We’re all supposed to have purpose these days – as individuals and as organizations. In fact, Purpose with a capital P. It’s noble and inspiring. But if you’re like me, it seems grandiose, remote from the daily hassles and to-do list, even if it is supposed to animate us through those endeavours.
It’s helpful, of course, to know our work contributes to something useful – that it has value and, in another word often used, meaning. But a better word might be mattering. Our work, and that of our organizations, should matter. “Mattering comes closer than meaning to the essence of what workers care about, and what companies can influence,” psychiatrist Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Martin Seligman write in Tomorrowmind.
Mattering is more concrete than the notion of purpose. It seems within grasp. It’s not about changing the…
