Rethink finding satisfaction at work
Seth Godin is a prolific author, expert marketer and an early internet pioneer.
In his book, The Song of Significance, Godin lays out what he thinks is wrong with our workplaces – and it’s the absence of doing work with meaning and significance.
Our workplaces are like beehives he reckons, where we busily do tasks that we are set buzzing around in the hope the activity will bring us satisfaction.
But unlike in our workplaces, the bees choose significance over safety, teamwork over individual recognition.
In a beehive, when a new queen is born, the old queen and a few worker bees leave the safety of the hive with the purpose of finding a new location to repopulate and continue the colony. Its perilous, challenging and involves great teamwork to pull it off. This gives them purpose and meaning.
Research shows most of us want our workplaces to provide purpose and meaning. And when we get it, these are the best jobs we have ever had.
Finding meaning in work is more straightforward than we think he believes and can spur you and your team to reach targets and drive innovations beyond anything you ever thought possible.
The key points I took away from his book are:
Create the conditions for significance to thrive – ditch industrial capitalism concepts and replace with market capitalism, which focuses on making profits through identifying and then solving problems. Enlist everyone to play a role to support it.
The organisation goes first – the organisation needs to change first and create new norms and expected behaviours that shine a path for workers to follow. Mistakes are good, no more meetings for the sake of meetings, tension is good – stress is bad, feedback on outcomes not on people.
People power instead of human resources – working with people will always be amongst the most significant things you’ll do. Focus on enrolment and ditch coercion as a management strategy. Expand the focus of hiring to bring in people that add to the collective strength of the team. They may not be like everyone else, but their uniqueness will make everyone better.
Read this book if: you’re searching for way to re-engage your team or choose your next career focus.
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