The meaningful work economy

There is one emerging scenario in today's uncertain and volatile world that I believe is very likely to emerge, at least in part, and impact industries and work far and wide.

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As a member of the National Board of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS), I recently participated in a scenario planning exercise with Randy Park to lead into strategic planning for our association.  We identified many factors changing in the years to come, and, naturally, the economy came up as a significant concern, along with different generations, changing demographics and other issues.

Based on some of the critical issues identified, we started to identify possible future scenarios.  Let me state here that the purpose of scenario planning is not to predict the future, but to identify a range of possible future scenarios so you can better plan for the future.  However, that said, one scenario emerged that I believe will take shape in some form in the next few years.

During our discussion with the CAPS board on the economy, we started identifying possible extreme scenarios of the economy staying sluggish, and business going more local, and the 'opposite' of the economy taking off again. As we debated these options, it occurred to me that there was a third pole that was, to me, far more likely to emerge - the Meaningful Work Economy.

Boomers have saved their entire lives for retirement, only to have it all disappear overnight, it seems.  There seems to be an awakening (finally) that money and material gains aren't all there is.  Add to this the fact that the younger generation (Gen Y/Nexus) won't be workaholics just for the sake of work like the Boomers are (and even Gen X to a large extent).  They want meaningful work, and if it is meaningful, they will work long hours.

Customers, too, want to make a difference and to work with organizations that make a difference.

If there is any opportunity in all that we've been going through the past several months, I think it's an awakening to the fact that materialism just isn't enough any more.  We need to have purpose.  We need to have meaning in what we do.  We need to make a difference.

And that will be (is?) a pretty cool awakening.

That's my 2 cents.  What do you think?