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• People in an abundant organization “coordinate their aspirations and actions to
create meaning for themselves, value for stakeholders and hope for humanity.”
• Work is more than a way to earn money; it is a way to find “abundance.” To make
work meaningful, consider seven questions about why and how people do their jobs:
• “What am I known for?” Identify your strengths. Help your employees build theirs.
• “Where am I going?” People’s work should fulfill their needs and the firm’s goals.
• “Whom do I travel with?” Encourage people to develop warm workplace friendships
that add meaning to their work.
• “How do I build a positive work environment?” Establish a culture of values.
• “What challenges interest me?” Identify tasks that help people grow and relish work.
• “How do I respond to disposability and change?” Instill flexibility and resilience.
• “What delights me?” Understand the need for “creativity, pleasure, humor and delight.”
• When meaning flourishes and staffers know why they work, abundance follows. People
in abundant organizations add value to customers, shareholders and the world.
8 8 7 7
The Why of Work
How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations that Win
by Dave Ulrich and Wendy Ulrich
McGraw-Hill © 2010
304 pages
Leadership & Management
Strategy
Sales & Marketing
Finance
Human Resources
IT, Production & Logistics
Career Development
Small Business
Economics & Politics
Industries
Intercultural Management
Concepts & Trends
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The Why of Work © Copyright 2010 getAbstract 2 of 5
Relevance
What You Will Learn
In this Abstract, you will learn: 1) Why “making meaning” is a critical leadership
competency; 2) How to ask questions that challenge employees so you can align them
with work assignments that matter most to them and 3) How to recharge your workplace,
employees and customers.
Recommendation
Dave and Wendy Ulrich’s book about abundance is itself an example of abundance. Dave,
a business writer, and Wendy, a psychologist, sweep you up in a tide of leadership ideas,
processes, quotations and stories that hammer home a thesis so right and true you might
mistake it for common sense: Workers who care about their jobs and understand why they
work will exceed your expectations and break the boundaries of their job descriptions.
They will better serve customers who, in turn, will bind themselves to the thoughtful firm
that produced such an enlightened staff. If this sounds like the yellow brick road, the
authors cobble together ample gold paving stones to build a solid path toward fulfilling
your firm’s potential. They explain how every person and organization can change for the
good, while earning a profit. Along with positive psychology and happiness research, you
will find useful grids, summaries and assessment tools to help you shift staid cultures and
motivate stale staffers. Some of the advice is soft and general; the authors acknowledge
that they skim the surface of various disciplines. Yet when the Ulrichs become specific
about how to build relationships or cultivate creativity, they show you concretely how to
nurture a firm where business results and human development work together. getAbstract
recommends this book to executives, managers and human resources personnel who hope
to serve their customers and the world through deeper service to their employees.
Abstract
The Meaning of Work
Work is a way people earn money, but it’s also a potential launch pad for human
development and the exploration of real meaning in life. Work takes up a good chunk
of most people’s waking hours. It often defines them. This quest for definition gives
leaders the opportunity to connect with their staffers and shape the underlying meaning
of their jobs, so they can contribute more of who they are or want to be. However, finding
meaning is also another way of finding profit. Meaningful work is inherently good for
the people in your firm and it’s good for business.
In the workplace, meaning wrestles with tedium, and the outcome matters, particularly
for the workers whose quality of life is at stake. Amid the mind-boggling complexity
of the modern world, more people are struggling with personal and professional issues,
ranging from depression to a lack of connection to their jobs to an off-putting, “me-first
mindset.” As a result, “deficit thinking” – a negative sense of pervasive mistrust and self-
protection – quickly and easily becomes the workplace’s prevalent mode. Staffers driven
by such thinking give less effort on the job because they are filled with stress and fear.
In contrast, meaningful work with a clear, compelling reason for being – a “why” at its
core – creates a virtuous cycle. Employees want to do work that matters and aligns with
their company’s raison d’être. People care more about work that’s meaningful and they
“When leaders
make work
meaningful,
they help create
abundant
organizations
where employees
operate on a value
proposition based
on meaning as
well as money.”
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The Why of Work © Copyright 2010 getAbstract 3 of 5
do a better job. They come to relish genuine challenges, on-the-job problems that ask
them to marshal real skills and talents. The potentially greater financial rewards of a
meaningful work environment are just one facet of an “abundant” organization, “a work
setting in which individuals coordinate their aspirations and actions to create meaning
for themselves, value for stakeholders and hope for humanity.”
So how do organizations stop being havens for deficit thinking and become “repositories
of abundance?” How can you be sure your firm focuses on meaning in good times and
bad? It takes leadership, of course, but leadership of a certain stripe. Executives have
to acknowledge a responsibility that goes beyond achieving great outcomes. Certainly
business results are pivotal, but bosses who understand the importance of the “why of
work” will push past their traditional leadership roles and expand on their workforce’s
capability to learn, to grow and to hope – in short, they will help their companies become
abundant in their service to their staffers and customers.
The “Seven Drivers” of “Meaning Making” Leaders
Leaders “drive the abundance agenda” by asking seven crucial questions of their
employees, their organizations and themselves. These questions will challenge your
staffers and give you the in-depth information you need to set them up with assignments
that matter most to them. These questions become drivers and motivators when they
unite individual purpose, organizational goals and customer satisfaction. These queries
– and some of the attitudes they address – are:
1. “What Am I Known For?”
When you ask yourself this question (or encourage others to ask it of themselves), you
venture into the territory of identity and its many side paths. Identity includes a person’s
“signature strengths,” values and skills. Staffers with a strong sense of self bring more
clarity and energy to their work, and know how to make the best use of their talents. When
you understand individual employees, you can more effectively create assignments that
will help them flourish, build on their strengths and grow beyond their comfort zones.
As a leader, you are also charged with figuring out your organization’s persona and
greatest abilities, and aligning individual employees’ targets with the company’s goals
to serve your customers better. As you parse the identities of your employees, customers
and even your investors, rethink or reinforce your corporate agenda. Do you have the
right people in the right jobs? Are the firm’s priorities and capabilities clear? Are you
enabling workers, teams and the whole company to work in a unified way to make your
corporate identity resonate in the minds of your customers and investors?
2. “Where Am I Going?”
Employees have different goals. The leader who wants to build abundance encourages
all employees to link their personal drive to one of four motivational categories: “insight,
achievement, connection or empowerment.” Each category leads to very different
outcomes. For example, an employee who is interested in insight would be more likely to
prefer quiet research than an employee who is interested in empowerment. Leaders must
align employees’ proclivities with the organization’s tasks for the good of the whole. At
the same time, they must help employees to “satisfice,” that is, to meet “minimal criteria”
and to complete tasks “that are worth doing” but may not be worth doing all that well.
For instance, at home you might satisfice on yard work to optimize time with your family.
Satisficing means achieving a valid “return on time invested” by balancing priorities
– putting in maximum effort on tasks that really help the company versus doing the bare
“Great leaders
recognize the
vital importance
of abundance
and meaning to
everyone in their
organization.
Including
themselves.”
“Abundance
emerges from the
growing conviction
that what we are
about ‘makes
sense’ – that it
contributes to
something larger
than ourselves and
that it is grounded
in our deepest
values.”
“Leaders invest in
meaning making
not only because
it is noble but
also because it is
profi table. Making
sense can also
make cents.”
“Humble leaders
have also been
called servant
leaders, who don’t
need to always
get their way,
who admit that
others may be
right, who express
appreciation for
insights…and
who help others
do their job.”
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The Why of Work © Copyright 2010 getAbstract 4 of 5
minimum of work on tasks that just keep the business running without transforming it.
If handled intelligently, satisficing provides “direction and purpose.”
Leaders should review each of the four motivational categories in light of the whole
organization, so they can help it stretch toward the insights, relationships, achievements
and connections that create a purposeful, sustainable direction.
3. “Whom Do I Travel With?”
Many leaders who are accustomed to formal corporate relationships are wary about
cultivating real friendships at work. Yet people who have even one good friend at work are
more engaged and more satisfied. Leaders should pave the way for collegiality. Rethink
your “relationship playbook.” Never reject a “request for attention” from anyone in your
firm. Reach out to others to generate “meaningful encounters.” This is not just a matter
of building seemingly soft skills. You want to ease conflict and cultivate “abundant
relationships” because they produce great results. Guide your employees to listen intently
so they understand each other. Train them to “restate” information to assure that they’ve
processed it correctly and appropriately. Ask them to share their experiences and ideas,
and to think about the impact of their actions and moods. As a leader, you may need to
force some issues by engineering opportunities for people to get together or by modeling
positive interactions. The most difficult step – especially since liability-conscious
attorneys often caution clients to avoid apologizing – is creating a climate where people
admit they’re wrong, say they’re sorry, take responsibility and rectify their mistakes.
4. “How Do I Build a Positive Work Environment?”
Like the other traits of abundant organizations, a “positive work environment” serves
employees and customers and, so it also serves the bottom line. Positive employees
get things done and stick around. They draw both customers and investors into the
organization’s orbit. Foster a positive work environment by exercising humility (this is
also known as being a “servant leader”) and making sure that the firm’s values bleed into
its daily interactions. Abundance demands promoting service to others over “self service.”
This means teaching people to welcome, discuss and vet ideas, and ensuring that they
support one another. Leaders should work hard to understand multiple points of view
– the employees’, the customers’, and so on – while establishing accountability practices
that help people see the precise ways that they are meeting (or not meeting) expectations.
Finally, the workspace is a clear articulation of what matters to the organization. How
your physical environment looks and functions is a message in itself. Equip it as such.
5. “What Challenges Interest Me?”
To each his own or her own, the saying goes, and the same holds true for challenges at
work. Given the choice, each person would select a certain “type of challenge” and a
certain set of conditions in which that challenge would unfold. As you learn more about
your employees, try to understand the result they desire most deeply. Leaders generally
know what they hope to see from a given group, project or individual staff member. They
understand each person’s powerful drive to solve problems that matter, and know that
every employee has a different definition of a task’s inherent value and appeal. People
seek work that is “easy” (not simple, but comfortably within their talents), “energizing”
and “enjoyable.” A leader who knows the objectives and results that matter to people can
“help employees get what they want, not just what the leader wants.”
When a task aligns with a problem that employees want to solve and with skills they
already have, they enter a “zone of opportunity” where they can do great work while
“People fi nd a
sense of meaning,
even abundance,
when they are in
an organization
where they fi t and
feel valued for
doing exactly what
they do well.”
“Abundance is
less about getting
things right and
more about
moving in the
right direction.”
“People want to
work at the type of
challenge they care
about and under
the conditions
that make
that challenge
enjoyable.”
“Learning cannot
be something
that just happens
in a workshop,
team meeting or
process review;
it must become
part of the soul of
the organization,
something that
occurs naturally
and continuously
during all work
activities.”
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The Why of Work © Copyright 2010 getAbstract 5 of 5
feeling good about their jobs. Other factors that affect an individual’s ability to enjoy
the benefits of intrinsically motivating work include the environment and the “work
condition” (for example, work that is creative or that allows the employee to stretch his or
her talents). A boss who is committed to abundance will keep these factors in mind.
6. “How Do I Respond to Disposability and Change?”
A leader intent on building an abundant organization has a very particular attitude about
change: Whether change leads to success or failure, it always offers an opportunity to
learn. What matters most is “learning agility – the ability to inquire, experiment and
extrapolate in flexible ways.” In organizations that prioritize learning agility, individual
flexibility and “resilience” become the norm. Resilience has allowed great people, from
Abraham Lincoln to Dale Carnegie, to flourish, regardless of the dilemmas before them.
Lincoln’s “emotional strengths” included “empathy, humor, magnanimity, generosity of
spirit, perspective, self-control, balance and social conscience,” which added up to deep
resilience, a necessary trait for strong leaders. Think about your company’s resilience
and flexibility. Do your staffers know how to apply lessons learned on the job to many
different fields or problems? Do they “turn what they know into what they do?” Do they
bounce back from frustrations or disappointments? How well does your organization
learn and exceed limitations? How well does it change and grow?
7. “What Delights Me?”
Four elements – “creativity, pleasure, humor and delight” – provide the underpinnings
of an abundant organization. When leaders tap into the small things that make people
happy on a daily basis, they promote a culture that is undaunted by new ideas, unafraid
to cultivate authentic relationships and unwilling to settle for the rigidity that breeds
intolerance. When was the last time you wrote a thank you note by hand? Served cookies?
Asked people at a meeting to share good news? Laughed heartily with your colleagues?
Such small actions cost little – but doing these kinds of things now and then can be very
significant, and omitting such nice touches can cost a great deal in lost good will. Inculcate
civility – including appropriate dress, language, manners and attitudes – to help people
work pleasantly together. Leaders – from boards of directors to CEOs to human resources
professionals – set an organization’s tone and maintain its culture. If you do that effectively,
you can motivate and inspire employees to do their best in spite of any hiccups.
Bringing All Leaders On Board
Work can be much greater than the sum of its parts – more than the hours you put in and
the money you earn as a result. Organizations that cannot fulfill their responsibilities
and meet new challenges, or that fall behind in the race to innovate or learn, often
are suffering from a lack of meaning. Employees do not know why they are working;
instead, they just show up. The organization does not know why it exists; instead, it
just plods along. Leaders can and should prioritize “meaning making” throughout their
organizations. People in abundant organizations add value to customers, shareholders
and the world, and that’s just good business.
About the Authors
Dave Ulrich, a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan
and a partner at the RBL Group, has written 23 books. Psychologist Wendy Ulrich
founded the Sixteen Stones Center for Growth.
“The work
environment
outlasts any
individual leader
in shaping how
employees and
customers respond
to the company.”
“Organizations
that survive in
recessions and
thrive during
recovery will
have leaders
who consistently
offer employees
both economic
well-being and
an abundance
of meaning and
purpose.”
“Work is a
universal setting
in which to pursue
our universal
search for
meaning.”
“Before you ask,
‘Why aren’t my
employees working
harder?’…ask
yourself, ‘Wh
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