Organizational psychologist says workers want meaning and purpose; businesses need a new playbook.
What would the professional environment look and feel like if business associates were excited about their work? Renowned organizational psychologist Alise Cortez, Ph.D., says today’s business environment requires conscious, inspirational leadership, a fresh understanding of the world and a whole new playbook anchored in meaning and purpose.
These “essential ingredients” and their ability to unleash potential and increase organizational impact are discussed in her new book, “The Great Revitalization: How Activating Meaning and Purpose Can Radically Enliven Your Business.”
“Why not create a workplace of play, where your team feels like they’re on the playground again, joyfully creating masterpieces in the dirt,” she writes. “People across the world have lost their childlike playfulness and don’t know how to regain it or how to discover and live their passion and purpose.”
Rediscovering Passion, Purpose
How this happened, she says, is “an accumulation of life and years.” She explains how we start off as joyful children who express our happiness and also our frustration and anger. In school, we learn that some of those emotions are not appropriate.
“And then we get into the workforce and we learn that we really have to keep some of our emotions to ourselves if we want to get promoted. And we certainly better not cry or be upset or frustrated at work. By the time I meet people in their 30s or 40s, their emotional spectrum is down to this teeny, little slice of what it used to be.”
In response, Cortez encourages “passion work” with her clients. “Not only does it raise their own energy, but it positively affects everyone else around them. That’s why I advocate for getting passion back in the workplace even if you’re just giving your employees 10% or 15% of their time to go pursue what they’re passionate about.”
A Universal Awakening
Cortez describes a “universal awakening” that arose from the quiet of COVID-19. Noting a “hush that fell across the land,” she says the world slowed down and workers began to consider how they wished to live, who they were connected to and on what terms they wanted to work.
“It was the tipping point. We had been experiencing the tensions between meaningful work and work that worked for us in our lives for a good 10-plus years and the pandemic just really brought it home as to what was missing and how things were awry in our overall lives,” she said. “That forced stop, that collective heart attack, if you will, gave us the chance to recognize what was working in our lives and what wasn’t. And seldom have we had any time where we’ve literally been screeched to a halt like that and been able to forcibly take stock of who we are, what we stand for and what we want of our lives.”
Cortez points out that change seldom happens when everything is going well. “One of things I’m so aware of as an organizational psychologist is that we really do grow more when we’re moving through a challenge, when things are difficult. That is a catalyzing force that allows us to transform. It doesn’t happen when we’re eating bonbons on the couch and watching our favorite program on TV. It’s the struggle, it’s the way we persevere through that challenge that makes all the difference, and I would say has a direct relationship to the amount of growth that we actually realize on the other side.”
Managing through Meaning
Cortez has created a program called “Managing through Meaning, which she uses in her consulting work today. It teaches practical skills a manager needs, such as setting expectations and removing obstacles.
It also includes “nuanced skills anchored in emotional intelligence,” she writes, “such as communicating team members’ worth and potential and looking for ways to help them activate their individual sources of meaning (passion, inspiration and mindset) to increase their intrinsic motivation and fulfillment, among other areas.”
She adds that just as it is important for individuals to tap into their own uniqueness, tapping into an organization’s uniqueness is critical for realizing its potential.
Retaining Good Workers
Cortez notes there are many reasons why people leave organizations. One is their relationship with their manager, which she says can be addressed through behavior and communication improvements. Another is that they don’t feel like they are learning and growing. “Many organizations don’t invest in their people.”
In addition, she says, “What if we did give ourselves over to passion at work? That would go a long way in making people not want to leave. And then when people understand that they are part of an organization they can be proud of, the organization has a purpose that’s mighty and one that they can align with and thread their own purpose through, that’s really a tremendous retention tool.”
Elevating Business with Beauty
In “The Great Revitalization,” Cortez describes how elevating a company’s purpose with beauty is about recognizing that business is far more than a profit machine, but rather a vehicle for self-expression. “There is so much good we can do in the world through business,” she said.
Thus, Cortez believes companies can transform the Great Resignation, experienced after the pandemic, into their own Great Revitalization, performing at much higher levels of productivity, creativity and results. FBN
By Bonnie Stevens, FBN
“The Great Revitalization: How Activating Meaning and Purpose Can Radically Enliven Your Business,” is available on Amazon. Cortez can be reached at alise@alisecortez.com.
Hear more from Dr. Alise Cortez in her interview with Bonnie Stevens on Zonie Living at StarWorldwideNetworks.com.
Courtesy Photo: Readers welcome “The Great Revitalization: How Activating Meaning and Purpose Can Radically Enliven Your Business” at book signings with Alise Cortez, the author of four bestselling books.