Leaders need to create a menu of ‘meaning-making’ activities!!

Leaders need to create a menu of ‘meaning-making’ activities

What is an ‘abundant organisation’? 

If you, as an organisation, abide by any of the following seven principles that lay the foundation of an abundant organisation, then indeed, you can be qualified as one as well: 1) Do you build on strengths (capabilities in an organisation) that strengthen others? 2) Do you have purposes that sustain social and fiscal responsibility and align with individual motivation? 3) Do you take work relationships beyond high-performing teams to high-relating teams 4) Do you create positive work environments? 5) Do you engage employees’ skills, commitment, and their values (contribution)? 6) Do you use growth, learning, and resilience to respond to change? 7) Do you honour the diversity of what makes people feel happy, cared for, and excited about life? An abundant organisation is one wherein employees find personal meaning in their work; also, it’s here wherein the organisation contributes to the broader collective values of humanity.

How can an ‘abundant organisation’ be built?

Creating an abundant organisation starts when leaders see ‘meaning’ as a business, not an emotional or a social issue. When leaders are able to connect employee meaning to customer, financial, and organisational goals, they find it easier to invest in creating it as well. Leaders need to create a menu of ‘meaning-making’ activities that include shaping an identity, crafting a purpose, creating a positive work environment, shaping work for individual needs, learning and growing, and bringing delight into the workplace. Meaning-making increases when leaders start small by finding early and simple successes.

How can employees try to proactively contribute towards this endeavour?

Employees have three basic choices. First, they can exit or leave. Sometimes, this makes sense because they see no other alternatives that work for them. Second, they can give up their personal identity and basically turn-off their emotional and intellectual energy when they show up at work. These are employees who have quit on-the-job and are “dangerous” for everyone. Third, they can try to change either their work situation or how they respond to it. The classic study of ‘meaning’ was from Victor Frankel who looked at how prisoners of war in a concentration camp found meaning among their fellow human beings. If people can find meaning in this worst conceivable setting, they can find it in routine and even boring jobs.

Compiled By:

Ojas Ajay Barve
[Source: Times Ascent]