June 2022 Actionable Takeaways
3 Actionable Takeaways
Take 60 seconds to answer one or more of the following questions — we also highly encourage you to try this with colleagues and/or loved ones!
- How can you better align your purpose with your career?
At the end of a workday, write down all the things you did that day. Circle the things you did first because you were excited about them, as well as the things you did last because you waited to do them when your other annoying tasks were out of the way. Those things you circled are the things that give you energy. Those were the things that connected to your sense of purpose. Do this for a month, and compile all those things your circled. Then meet with the people you work with, and explore how you can sculpt more of your job around those things. See if they will allow you to focus your attention on what you’re best at and what makes you feel alive. Explore whether you can hand off some of the other things either to technology or to other colleagues. From there, support your colleagues as they endeavor to do the same.
- How can you supercharge your hiring practices to level up your adaptive advantage?
Hire for cultural fit, cultural add, cultural evolution, and learning agility. Companies that hire based upon skill and past experience will be circling the drain. Many organizations that move fast realize it’s absurd to hire somebody into a position because, within 18 months, the job will change. Instead, you need people who align with what you believe, your why, and how you work. Attract people based on your beliefs, and screen people for that alignment. They have to have the baseline skills to do whatever the first job is, but you need to know they will just as quickly unlearn and relearn for whatever job’s going to be next.
- How can you better prepare yourself and your organization to embrace the future of work?
This is the first time in history when we’ve been able to rethink work at every level, and it’s a profound opportunity. To understand the shifts taking place, we have to look toward the future through these five lenses:
- Why We Work: We first worked for survival, then we worked for identity and status, and now we’re working for purpose. We want to join organizations that share our values, and we want to impact, especially after a pandemic that changed where work takes place and where work fits in our lives. How can we elevate our organizations to better deliver purpose?
- What We Do: We often train people to do routine and predictable tasks, even at high cognitive levels and mainly in isolation. Technology is stripping many of these routine tasks away. How can we elevate our team’s contributions with more meaningful work?
- How We Work: Successful leaders today inspire human potential. They’re connecting, coaching, removing obstacles, and helping people be successful. How can we ensure the leaders in our organization are best positioned and encouraged to help others to shine?
- Where We Work: How often do we need to go to the office? How often do we need to meet in person? How can we elevate the location of our work to maximize our people’s ability to deliver consistently?
- Who Works: In the West, the workforce was built for the straight white male who had a wife at home to manage caregiving responsibilities, resulting in hurdles for anyone who doesn’t fit that profile today. How can we elevate our businesses to better suit everyone who is working today?
- Why We Work: We first worked for survival, then we worked for identity and status, and now we’re working for purpose. We want to join organizations that share our values, and we want to impact, especially after a pandemic that changed where work takes place and where work fits in our lives. How can we elevate our organizations to better deliver purpose?