Subject: gainful employment vs meaningful work draft

Subject: gainful employment vs meaningful work draft

Larry Loebig

Research and Opinions

WISR Seminar Research – Re-imagining Work and our roles as wage earners.

Humans are by their very nature “meaning makers”. We can find meaning where apparently none exists. We can find it in the stars, in the cards, in omens; in major crisis and minor nuances. Meaningful work is a state of mind. Whatever the job - it probably has meaning and purpose for someone. Judging from my experience, I have been at times fully engaged, disengaged, and fully disengaged at the workplace.

Take a look at the traditional concepts and obstacles to finding meaning and fulfillment in the employment sector. When it comes to understanding the economy, we are presented with a choice of philosophies. Economy is an artificial system and has the look and feel of natural laws, at best we can find cycles and patterns. Often the state of the economy is interpreted and influenced through ideological filters and belief systems. We find ourselves in what Peter Senge refers to as creative tension. As the tension increases, we get a potential catalytic reaction. In California, we call them earthquakes. In an economic system the tension continually builds between conservative and progressive movements. It appears to be check and balance in a political system set up with intentional check and balance systems. The problem occurs when the balance of power is no longer in balance. Organizations are both social systems and economic systems. In organizational change efforts, we look to creating a common ground a “sense of alignment”.

President Clinton expressed his opinion during his dedication to his Presidential Library in 2004.

“America has two great dominant strands of political thought – (we're represented up here on this stage)-- conservatism, which, at its very best, draws lines that should not be crossed; and progressivism, which, at its very best, breaks down barriers that are no longer needed or should never have been erected in the first place.”

“It seemed to me that in 1992 we needed to do both to prepare America for the 21st century: to be more conservative in things like erasing the deficit and paying down the debt and preventing crime and punishing criminals and protecting and supporting families, and enforcing things like child support laws and reforming the military to meet the new challenges of the 21st century.”

“And we needed to be more progressive in creating good jobs, reducing poverty, increasing the quality of public education, opening the doors of college to all, increasing access to health care, investing more in science and technology, and building new alliances with our former adversaries, and working for peace across the world and peace in America across all the lines that divide us. “

From my perspective, this is an inspiring and well-articulated vision. A uniting progressive overview, that is simple and at the same time comprehensive. It is incumbent upon us to find and create ways to sustain our lives, and our families. It is also necessary to distinguish between meaningful jobs/careers/tasks and having the perfect job. The perfect job may not be possible or even exist. It may not be a practical expectation to seek the one perfect job. How do you either change or create a job…how do we adapt? Can we take the non-meaningful and turn it into something meaningful?

Here we have a blueprint for Socially Responsible Businesses. For those of us involved in SRB (all the stakeholders) I suggest we hold this blueprint and measure it against our jobs and our organizational vision. This assumes there is a vision and purpose beyond “just to make money”. The very definition of SRB is socially responsibility. There are roles and responsibilites for both the SRB and the SRE (socially responsible employee)

President Bill Clinton gave us a challenge and asked the question for us - we need to decide whether or not we are we up for the task. How to get into the socially responsible flow? Finding a meaningful life and finding meaningful work flow is a synchronicity between the challenge we perceive and the perception of our abilities to meet the challenge.

How would things change if we had socially responsible benchmarks?

1. Creating good jobs – meaningful, safe and accessible

2. Reducing poverty – creating gainful employment

3. Increasing the quality of public education -

4. Opening the doors of college to all

5. Increasing access to health care

6. Investing more in science and technology

7. Building new alliances with our former adversaries

8. Working for peace across the world and

9. Working for peace in America across all the lines that divide us.

According to the results of a 2001 Gallup poll 55% of the employees surveyed described themselves as being not engaged at the workplace.

55% of the Work force is not engaged

· 40 hours a week,

· 1,920 hours a year

· 76,800 hours emcompassing a 40 year career

Disengaged for 76,000 hours of work life over a lifetime, might this affect the other aspects of our life? What is the conditioned behavior of 76,000 hours of disengagement?

In the United States, there is a great-untapped power in the will of the majority in a democratic society. In looking at the number of people who do not vote, I would hazard a guess that we have similar numbers when it comes to active engagement the system of governance. In elections and polls marketing (and selling) ideas, ideologies and attitudes becomes as important and has more at stake then marketing products, goods and services. The biggest obstacle is overcoming human inertia. In order to create change, messages must be delivered to also motivate to action not just inform.

One way to find meaning is by working in message (cause related jobs). When we are in the message business we take on many roles; teachers, trainers, mentors, coaches, consultants, writers, healers, mediators, counselors and advisors – typical jobs where essential elements include information, messages and learning. We will label this group the human helping service professions. Similar groupings would include workers in the arts and the crafts, medical, science and knowledge workers fields generally requiring one to have chosen to pursue that career. These employment roles are powered by choice and are attractive service professions. It’s safe to assume one has had to make considerable conscious effort to attain the skills and experience to practice. Mihaly Chiksenmahaly in Beyond Boredom and Anxiety finds that when all the elements come into place, and we have a perceived and achievable challenge; we experience flow.

Despite the inherent socially responsible benefits we have public school teachers on strike. Recent interviews of teachers found the dissatisfaction with their jobs were caused by being unhappy, feeling powerless and feeling unsafe. There appears to be a creative tension between human and economic concerns. The negotiation concern in many labor negotiations is increasingly about economic agendas. The bottom line has been not about quality of life issues. The economics of business and employment benefit both when they are balanced. However, the focus on the “strike bottom line” is not happiness, empowerment and safety. The strike issues are wages and to a smaller degree benefits. There is some belief that higher wages will create happy, empowered and safe teaching environments. Benefits will create a safer environment for family, peace of mind and security and thus will benefit the entire community. For the employee Benefits Packages and the guarantee of benefits are eroding.

Health and Education will be the cornerstone of success and employability in the Free Agency Service Sector Economy.

As progressives, we are trying to create gainful and meaningful employment. Only 29% of the employees in the US are considered fully engaged at work. The sad truth and most exploitable weakness of the progressive movement has conversely been it’s greatest strength and attractiveness. The capacity for embracing diversity and diverse points of view is also the thing that keeps the progressive movement unfocused. In championing divergent voices, having those differing voices come together and count for change in an ever increasingly complex democratic society becomes increasingly difficult. The Conservatives, on the other hand, have a less diverse agenda and have a more median point of view for their constituency. The conservatives want rule and order. The progressives want freedom and change. From my observation when it comes to work, the Conservatives evaluate the situation as “business economics” and Progressives evaluate the situation as “human economics”. Based on the statistics the progressive approach needs to change if it is going to create gainful and meaningful employment for a majority of Citizens. While the conservatives are running a couple of races the progressives are running a dozen. The working class has traditionally been the base of the progressive movement. 71% of workers are living in some form of work related disengagement.

When I was in Cuba, I observed that all levels of workers contribute to the societal economic infrastructure. Doctors agree to work in rural areas for set, negotiated periods in exchange for education. Professionals agree to work in the fields and produce food in exchange for education. When I spoke with them, they were not always happy with the “field work” or the “manual labor”. However, they did see the purpose.

. If society places such a high value, on money it is important for workers to find ways to be compensated and it is in the best interests of the employers to compensate workers well. We need to make a shift from paying lip service to people are our most important asset to believing it and living it.

How does the mind set of “x style” vs. “y style” managers – (belief systems…not just behaviors) contribute to the workplace? Does X style causes subservience, while Y style causes collaborative environments? Do X style disengaged employees cause X style managers?

The Heskett and Kotter Survey conducted at Harvard University found people performed differently in different environments and cultures. Adaptive Enhanced Workplace Cultures vs. Traditional Workplace (command and control) Cultures

Performance Measure Study

Perf Enhance Culture Command&Control

Revenue Growth 680% 166%

Employment Growth 282% 36%

Stock Price Growth 901% 74%

Net-Income Growth 756% 1%

From Kotter and Heskett 1992

Adaptive Performance enhanced organizations tend to:

Give balanced attention to serving all stakeholders

Be highly energized and aligned on shared common goals

Be receptive to change, responsive to opportunity and dedicated to creative risk taking.

Provide a positive, encouraging environment that builds confidence and morale.

Provide a high trust environment that identifies and confronts problems

Celebrate the wins.

John Kotter - The Eight Steps to Transforming your Organization

1. Establish a sense of urgency

2. Form a powerful guiding coalition

3. Create a Vision

4. Communicate the Vision

5. Empower others to act on the Vision

6. Plan for and create Short Term Wins and celebrate them

7. Produce and adjust changes

8. Institutionalize the new approaches and changes

Defining enlightened progressive organizational cultures – collaborative,

Defining conservative hierarchal organizational cultures – command and control

How does this affect the stakeholders in the workplace?

Socially responsible businesses and employees need to focus on the needs of all stakeholders.

Stakeholders are everyone who is effected by the business.

Stockholders are owners of stock for the purpose of earning money.

Is the answer more education and more ways for the educated to have meaningful work or less education and more entry level lower skill jobs? The Immigrant Law Foundatrion estimates that 43% of all jobs created in the U.S. in the year 2010 will be lower skilled jobs…requiring minimal skills and training. They further advance the argument that the American population is becoming more educated and will have less people available and willing to take the menial and less skilled positions? It is a strong case for a liberalization of legal immigration.

How many people with advanced degrees work in the bean and corn fields, assembly lines or aspire to have careers as bank tellers.

The American worker vs. the global worker. Have American workers become elitist? Does the stratification actually represent a caste system?

According to CNN the poverty level of the US is at 17%, yet the unemployment rate is at 5.2 %. There are close to 60,000,000 us citizens living in poverty. Only 18,000,000 are getting unemployment benefits. We don’t really know how many are unemployed. How many people are employed?

Basic Education Statistics

USA

Cuba

Leader?

Literacy

General literacy rate

97%

96%

Access and participation

School life expectancy (years)

16.0

11.3

USA

Secondary school enrollment

97%

81%

USA

College-level enrollment

81%

13%

USA

Resources

Primary school student-teacher ratio

Cuba

Secondary school student-teacher ratio

Cuba

Public expenditures (% GDP)

5.4

6.7

Cuba

Public expenditures (% gov. budget)

14.4

12.6

USA

Is outsourcing the inevitability of an increasing well educated work force? Education is available to every citizen in the United States. It is also apparently available to every citizen of Cuba. We do compete on a level playing field when we play baseball. Cuba is the leading exporter of medical and technical service professionals in the Caribbean. The discrepancy in school life expectancy in the Cuban system is a 7 year formal education gap. This might be an area of further analysis.

Promotions and leadership in the workplace. Progressive and Conservatives can both find success in the workplace. Progressives and Conservatives must find ways to create and maintain interdevelopmental relationships.

Let’s not confuse meaningful with easy. The task to find meaning might not be the lazy way.

Tom Peters suggests we look at creating WOW projects. Never complacently accept a project just because it needs to be done. This concept is leadership thinking at it’s best – The challenge is for us to all be CEOs – in charge of our own company. As Brian Tracy teaches become Presidents of our own companies. Rethink our relationship from indentured wage slaves to a more free agency operation. There is a growing need for knowledge workers and less of a need for entry level workers. Unions see the need to protect and create jobs in low skills. High turnover and health cost. Repetitious entry level work is first to be replaced by automation. In instances on the farm where plant retention is not an issue automation has replaced human labor. In leadership we need to teach the importance of allowing others to develop WOW in their own lives. By creating wow based cultures do we create wow companies? As progressives one of our roles is to lead others into new territories and challenge old established lines – even our own.

The movement in agreiculture to go back to traditional and by hand methods as a means to feed the world population.

I recently watched a simulation of the consequence of agriculture without advances in technology, biology and automation related to farming. The Testers came to the conclusion that given a back to nature form or raising crops, farms will not be able to raise enough food unless millions of people become farmers. There is some antidotal evidence from conversations with folks at the farmers market. One of the challenges facing the family farm was the turnover rate in the family. If we were to go back to hand crafted farms, non-enginereed and hybrid crops and eliminate pesticides – the worlds farms would produce enough food to feed 3.5 billion people per year. We would move from the capacity for global food abundance and shift to global food scarcity. Its not capacity with our modern methods it’s politics and distribution. Possibly if we made the vision “no one left behind and applied it to being hungry” – farming would once again become meaningful work vs. slave and migrant labor. Running a successful agricultural operation is about knowledge, planning, skill and luck.. Argiculture is benefiting from advanced degrees as science is replacing some of the guesswork.

A majority of the experts in the field agree – we have the technology to feed the world. Where is the honor and meaning in being a farmer and feeding the world?

We want to end world hunger. We want cheap plentiful food. We want higher farm wages and benefits. We want to keep the doors open for migrant farm workers. Technology development will be instituted when labor becomes more expensive then technology. We want family farms. We want organic produce. We want cheap housing. We want land to build. There is less land to grow food. We need higher yields from less land. We need river water for the farming community. We need to keep our rivers pristine for salmon and rafting. I found all the above uncompromising positions being espoused at a recent California Democratic Convention.

I am not surprised that we have organizational conflict. I am surprised that organizations can be efficient and I am amazed that anything gets done.

Keep in mind – there are many forms of currency. There is a tendency to weigh too heavily the value of money and this gives it greater weight. Do you want money or what money can do for you? Money is not the only solution; it is only one of the solutions. In coaching we work with our clients to develop understandings and distinctions that contribute to changing attitudes.

26 Ways coaching clients created a sense of meaningful work vs. gainful employment

1. Be well compensated and be challenged

2. Get your needs met – needs are not optional

3. The job has Great Benefits – peace of mind and security

4. Perks and rewards ( there are 150 ways to reward with giving someone a raise)

5. Flexibility (time, job sharing)

6. Education and training

7. Social responsibility – contributing

8. Sense of personal responsibility and control

9. Peer respect and societal pressure. Getting recognition

10. Causes and ideologies (associations, clubs, schools)

11. location, location, location

12. Gainful Experience – moving toward something else

13. Promotion, entry and mobility

14. Ownership (vesting, stock, partnerships, employee owned)

15. Principals and values (ex: professionals working for a purpose)

16. Duty (god, country, family)

17. Obligation, guilt, musting and shoulding

18. Understanding the desperation vs. being desperate… this is a changing situation.

19. Volunteering somewhere, doing it for free and recognition and the greater good.

20. Finding things that make you feel good.

21. Understanding the alternatives –

22. Believing in the product or service

23. Prestige

24. Feel valued

25. Socialization - Work as a social connection.

26. Take care of the needs of others

As progressives, we need to be breaking down the barriers and even going so far as challenging lines that should never be crossed. Meeting the Progressive benchmarks is a possibility. Creating the desired change will require new actions.

People Qutting their jobs is the highest since 2001.

By Barbara Hagenbaugh, USA TODAY April 2006

WASHINGTON — Firms haven't been quick to hire this year, but there are signs workers are growing more confident about the job market, suggesting better times might be on the way.

One of those signs came Friday when the Labor Department said the percentage of workers who were jobless in May because they voluntarily quit — not because they were laid off or fired — rose to the highest level in nearly four years. A seasonally adjusted 12.3% of workers who were jobless in May had quit, up from 11.7% in April and the highest percentage since August 2001.

The number of Americans entering the labor force rose for the fourth-consecutive month, suggesting more people feel confident they can find a job. That brought the labor force participation rate, which measures the percentage of working-age people who either have a job or are looking for work, to 66.1%, the highest level since November.

• The unemployment rate fell to 5.1% in May from 5.2% in April, the lowest since September 2001. The unemployment rate is calculated from a survey of households, while the job-creation figures come from a survey of businesses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~