The Song of Significance

We owe our employees a debt. We owe it to our coworkers. And we owe it to our bosses. Work is the expression of our energy and our dreams. We owe those along for the journey the same dignity and connection we would like to receive in return.

the lesson of this manifesto is simple: An organization of any size can effectively move forward by asking, “What do humans need?” What will create significance for those who interact with us?

I surprised myself with what I could accomplish I could work independently The team built something important People treated me with respect Nothing

Yes, we need to make a living. But how do we make a life?

Significance is inconvenient. We’ve built powerful tools. Tools for communication, production, and amplification. Tools that allow humans to leverage their insights and care to produce value for others. And now those tools are there for us to use to make things better. If we choose to. But using these tools well requires our commitment, as bosses a

Significant Organizations Create an Impact They earn more money. Attract better employees. Change more lives. Raise more donations. Offer better work environments. And the only thing you need to create that impact is to give up merely doing your job and start leading instead. More isn’t the point. Better is.

The work of significance embraces the very things that industrialism seeks to stamp out. Significance is inconvenient.

Industrial capitalism (industrialism) seeks to use power to create profits. Market capitalism seeks to solve problems to make a profit.

It’s tempting to simply want more of that. All of the corporate commercial upsides along with the best job you ever had. But the stopwatch comes for all of us. If we are going to compete with those who seek the perfection of industrial capitalism, we should know that they will out-measure, out-standardize, and out-manage us. It’s a race to the bott