The Great Awakening
Redefining our measures of success for a happier and healthier life
By Sharon Aneja, Featured Writer.
Call it the Great Awakening. The Great Reset. The Great Resignation. Actually, they aren't all the same things but they are being used interchangeably. Confused?
Well, one thing's for sure. The time for change is here now. The time for people to redefine what success means to them is happening in real-time.
The pandemic may well have been a catalyst for change, but as Adam Grant recently said, the long march to freedom for employees has been a long time coming.
So what is motivating this change and how can employers address this paradigm shift in our culture?
"More than a decade ago, psychologists documented a generational shift in the centrality of work in our lives," Adam Grant reports. "Millennials were more interested in jobs that provided leisure time and vacation time than Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers. They were less concerned about net worth than net freedom."
"To me, it points in the direction of revisiting what we think of as success," historian Pamela Haag commented at the time. "If so many workers are happy that they stepped off the treadmill, then maybe our metric is off too. Maybe we're deploying the wrong indicators of success. Right now, and perhaps even more so in the future, success may be about maximal autonomy and flexibility to do interesting work and get paid a living for it, as opposed to vertical ambition."
So who’s quitting en masse?
30-45 year olds and a 12% increase among manager resignations (Visier)
Low wage workers especially retail and service workers going to entry-level jobs that pay less but offer more benefits, upward mobility and compassion (BBC)
54% of Gen Z’ers considering handing in their resignation because they felt disengaged and unexcited about work (Microsoft research)
So what do they have in common? They are prioritising the workplace experience and environment over money, status and power. They are no longer motivated by the 1980’s Wall Street culture that fed us money is power.
They are also freedom fighters. They want to take back power and create a more meaningful present and future.
The truth is the great resignation is an outcome of the great awakening. And while the great awakening is that aha moment in your life when you know something needs to change, the road to change has been building for a while.
Much like a frog in hot water. The temperature in the water has been getting hotter for a while but employees put up with unhealthy work environments for far too long. Well now they are leaping out of the water. And they definitely aren’t jumping back into the boiling water of unhealthy work environments anytime soon.
So what are these new measures of success?
We are seeing the shifts characterised in these 3 key ways:
Greater self-awareness has shown people the need to prioritise their wellbeing.
Being more community-driven has been playing out around us through BLM, Farmer's protests in India, and Clap for heroes for the NHS.
Spiritual shifts have seen a much greater focus on the connection to something bigger, to nature and the need for spiritual healing.
This means that money, status and power have given way to wellbeing, connection, purpose and sustainability.
These aren’t new trends but certainly Covid has accelerated the need for change. More businesses are seeking to be purpose-led and with good reason: 23% of businesses report greater profits than their non-purpose led counterparts. See the status of gaining B Corp Certification as evidence of this.
So how can you as an employer address these new measures of success?
It's not as simple as introducing new well-being programmes or writing a company purpose and drafting some values.
Employers can use this model from Positive Psychology to create healthier workplaces that give employees freedom and autonomy to work in the way that suits them and answers their bigger needs of belonging and meaning.
I call this Wellbeing Plus. Because it’s more than wellbeing alone. It’s wellbeing plus connection plus healing. Each of these elements focuses on intrinsic motivators which is what the great awakening has shown us. That when we focus on our inherent psychological needs, our psychological wellbeing goes up.
Me - connection to self
We - connection to others
Us - connection to something bigger
Me
To help employees feel more self-connected we need to give them time to heal and help them create synergies between their mind and their environment. Employers can unlock this by giving employees time and space to heal in the working day and help them focus on their core strengths so they can rediscover what energises them and makes them unique.
Ways to create space include creating pre-arranged times every day when everyone can switch off, scheduling fewer meetings and giving people opportunities to develop their passions. Ultimately employees want flexibility and autonomy to do what is good for them. In many ways, the employer needs to get out of the way for that to happen. Easier said than done.
Focusing on strengths is a great way to help employees connect with their authentic selves and help them feel energised. Gallup’s 2015 survey showed that employees who use their strengths daily are six times more engaged on the job.
“You at your best” is a great way to help employees connect to their strengths better. Get into pairs, with one person acting as the narrator and the other the listener.
One person describes a time when they were at their best. Create a narrative with a beginning, middle and end, describing the experience and how it made you feel authentic and proud.
The other person then reflects back the key strengths the narrator was using. Then swap roles.
We
To create a greater sense of belonging within the organisation, employers can enable employee-led communities. One of the best ways of connecting people is through play.
According to Stuart Brown, author of the bestseller 'Play', employees who relate to each other through play develop more personal, human, fresher, and authentic connections with them. These playful activities help people see each other beyond business roles, social masks, and job specifications, which contributes to a more spontaneous and genuine communication between them.
The key is to find what playful activities motivate and engage your employees. Some suggestions are cookery competitions, a running or walking club, board game competitions (we love these lavender-scented puzzles) or tending to an indoor herb garden.
Active recreation has more benefits for well-being than passive recreation, so stick to ones that get people moving! All of these playful activities foster camaraderie.
Us
To connect employees to what the organisation stands for and how they play a vital role in it, we suggest using the 3 levers of making work meaningful from Adam Grant.
Showing your people how their work benefits others
Show how others appreciate your people’s work
Help your people develop a deeper understanding of their customers' needs so they see the value in their work.
Try running a journaling session where you ask employees to answer these questions:
What do you find energising about your work?
How can you positively impact the lives of your customers?
How does your role positively impact your colleagues?
What is important in your life and how do you bring that to work?
By answering these questions and sharing their reflections, employees will feel more motivated and connected to their work and each other.
So what have we learnt from these big cultural shifts?
This is very much an employee-driven job market which means that employers that adapt quickly will be the ultimate winners. Money, status and power will only take you so far. Instead, cultivating work environments that are rooted in freedom, empowerment and meaning is the key to building sustainable business success.
Employees have a once in a generation opportunity to redefine what work means for them. Which means this is the era that maybe, just maybe, we finally work out how to make work, work for us.
Here’s to more great awakenings….
References
https://thriveworks.com/blog/positive-psychology-driving-great-resignation/
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/adam-grant-great-resignation-roots.html
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/great-resignation-why-so-many-thinking-quitting-alistair-cox/