Cultivating Meaning and Purpose in the Workplace

Eat more vegetables, get more sleep, sit less; most wellness leaders know how to promote physical well-being. But do you know how to help establish more meaning and purpose in your workplace?

The Energy Project works with clients around the globe “to create workplaces that are healthier, happier, and higher performing.” They teach that a key dimension of both well-being and performance is the need for significance/spiritual energy, which involves cultivating meaning and purpose. We asked Annie Perrin (EVP, Faculty and Content) to share insights on fostering this vital area of workplace well-being.

Connect Daily Work With Mission and Values

As detailed in CEO Tony Schwartz’s book, Be Excellent at Anything — The Four Keys to Transforming the Way We Work and Live, The Energy Project teaches that people have 4 core needs/energy sources: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Annie believes organizations with well-developed meaning and purpose are aware of the dimensions’ interrelatedness. “We think of it in 2 components:

• Individual level: Believing in what you do — having a sense that your work adds value to the world and makes others’ lives better. Leaders who do this well are very vocal and explicit about how what people are doing matters.
• Organizational level: We see this as alignment between what you say you believe in and what you actually do. The greater the organization’s energy, the greater the connection to the mission. Gaps are looked at very thoughtfully, and narrowed as much as possible.”

Annie and her colleagues worked with a large manufacturing organization that did a great job of promoting safety as a top value. “But in our assessment, we noticed that people didn’t feel emotionally safe.” A weekly meeting where safety incidents were reviewed held a lot of shaming and negativity.

A leader realized they never highlighted the 99% of the time things went well. “So they started beginning these meetings with an emphasis on appreciation and acknowledgment for exemplary behavior and processes. This created an emotionally safer context; people felt valued. It’s a testament to how simple yet how profound these changes can be.”

Start a Conversation

Cultivate meaning and purpose in the workplace by talking about it, notes Annie: “Ask employees how they relate to the mission and values. Are there opportunities to specifically ask leadership about aligning meaning and purpose with roles, and to really understand what employees’ relationships are to the mission statement? What’s the word on the street — how are we living our values? Are there what we call energy leakages (where everyday practices don’t align with mission and values)?”

A top value of The Energy Project is: It’s not about the hours you work; it’s about the value you add while you’re working. But 2 years ago, the team realized daily practice was out of sync with this value. “We did an internal audit; we try to practice what we preach, and like anyone else, we have gaps,” she explains. “So we reconciled this. Now we have open business hours, but employees have a huge amount of freedom and flexibility as to when they work.”

Remember Context Matters

Perrin and colleagues don’t encounter much resistance to fostering meaning and purpose at work as a part of well-being. “Clients sometimes express anxiety regarding the topic of spiritual energy. But there’s a hunger for it — people almost feel a sense of relief that they can talk about it at work. We frame it as a source of energy, and focus on the ways to manage this dimension more efficiently.”

Know This: Dream Job Not Required

Finding meaning and purpose in the workplace sounds well and good if you love your job and have a supportive employer. What about workers in less-than-ideal roles and circumstances? “That’s harder, but there are still ways to do it,” Annie confirms. “Years ago, I wasn’t in my dream job. So I energized myself by thinking ‘I am really taking good care of myself and am grateful for this job so that I can buy groceries and provide for my children.’ It comes down to what piece is in and out of your control; thinking about why you’re doing what you’re doing is in your control… If my job doesn’t align with my values, meaning, purpose, what would?”

Walk the Talk

At The Energy Project, team members hold each other accountable, Annie adds. “We live the principles that we teach. Our mission is what drives our business… and us, individually. People who work here have a deep sense of purpose in helping people lead better lives, plus a strong connection with organizational mission and values.”