, the level of engagement among U.S. companies has remained stubbornly low. It’s time to try a new approach!

Meaning at the Core

The focus on engagement is not the best place to start, however. We need to get to the root cause of the engagement problem and that root cause is the lack of meaning. The failure to enlist employees in meaning is the root of most engagement issues. It is a key reason why many innovation initiatives are difficult to sustain and fail in the end. Our research and field experience in innovation management have shown that these initiatives are often not rooted in a meaningful goal, so employees see them as just another task.

There needs to be a deeper understanding of what Viktor Frankl referred to as the “primary, intrinsic motivation of human beings”—the search for meaning. Pay raises, incentives, special perks and programs are all extrinsic—they come from the outside. We need to start with the intrinsic motivators, those that originate within the individual. True engagement begins with personal meaning, understanding ourselves (our interests, talents, and motivations), before we move onto understanding the meaning of actual work, including how we contribute to it and what affect the work has on others within the organization and for society as a whole. If we can connect with the deeper meaning within ourselves and the deeper meaning of our work, we will be more engaged. In short, meaning before engagement!

Figure 4. Core of Meaning.®

Our meaning work at the Global Meaning Institute has demonstrated that starting with and working from the core of meaning is the main driver behind engagement and resilience, health and well-being, and performance and innovation (Figure 4). For example, the outdoor clothing and gear company Patagonia is focused on two things: building the best products possible and causing no harm. The business inspires and implements solutions for the environmental cause. Everyone working with Patagonia understands the deeper meaning of the organization and, through this awareness, can find meaning in their own work. Patagonia’s Footprint Chronicles and Common Thread initiative help to further reinforce this understanding and build trust and meaningful engagement among employees. When tough times arise, workers can remind themselves of the greater meaning of their work and thus build resilience.

Understanding why we do what we do also improves our ability to manage stress. When we identify the meaning of our work, we increase the energy we have, enhancing our levels of well-being and health. Higher performance and innovation can be achieved through a meaning-centered approach to work. Apple is an example of an organization dedicated to helping others find deeper meaning by exploring and expressing their own creativity. Vancity, one of the largest credit unions in North America, is focused on contributing to its members’ and employees’ sense of meaning through its community leadership and social well-being initiatives, which are reinforced by the organization’s aspirational slogan “Make good money.” An increasing number of people are questioning the meaning of their work. They want to know, as with life itself, that their work truly matters and that they are making a difference—to themselves, for others, and even for the larger community or society.

We can find the meaning in our work, no matter what the circumstances. We can find meaning cleaning dirty bathrooms or hotel rooms, in rewriting a document over and over again, in bringing food to a restaurant table of rowdy college students, or in flying an airplane full of irate passengers who are upset that the flight is behind schedule. In the workplace we can either choose actively to look for and find meaning, or we can see our jobs as something outside our “real” lives. If we choose the latter, we cheat ourselves out of an enormous amount of life experience. Even if we think we hate our jobs, by stopping long enough to connect what we are doing to our broader relationship to meaning, we can find rewards. The question, of course, is do we want to make such a meaningful connection?

Meaning at work is not a luxury. It can be what inspires us to get through the day. A national Work/Life Survey conducted for Philips North America in May 2013 found that American workers were even willing to take a pay cut for more personally meaningful jobs/careers that, among other things, would allow them to create a legacy in life through work and be deeply engaged while doing it.¹¹ So how do we find the meaning of our work and the meaning in our workplaces? We return to MEANINGology and the OPA! Formula for Meaning to provide a valuable framework and practical tools for understanding and finding deeper meaning at work. Our meaning-centered formula, which was introduced in chapter 10, “Meaning at the Core: Life,” involves three core elements: connect meaningfully with others (O), engage with deeper purpose (P), and embrace life with attitude (A). Let’s apply the OPA! formula to the challenge of finding meaning at work.

Connect Meaningfully with Others (O)

How we interact with others at work can provide meaning throughout our day. Meaning can be found anywhere. Recall the story of the bus driver, Winston, profiled in chapter 7, who saw each bus-driving moment and each passenger as an opportunity for a meaningful connection. Even though his customers pass fleetingly through his life, Winston found meaning through the experience of sharing his day with others. In the thinking of Viktor Frankl, this is an illustration of “realizing experiential values”—an important source of meaning.¹²

Most people we have interviewed through our meaning work, including our clients who represent a broad range of backgrounds and working environments, want to be meaningfully connected to the people with whom they work. Most want to feel a sense of belonging to the collective “village,” which is an integral part of the OPA! Formula for Meaning. Many told us they want to belong at work because they didn’t feel a sense of community or “village” in other areas of their lives. They want kinder, more humane workplaces where they have the opportunity to connect with, care about, and appreciate others; in turn, they hope others will care about and appreciate them. Some people felt that they were not being honored as equal members of their work community, feeling that they were carrying more than their fair share of the workload and not being recognized or rewarded for their contributions.

As we see in the Core of Meaning figure (above), meaning is the foundation for building the culture of any organization. Everything shapes this meaning culture—the words that are used, the stories that are told, the expectations of how work is to be performed, the style of leadership, the “games” people play, the gossip that is allowed to circulate, how promotions and praise are given, how negative behavior is dealt with, how changes in direction are explained, and so on. Meaning takes place in the context of how this community is built each day. Simple things, like referring to the group gathering as “creating a sense of community” instead of the typical “cross-functional offsite,” signals to everyone that the goal of the gathering is to bring people together, to build a community with a shared purpose. Every job contributes in some way to the organization. The value of the individual and his or her contribution is recognized. If we treat others like they make a difference, they will. Importantly, this kind of recognition strengthens the ties that bind individual contributors together and fosters a spirit of community that otherwise would not be possible. Building on Viktor Frankl’s System of Logotherapy, this interpretation takes us back to its root word, logos, which (as we pointed out in chapter 2) has deep spiritual and profound practical implications for understanding the nature of human motivations.

Creating the work village can be more of a challenge when the size of the organization is large and, especially, when the village is mobile or virtual. Authentic connections are harder to form when we don’t know the people with whom we are supposed to work and when we don’t have face-to-face experiences with them. With organizations shifting to new, flexible design platforms where a core group of people set the goals and coordinate the work, with the rest being contract or freelancers contributing their unique skills, it is more of a challenge to find shared meaning. Such efforts as using online visual communication tools like Skype put a “face to the name.” Some organizations are creating a virtual village with online video profiles of group members. These efforts represent small ways to create a more humanistic community. As human beings, at our core we are wired for relationships, so anything we can do to show that we care about connecting with others is a step in the right direction.

Top-down innovation, where the senior managers are responsible for identifying all innovation initiatives, might have been a good approach in the past when markets were more stable, but with the volatility and complexity of today’s markets, a more inclusive and collaborative approach is needed. Creating a meaning-centered culture involves inviting everyone to offer their innovative insights and ideas to help the organization reach its goals. Besides, most employees want to have more input into shaping the direction and the decisions that are being made. As we know from our twenty-plus years working in innovation management, innovation must happen at all levels of an organization. Creating a meaning-centered culture means creating a safe environment where all employees (as well as external partners) feel free to provide input. We also need to address the paradox facing many leaders who ask employees for new ideas and to “think outside the box” but then hold on tightly to old organizational structures and processes that were built solely for efficiency and control.

So who is responsible for creating the meaning-centered culture? It is interesting to note that some of the questions from well-known engagement surveys seem to focus only on what the organization can do for the employee, eliciting responses such as “My supervisor seems to care about me as a person,” “There is someone at work who encourages my development,” and “In the last week, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.” These types of questions reinforce the expectation that the leaders or managers in the organization are solely responsible for creating the culture of meaning. This is the wrong approach. All participants must realize that they are an integral part and are responsible for creating the meaning-centered culture. We need to leave our self-centeredness behind and reach out to appreciate everyone’s role in creating the whole village.

Engaging with Deeper Purpose (P)

It all starts with meaning. When I (Elaine) was asked to speak about creating meaningful innovation at Mayo Clinic, I didn’t realize that the event would have such a profound effect on . . . me! Mayo Clinic, well known for its advanced medical care, did what I believe is a rare occurrence at many organizational conferences—they brought in two of their “customers,” a husband and wife who both were cancer patients being treated at Mayo. The couple spoke candidly about their upset and fear upon hearing their individual diagnoses, their trepidation about having to face numerous medical procedures, and the pain they endured. What was remarkable about their stories was how much respect and love they had for the Mayo staff. At all stages of the experience, the staff seemed to have created a healing environment not just for these two but also for their Mayo coworkers. They seemed to know that working at Mayo was an opportunity to share meaning with all people, not just the patients. From the admissions department to in-patient treatment to aftercare, meaning was found at all stages of the process. After the husband and wife finished speaking, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room, mine included.

Perhaps it may seem easier to see the direct line to meaning in a health-care setting. But this need not be the case if an employee understands the overall purpose of the work and can see the meaning in what they do individually. For example, a worker at an online fulfillment center, such as Amazon, might connect to the meaning behind packing a birthday present for a child, packing a book for enlightenment and learning, or simply saving people money so they can live better. A receptionist might find meaning in directing people to the right office, in lessening the stress of office visitors, or in coordinating the flow of paperwork to help others. A funeral director might connect to the meaning of helping people deal with the shock of death. Even in what could be considered the mundane job of flipping burgers, meaning could be found in serving food to people on the run or in helping people on a budget still experience the joy of eating out.

What matters most is that an employee find the link between the overall purpose of the organization and how that purpose helps them discover meaning for themselves. Unfortunately, many organizations do not know what their purpose is, other than making money. They lose track of the reason the organization exists. When a clear purpose is missing, or if the leaders of an organization fail to communicate and develop a common understanding of what the purpose is to all employees, employees don’t know what is expected of them and they have to check in all the time to see if they are making the right decisions. If employees don’t know how their work is connected to and contributes to the bigger picture, they can’t see themselves as an essential part of the organization. They won’t feel that they matter or that the work that they do matters. Leaders should not take for granted that people will see this connection or that people understand what the organization needs them to do and why.

For us, an organization’s purpose (the reason for doing something) and its mission (an important assignment) are closely related. We call this overlap the meaning mission. All organizations need to clarify their meaning missions, which drive the entire organization. Some organizations have strong meaning missions: Starbucks’s mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time. Hallmark’s meaning mission is to celebrate life’s little moments, Southwest Airlines’s mission is to democratize air travel, Trader Joe’s mission is to bring joy and enthusiasm to the customer experience, and Johnson & Johnson’s mission is to alleviate pain and suffering. We have defined meaning as the resonance with our core essence or true nature. These meaning mission statements help clarify the core essence or true nature of these organizations. Most important, the meaning mission must be authentic. We once worked with an organization whose mission was stated as “helping people eat healthier,” but we were dismayed when the company proudly revealed its new product of the year—a type of processed, sugary, high-calorie dessert!

Many organizations are undergoing major transformations that are humanizing the workforce and focusing on the deeper meaning of the work itself. As technology takes over the routine aspects of an organization, the need for a stronger focus on meaning and also on stronger leadership skills grows. Every organization is a dynamic, social process—not a static organizational chart or structure. Great leaders understand the human side of work and, most important, why meaning must be the foundation for the enterprise. As Donald Berwick, MD, a health-care improvement expert and former administrator in charge of the Medicare and Medicaid programs in the United States, so wisely said: “The leader who thinks that it is enough to create report cards and contingent rewards misses the biggest and hardest opportunity of leadership itself—to help people discover and celebrate the meaning in their work. . . . We know that the magic is in the meaning.”¹³

As Viktor Frankl taught, the will to meaning is the most fundamental of human motivations. We believe further that the fundamental role of leadership is to help people find and connect to the deeper meaning of their work. A leader does so first by tapping into the deeper meaning of their own work and, then, by creating the conditions that enable others to search for meaning in their work. In other words, leaders must lead with and to meaning. In essence, the leader’s number-one job is to champion meaning in the organization, which will drive engagement and resilience, health and well-being, and performance and innovation to higher levels. Against this backdrop, we call for organizations to replace the typical management hierarchy and conventional leadership paradigm with this philosophy of “meaning-centric leadership.” Meaning, in this regard, should be in every leader’s job description, and an integral part of everyone’s performance review, to ensure that it remains central to the organization’s identity and meaning mission.¹⁴

Leaders can activate people to feel more fully alive and unlock their talents first by understanding how each employee finds meaning. The next step is to help their employees strengthen this meaning by seeing how their work is congruent with their personal goals. By doing so, a leader can help others see their work in a larger context than just the tasks that need to be done. One size does not fit all, however. It is important to know what inspires each employee, their goals, and their styles; some want to work alone on routine projects and simply to get better, others enjoy their coworkers but perhaps enjoy less the actual work, others still might want to take on more responsibility and become leaders themselves. A strong leader helps everyone identify their own individual paths to meaning.

A fundamental part of engaging with deeper purpose is to know thyself. It takes time and effort to question, reflect, and know authentically who we are—not what others want us to be. It takes time to discover what really matters to us, what excites us, what is meaningful. More and more people are raising their expectations of how work should align with their personal values, interests, and talents. They want meaningful work that engages their talents in something they believe in, using their uniqueness and creativity to help others. Too often, people are focused on the question, What job/career should I have? This is not the right question. The question should be, What is my core essence or true nature? Once we know this, we can build our life and work around this knowledge and unleash our full potential.

Embrace Life with Attitude (A)

The meaning of our work is not limited to the tasks we do, the products we produce, the services we deliver, or the buildings in which we collaborate. Rather, the meaning of our work involves what essentially are metaphysical aspects—that is, the “energy” created when two or more people come together and interact. In this regard, meaning at work must consider the spirit, not just the mind and body, of each person involved in the interaction. All of these human dimensions are interrelated, and each contributes in significant and practical ways to the meaning or lack of meaning that we sense.

Öystein Skalleberg, the founder of Skaltek, a major equipment manufacturer based in Stockholm, Sweden, provides a great example of an organization that honors the human spirit at work. Skalleberg’s formula for building a company culture involves the saying: “Confidence is the start of it, joy is a part of it, love is the heart of it.” The company doesn’t use job titles, avoiding conferring privileged status on certain people. Each employee’s business card carries only pertinent contact information along with a photo. Once, when Skalleberg was asked about this policy on job titles, he responded that if he were to give his employees a job title, it would be something like “Leonardo da Vinci or Unlimited Possibilities” rather than the job titles used by most companies. He believes that “every human being is a Leonardo da Vinci. The only problem is that he doesn’t know it. His parents didn’t know it, and they didn’t treat him like a Leonardo. Therefore he didn’t become like a Leonardo. That’s my basic theory.”¹⁵ In addition, all workers who help build a machine add their individual signature to the final product. In this way there is a direct line from everyone involved in product development to the customer as well as an emphasis on total quality management that is completely transparent. An even more radical practice at Skaltek is an annual employee appraisal process that involves the use of randomly selected performance review teams. According to Skalleberg, since no one knows who will be conducting their performance review each year, “Everybody smiles in all directions!”

The late Anita Roddick, founder of the cosmetics and skin care company The Body Shop, argued that all people really want is to be alive in the workplace.¹⁶ Work often gives us a chance to express our opinions and our unique creativity. When it does, it gives us energy. When it doesn’t or when we worry excessively, we lose energy. All of us need to better understand what gives us energy and what depletes our energy. In addition, we should try to do things that, as Roddick suggested, make us feel “alive” at work.

The results of a recent global review of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) by Workplace Options, described as the world’s largest integrated employee support services and work-life provider, showed an unfortunate increase of nearly 50 percent in total depression, stress, and anxiety cases over three years (2012–2014).¹⁷ Many people report feeling stressed often and very often. Research has shown that chronic stress at work can lead to physical illness or exacerbate already existing health-related conditions. This kind of unhealthy relationship between stress and work doesn’t stop at the office or workplace. Indeed, the spillover effects can be toxic in one’s home and personal life. Employee mental health, of course, is an issue that impacts the ultimate success of every organization. Such a dramatic increase in the number of employees reporting serious mental and emotional health concerns underscores the need to make well-being, and specifically meaning, a top organizational priority.

The loss of energy in spirit, mind, and body is often rooted in fear, rigidity, and a tendency to see scarcity in life, rather than abundance or the bright side of life. By embracing a broader perspective and being more flexible, by focusing on what we want and have instead of what we don’t want and don’t have, we can improve our resilience and bounce back from setbacks or challenges more quickly and effectively. As Viktor Frankl taught us, we all have the ultimate freedom to choose our attitude and create a different experience for ourselves. In one of our client engagements, we recall speaking with a senior business executive who, although he had an incredibly successful career, was never satisfied with his accomplishments because he hadn’t reached the level of CEO (chief executive officer). No matter how much success he had, this executive always focused on the gap. We recommended that he reflect seriously on the lesson and the deeper meaning that this work situation might be trying to teach him. Perhaps not reaching the pinnacle he envisioned for himself allowed him to experience other more important things in life. Perhaps by letting go of his obsession on the gap, which could be a sign of paradoxical intention in which he was actually working against himself (see Principle 4 in chapter 6), he might make room for new adventures to enter his life. Above all, we told him that if he would let go, he might see that he was not a victim (or prisoner) of his circumstances after all; at the very least, he always had the freedom to choose his attitude toward any given situation even if he could not change it.

Our capacity to embrace all of life with attitude is a key component of our OPA! formula for discovering meaning in life and work. Besides being our ultimate freedom, as Frankl famously espoused, it is the fuel, as well as the starting point, for helping us deal with life’s challenges, from the most trivial to the most formidable. Our choice of attitude is the foundation of our resilience and our outlook on life itself. By viewing life with an appreciative attitude, we build our enthusiasm (a word that literally means “manifesting the spirit within”) and prepare ourselves to respond to life’s call with a sense of confidence and deep meaning that doesn’t exist otherwise.

The search for meaning is a megatrend whose time has come. In the world of work, meaning is slowly but surely moving to center stage. The idea of meaning in organizations is gaining acceptance among academics and is finally being viewed as a subject for serious investigation and practice.¹⁸ As we struggle to reinvent how we run our organizations, the focus on meaning as an organization-wide initiative and key growth strategy is intensifying. It is therefore not at all surprising that the Academy of Management chose “Making Organizations Meaningful” as its annual conference theme for 2016! It is people who give life to their work and to their organizations. Making the effort to find deeper meaning at work and in the workplace can provide insights into our core essence or true nature. It can also spark and sustain the energy needed to work toward achieving collective goals. When we connect meaningfully with others, engage with deeper purpose, and embrace life with attitude—when all three of these elements are working in harmony—we have meaning.

Meaning Reflections

It is important that everyone working in a group or organization understand its meaning mission. If one has already been articulated, it would be beneficial to share stories of events or actions that support this meaning mission. If the group has yet to create its meaning mission, a simple exercise to do so involves everyone writing down the three things they believe the group or organization is known for today and the three things they want the group or organization to be known for in the future. Share the insights and look for overlap. Through this process you will discover the core essence of the organization, which can form the basis of its meaning mission.

Meaning Questions

• What opportunities do you have on a daily basis to connect meaningfully with others?

• Can you describe your core essence or true nature? How would your work be different if you worked in alignment with your core essence?

• What energizes you at work? What depletes your energy? How could you feel more alive at work?

Meaning Affirmation

I will strive to connect to my core essence in order to work with meaning.