How to Work Like You Give a Sh#%
Have you stopped giving a sh#%? Do you find that you’re dragging yourself to your desk later and later each day? Are you overwhelmed by feelings of ennui, job envy and excessive daydreaming about starting an organic radish farm? If this sounds like you, ask your healthcare provider about Purposin, sold in pharmacies and businesses near you as “Purpose”.
With Purpose, you’ll have the energy and vitality that you remember from your early career. You’ll experience increased alertness, feel positive about getting out of bed, and regain the drive to take on big projects and create change that others will notice. Side effects may include making new friends in the office, career success and wanting to talk about your work.
In the last year, many of us have experienced a mental shift. We’ve lost the desire to be in roles that provide a pay-check but nothing more. Workers are turning their backs on employers in droves: April, July and August all broke resignation records this year, as people gave the middle finger to jobs that demanded too much, paid too little and…. You guessed it… offered no sense of purpose.
Right now it seems like we may be in the eye of the tornado. The Great Resignation is only just getting started, and it’s impossible to predict what the future of work will look like as businesses across the globe shift to permanent work from home or hybrid work models, retail and hospitality workers walk out en masse thanks to absurdly low pay and poor conditions, and hundreds of thousands people start businesses to take control of their lives and find work that means something to them. You know, purpose.
This search for meaning isn’t just you and me responding to the very real traumas of the last two years, although that’s part of it too. There’s something bigger going on, from the Black Lives Matter movement, to a huge increase in ESG investing ($130 trillion in sustainable finance, for example – thanks, Mark Carney), to employees actively looking to work for socially responsible companies, to customers pushing businesses to do better, shunning plastic packaging, choosing meat alternatives, asking about the working conditions of the people that make their t-shirts.
For the first time in a long time, the world seems to give a sh#%. Do you? And if your business doesn’t give a sh#% right now, but you think it would like to, how do you begin? (Hint – it’s not with more fibre).
What Do You Give a Sh#% About?
It’s not possible to give a sh#% about everything. It’s just not. We all have limits on our attention, energy, time and resources. If you’re dedicated to ending homelessness, it’s unlikely you can also immerse yourself in animal welfare causes, even if you LOVE animals, and stop to pet every dog you see (even the angry handbag ones).
So you need to spend some time figuring out where to direct your sh#%s. That means finding a purpose that aligns with the work of your business – that way you have a cohesive and logical story to tell investors, current and prospective employees, and customers. I.e., the people who give a sh#% about your business (see below).
What does this look like? Well, if you’re a building firm that donates to cancer research, people will probably say, “that’s nice”, and immediately forget that you do it. It just doesn’t quite click, even though everyone can agree it’s an important cause. Let’s say, though, that you’re a building firm whose purpose is to create safe and happy homes for your community. And as part of this, you partner with a nonprofit to build cabins for people experiencing homelessness, or you renovate the kitchen of the local women’s shelter. NOW you have a purpose that makes sense. Now you have a story to tell.
(Of course, purpose goes beyond giving money and doing nice things for people. It’s about how you show up every day, in all your interactions. You can find out more about that here.)
Who Gives a Sh#%?
People care about your business. The people you employ, your suppliers, partners, investors, your mom. They all have sh#% to give, so how can you help them continue to feel that way?
These people are your stakeholders, and by having a clear purpose (and living it, the living it bit is very important), you’re helping them to understand that their support makes an impact that goes beyond lining people’s pockets.
Why? Because your stakeholders are human too. They also experience ennui, regret, joy… they too feel overwhelmed by the competing demands of unwashed dishes, kids who need help with math, and emails that keep coming in like the tide. All those human feelings. But when they get to contribute to an organization with purpose, it lifts them up. When your story aligns with the story they want to be telling themselves – a story of impact, making a mark on the world, no matter how small – they find ways to become a character in that story.
Who Reads this Sh#%?
You probably subscribe to all sorts of mailing lists that you know you should read. Business news, updates related to your field, emails from the nonprofit you once donated to. You had good intentions when you signed up, you really did mean to read them. It’s just that there are SO. DAMN. MANY. So many. How do they keep coming?
We have limited time and even more limited attention, and as humans, we prioritize what we truly care about. It’s why you read the email from the Raptors, but not the one about falling commodity prices in the prairies. Or whatever. We also have a radar for the inauthentic (or, while we’re on a roll here, things that are full of sh#%). You instinctively know that the boxing gym owner now trying to sell you bitcoin probably doesn’t have your best interests at heart, and that the guy who describes himself as a “digital evangelist” on LinkedIn is absolutely running a multi-level marketing scam.
We search for authenticity, because it’s the thing that enables true connection. When people communicate in a way that’s vulnerable, that shows their quirks, their foibles, their weird, we respond, because suddenly we feel safe to do the same. We trust. Organizations that have purpose and truth in their story, and tell it authentically, make us want to engage.
In short: If you want people to read your sh#%, it’s not just about knowing sh#%. It’s about keeping sh#% real.
What’s the Point of this Sh#%?
This is your friendly reminder that in a world that keeps asking us to look a certain way, act a certain way, to pursue certain socially acceptable paths, those that truly stand out are those that don’t give a sh#% about conforming. They’re the ones that give a sh#% about living.
It doesn’t matter whether your business is setting out to cure childhood illness or raise billions in capital. What you do can truly make an impact, if you understand your purpose.
It is possible to work like you give a sh#%.
