A few years ago I invented the word 'plork' to express my enjoyment of my work. To me my work really is play
(the sense varies of course from day to day, some are more work than play.) The word took on a life of its own
within our home. My children used to lament that their dad was working while they were relaxing and that it was a
shame I had to work such long hours. One day I explained that I enjoyed my work so much that it was a form of play
for me. This enabled them to feel better about their dad working while they relaxed.
So why is meaningful participation so important? For one thing it connects the 'small picture', where we participate
in our work, with the 'big picture' that provides context and meaning to what we are doing. People are more likely to
work on the harvest of a crop they have helped sow. We all know intuitively that when our work has personal meaning
we give our energy and time more fully. It has significance and relevance for us. While it is tempting to think that
material possessions can provide significance and relevance, common sense and experience constantly remind us otherwise.
Participation – people taking part. Of course it is so much easier to get people to take part when they know their
effort is meaningful. This is one of the reasons that meaningful participation is so important to our sense of
well-being. Just like wholesome food is good for our bodies, wholesome (think 'serving the whole') activity is good
for us psychologically. One of the reasons volunteer work is rated as so satisfying by participants, is that it is
done for the purpose of making a contribution.
The early alchemists who attempted to change base metals into gold could be considered as metaphoric for our
present-day attempts to transmute physical comforts into psychological comfort. Advertisers would have us
believe that with sufficient physical comforts we will magically develop psychological comfort. I realize that I am not
the first to bemoan the tactics of consumerist systems which would have us believe we can scale the higher reaches of
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs by slipping behind the wheel of our own turbo-charged, fully featured motor vehicle.
Unfortunately the manifestation of psychological comfort is not as straightforward as the advertisements imply.
As we become more specialized in our professional activities we become more and more separated from the larger contexts
that provide meaning to our activities. As soon as the question of relevance occurs we have to get our telescope (or
is it a microscope that we need) out to search for the 'why'.
Meaning is being manufactured around us continually by advertisers, interest groups, and the media. Their messages,
however, provide us a synthetic [artificial] context within which to make sense of all of our decisions (especially
the buying ones). To establish meaningful participation it is imperative that we first recognize that meaning is indeed
made by our choices.
Our work can be connected to our spiritual beliefs but I don’t think it has to – to have meaning. Here's a case in
point:
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A health care team worker called the office to report that severe weather conditions were preventing her from
coming to work. She lived three blocks from work and stated that her car wouldn’t start and that it was too cold
to walk (it was minus 20 degrees C so she had a point).
What she didn’t consider, however, was that her team was already
stretched very tight work-wise. Long story short, her manager drove to this team member's house and picked her up. In
the conversation they had as they navigated the three blocks to the hospital the manger discovered that this person had
no awareness of the significance [meaning] of her work.
From her perspective she just filled out forms and submitted them
to a radiology office. The manager explained to her that if the forms were not completed and received by the radiology
department, then patients' cancer scans would be delayed and this could mean they would not receive timely treatments. The forms
were saving peoples lives.
Without that understanding, this team member was experiencing a lack of meaningful
participation and the effects (had she not showed up for work) would have been felt by more than just her team mates.
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When we attach a great deal of meaning to something, like the outcome of a football game or our child’s first word,
we get very excited and absorbed in the event. The same is true of our work. When we have a strong sense of meaning
attached to what we are doing, we bring more of our attention and energy to it. Sadly, many people have become so
disillusioned by their experience of work that, beyond a paycheck; they have stripped it of all meaning.
That's why volunteer work is so rewarding. As a volunteer we choose to discover rewards beyond monetary gain. We feel
as if we are making a difference and attach meaning to that contribution. Something special goes on – meaning is being
made.
So What are We Choosing Our Work to Mean?
With all the distractions of modern day life, it's easy to forget that
we DO have choice.
There is an old story about a man who came upon three stonemasons – each carving a piece of stone. When asked what
he was doing, the first man replied he was "earning enough money to feed his children". The second said he was,
"applying his art to the best of his ability". The third said he was, "building a cathedral". All of the men had
the same job – the meaning they applied was quite different.
"Generation Y" (the newest generation of workers, born in the 1970's-1990's) brings with it new challenges to
company organization. One of the defining characteristics of this very large cohort (second only to Baby Boomers)
is their concern that the company they work for has values that match their own. Also they need to understand how
their work contributes to the organization’s bottom line.
In short, "Generation Y" needs to know they can make a
difference; meaningful participation is extremely important to them, and as such will play an increasingly important
role in attracting and retaining employees for the foreseeable future. For them the question 'What does my work mean?'
does matter a great deal.
Stephen James Joyce
June / 2007
About the Author
Stephen James Joyce is a professional speaker and business consultant.
He is the author of Teaching an Anthill to Fetch: Developing Collaborative
Intelligence @ Work, now available at Amazon.com.
Stephen has over 20 years experience working with organizations in
the areas of performance improvement and innovative solutions to the challenge of change.
He achieves this by helping teams and organizations develop their collaborative intelligence (CQ).
Visit his website and take the free 'CQ Quiz'.
Stephen can be reached at: (toll free) 1- 866 - 912 5210 or by visiting www.ZenergyPD.com
