The Future of Work
The search for individual purpose is a personal transformation journey that ultimately helps us engage with and see work in a completely different way: as a path towards fulfilling individual purpose.
Reshaping the future begins with individual choices and actions. This is why purpose is key to unlocking this opportunity. It is core to realignment.
“Work can be part of our search for meaning and our fulfillment as human beings. If we each shift the way we consider the nature of work, from a burden to an opportunity, then we can start transforming business.“ - The Heart of Business, Hubert Joly
We often think about companies as abstract, anonymous, amorphous entities, but they're not. They’re full of people who need a reason to get out of bed in the morning and give their very best every single day.
Purpose is key to unlocking this potential. It’s an opportunity to change the way we view and engage with work.
It’s the key to aligning individuals with what they do. The re-foundation of business must begin with the notion that work is one way for people to further their quest for meaning and fulfillment.
To do so, let's make the search for purpose “an inner journey“ (Chip Conley). A journey towards the acceptance of work as a path towards the fulfillment of your purpose.
“We all work and lead best when we strive to be our best rather than the best.“ - Hubert Joly
The truth is, competing against yourself – that is, trying to do better today than you did yesterday – takes you much further than obsessively benchmarking yourself against others.
According to Gallup’s yearly State of the Global Workplace 2024 report, disengagement at work is a global epidemic. How do we explain its massive scale?
It’s simple: while the nature of work has changed dramatically because of constantly evolving technologies and the VUCA (Volatile, Unpredictable, Complex, Ambiguous) world, the way we think about work hasn't.
Hubert Joly couldn’t have explained this better:
“We consider work a burden, a curse, or a necessary evil. But we can start to treat work as an essential part of our humanity.“
“Today we all have the opportunity to redesign business from within like never before: entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs need to focus on people, the environment, sustainability and, of course, on investors.“
“Individuals, on their side, have the immense chance to rethink work as part of our human nature and to reimagine it as the key to our search for meaning, a way to find fulfillment in our lives.“
In the search for meaning, purpose plays a vital role for individuals, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs.
The quest for purpose is all about intentionality, endurance, and positively impacting the world: codifying it is the most powerful strategic self-development tool you can use to prepare for an unpredictable future.
For entrepreneurs, codifying purpose is the step to take before defining and enabling the purpose within their organization.
Today, “without a sense of purpose no company, either public or private, can achieve its full potential.“ - Larry Fink.
According to the Gallup yearly report, for companies operating in a VUCA world, low motivation, lack of alignment or sense of belonging, and a weak brand are all signs the company has no competitive differentiators – or worse, that it’s following the road to mediocrity.
For individuals, the cost in the family sphere is no less severe or significant: for disengaged workers, occupational stress has led them to misbehave with their loved ones.
Enough said.
