Meaning at W ork: Using Meetings in the Organization to Create Meaning for Participants

AARHUS UNIVERSITET

Meaning at Work: Using Meetings in the Organization to Create Meaning for Participants7th European Conference on Positive PsychologyAmsterdam, July 1-4, 2014

Nina Tange and Ib RavnResearch Program on Organization and LearningDepartment of Education, Aarhus University, Campus [email protected] and [email protected]. Website: www.edu.au.dk/fv

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

IIb [email protected] AARHUS UNIVERSITET

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• What is meaning?

1. Today’s program

• Meaning at work and in meetings

• Meaning-creating processes in meetings


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• Positive emotions. Engagement. Relationships. Meaning. Accomplishment.

• The meaningful life: Using you signature strengths in the service of something larger than yourself (Seligman, 2002)

• “We grasp the meaning of objects and events by taking them out of their apparent brute isolation and finding them to be parts of some larger whole, which explains them, that is, renders them significant” (Dewey, 1910, p. 117)

2. Meaning in PERMA (Seligman, 2011)


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1. You use your strengths; realize your potentials (Eagleton, 2007)

2. You make a unique contribution to work (Drucker, 1999)3. Your organization creates value in society (Ghoshal et al.,

2001)4. You work with others to accomplish something important

(Ravn, 2009)

3. When is work meaningful?

1. Use of strengths

3. Value creation

4. Productive community

2. Contribution


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• Goals are unclear: Exactly what are we supposed to accomplish (that will connect us to something larger)?

• Manager talks too much and it’s not relevant to me

• Discussions are unfocused and incoherent• Meeting participants are passive, bored and alienated• = A meeting often disconnects participants from any larger

organizational whole or meaning.

4. Meetings often sorely lack meaning


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• To be involved and have a say in the organization is meaningful because it connects you to the larger whole

• The organizational meeting is potentially a forum for this• We did an intervention study in Denmark: Three

partnerships (bank, local government, state agency) (Ravn, 2013, 2014)

• Intervention: We trained 105 managers in meeting facilitation

5. Our intervention research on meetings

• Pre- and post-measurements (survey): Does this increase meaning and value creation, as seen by the participants?


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• ”Do you contribute through the meeting?” Pre: 50%, post: 66%

• ”At the beginning of the meeting, is it clear what the overall purpose of each agenda item is?” Pre: 12%, post: 41%

• Management group meeting4 times a year, full day, 15 branch managers.Hardly any involvementWe redesigned for meaning-ful participation

6. The bank: Some results


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1. Sit next to a (relative) stranger – and talk to her”How does my work connect with that of my peers?”

2. Specify meeting goals“The importance of this agenda item for our work is…”

3. Anchoring the meeting goals ”What can you contribute towards the shared goal?”

7. Redesign: Processes that create meaning (a)


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4. Co-creationTop management present ideas-in-progress, involve middle managers, use their feedback

5. Best practice in small groupsKnowledge sharing & creation. Making sure your peers see and appreciate your contribution

6. Two consultants, free of chargeHelping someone with their challenge. Connects you with their work

8. Redesign: Processes that create meaning (b)


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• Identify a recent work task that you did well and which you found connected you to a larger wholeness in your life (Silent reflection, 2 minute)

1. Find a person you don’t know and tell him/her about it (5 minutes)

9. Meaning process #5: Best practice in dyads

3. That person responds by picking out one important thing you and telling you.

4. Switch roles (12 minutes)


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1. Meeting type: Information meeting with presentation. Do inter-action before and after (other than Q and A)

2. Optimize seating, so people can see each other3. At the start: Meet people 4. The six processes that create meaning (slides 9+10)5. Dyad task tries on the presented material6. Questions? Grab us in the hall, now or later7. Individual take-aways for maximum impact: Team up in

triads on your way out (unless you have to rush). Introduce yourselves. Tell each other about best your best outcome from this session.

10. Meeting techniques today


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Dewey, J. (1910). How we think. Dutton.Drucker, P. (1999). Management challenges for the 21th century.

Harper.Eagleton, T. (2007). The meaning of life. Oxford University Press. Ghoshal, S., Barlett, C. A., & Moran, P. (1999). A new manifesto for

manage-ment. Sloan Management Review, 40(3): 9-20.Ravn, I. (2009). Meaning in Work Life: Definition and

Conceptualization. First World Congress on Positive Psychology, Philadelphia, PA, USA, June 18-21.

Ravn, I. (2013). A folk theory of meetings – and beyond. European Business Review, 25(2), 163-173.

Ravn, I. (2014). Training managers to facilitate their meetings. International Journal of Management Practice 7(1): 70-87.

Seligman, Martin (2002). Authentic happiness. New York: The Free Press.

Seligman, Martin (2011). Flourish. New York: The Free Press.

11. Literature

Meaning at W ork: Using Meetings in the Organization to Create Meaning for Participants

Documents

Transcript of Meaning at W ork: Using Meetings in the Organization to Create Meaning for Participants