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Purpose Becomes Ambition

“Ambition” is the new “purpose”

“The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.” – Socrates

Workplaces become meaningfully relevant when employees see the point of what they and their employers are out to do: the company’s “why”, it’s reason for being, it’s meaningful ambition.

When presented in a credible, inclusive and authentic way, the company’s meaningful ambition is respected, admired and embraced by employees because it aligns to their personal values and answers their desire for meaning.

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Which Comes First? A Strong Corporate Culture or a Meaningful Workplace?

There’s a virtual cornucopia of so-called “culture decks” finding its way across the web today. These glitzy slideshows present the values that supposedly drive each respective company’s workforce. 

A quick scan of these decks shows that many of the companies are mimicking another. They are using clever language to make things sound really sexy. And of course they employ design that makes your mouth water.

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Meaningful Workplace – Getting Employees to Respond Positively

Meaningful Workplaces are built by companies that aim to produce a more meaningful outcome from, and for, their people.

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The Meaningful Workplace: It Takes New Ways of Thinking, and Behaving

“How do you build an organization where people are willing to bring their gifts of initiative, creativity, and passion?” – Gary Hamel

You can’t build a workplace that is meaningful to people using the old mentality and outdated tools that have rendered your current workspace meaning-neutral or, at worst, meaningless.

To forge meaningful alliances with meaning-seeking employees requires new ways of thinking and acting. Familiar business constructs that have formed the foundation of employer/employee relations are being Continue reading “The Meaningful Workplace: It Takes New Ways of Thinking, and Behaving”

Change How You Think About Values At Your Company

“Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes. As such, values reflect a person’s sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be.” – Wikipedia

Enterprises seek “appropriate” courses of action and outcomes, so they establish and communicate a set of corporate values. But, too many businesses find that employees aren’t sufficiently influenced by these values. In other words, they don’t fully embrace the ideals, they often act in “wrong” ways, and they don’t work together to create what “ought” to be.

We’re not saying values, per se, are wrong. We’re simply making the case that the intent and meaning of a company’s values can be made more relevant and actionable when leadership thinks differently about the way they engage employees.

We help our clients identify a unique Emotional Impact – a set of four positive feelings – that are selected based on their ability to make the company truly matter when experienced by people within and outside the company.

People will only feel this way, and the company will only matter, if everyone in the company shares the same intent, attitude, and behavior, all of which need to embody and reflect the company’s values.

Our belief is that employees will be more involved, creative, and purposeful when they see their task as helping others experience specific feelings. They can easily see how these feelings are rooted in what they believe, how they behave, and the meaningful outcome they and the company seek.

It is challenging to understand the power of this approach in the abstract. However, in working with our clients, we have found it to be a useful way to see how processes, practices, policies, and personal interactions within organizations can be evolved to better evoke specific feelings.

From overarching policy decisions to individual conversations, feelings are a great way to bring corporate values alive and to make your business matter more to people.

Learn more about why mattering matters and how to build a workplace that matters.

Cartoon by Hugh McCleod

Why Workplaces Aren’t Meaningful Now

Disillusioned by the age of conspicuous consumption, worried by the state of the planet and its people, rocked by war, corruption, and financial crises, and immersed in a swirl of information, news, opinion, and gossip, people are searching for meaning in their lives.

Today they feel a need to align with people, ideas, and companies that make them feel they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

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3 Drivers For A Meaningful Workplace Conversation

In our published paper, “How to Talk to Employees in Turbulent Times“, we encourage CEOs to establish a new dialog with their employees and offer key drivers to have a meaningful workplace conversation.

The recent economic climate has been enough to unsettle any employee.

Even if they are working for an apparently stable and growing company, employees are nonetheless influenced by the world around them.

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Employees Love Brands That Truly Matter

Brands that truly matter

It’s amazing how a focus on emotion and meaning can change the way employees approach their work.

They feel like doing more.
Employees are eager, motivated and driven. They wake up looking forward to their work day, and return home feeling a sense of purposeful accomplishment.

They care more for one another.
The workplace is civil, considerate and supportive. Employees are empathetic and compassionate about their bosses, their peers, their reports and everyone in the business.

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