Creating Meaning in Project Work

Associating Meaning with what you do is critical to your achievements on the project. Let us read a famous story about cleaning work in a Pharmaceutical Company.
This is a story about attitude towards work in a Public Sector and a Private Sector company. Large Public sectors are known for its bureaucracy whereas Private sector are known for its agility. A sweeper joins a Public sector. On his joining day, he goes to see the departmental head to understand the job responsibilities. When the new employee introduces himself, the boss says, “I know, you are XYZ joining this company as a grade IV employee”. Without offering him a chair, the boss continues: “Your duty is to sweep the floor and keep the toilets clean”.
Now imagine yourself in sweeper’s shoes. What could have happened to your pride? In Public sectors sweepers are known for absenteeism from their work. They are also looked upon as habitual drunkards.

Now, Lets take the case of a well managed Private sector. The same sweeper joins and reports to his department. As soon as he enters the cabin, the boss smilingly asks him to take a chair. He welcomes him with a cup of tea. He explains to him “We are in health care business. Even a small particle of dust might kill a patient. Your job is very important and you have to ensure that the drugs being manufactured here should not carry even a single dust particle. Your efficient work will save many lives. The ability to create meaning in the job makes a great impact that you get a sincere, devoted employee who takes extra precaution to maintain cleanliness around without being absent for a single day. If you go to a public sector the situation is totally different you need not ask where is the toilet?.

On a personal note, I do not believe in Public sector Vs Private Sector. Instead you have difference in attitude in a well managed company Vs a bureaucratic company. Let us look at the meaning behind the job. In the second case the manager was very successful in creating a meaning in the job of the sweeper. He could provide the purpose of his existence. The meaning in the job is the ultimate thing; it applies equally to all walks of life. Be it a software project, a construction project or a routine work of sweeping the floor.

Let’s take an example from the Software industry. The company got a project from the Head Quarter (i.e. an Internal work). The work was to build a Saas based system for core business of the company. The technology to be used was .NET and the database to be used was SQL. If you happen to ask a team member about his/her job profile, you will get a typical answer like “I am developing a software using .NET & SQL as database”. Don’t you think this member is doing same thing what the sweeper was doing in the first case? The answer is “Yes”. I think we rarely look at the project and work for creating a meaning in it. If you are able to create a meaning and the resources are able to correlate with that meaning, it gives a huge boost to the morale of the team. The motivation level of the resources working on the project also goes up, which contributes to project success.

Normally in Software Company people do not like working for an internal project. This product was being built first time in the world for Localization market. It is a Saas based product. The product is very core to Chairman’s vision. Let me attempt giving a meaning to the work the team was doing here. I am summarizing the same in two bullets:
• The team is creating history in the world in Localization space and empowering the users to have the best of the breed solutions for their problems.
• The team is working for Chairman of the company

I believe this meaning creation has tremendous impact on the team morale. When I discussed this with the team, I noticed the glow on the faces of the people. I saw a sense of importance among the team members. I would like to state that one of the KRA’s of a Project manager has to create meaning in the work the team does. This gives birth to a sense of Pride in all people. It brings empowerment and finally makes a project successful. It is simple and does not costs a thing but “It works”.