The upper echelon is hoarding money and privilege to a degree not seen in decades. But that doesn’t make them happy at work.
Charles Duhigg – Writer
In COVID time, VUCANs need to ask two key questions. The first is ‘What’s the meaning of your life’?
VUCANs have a growing and dawning consciousness that conventional success through work needs to be balanced against a higher principle. The higher-order principle may be the desire of making the planet a better place or spending more time with your family or giving back in some manner. For others, meaning is defined in terms of context, specifically success. Success may mean finishing a project on time and on budget. Success may mean having a comfortable income.
The second question is: ‘How will you measure your life’? Clayton Christiansen, father of contemporary disruption, developed a Harvard Business School (HBS) course answering the same question. The purpose of the course was to engage very bright VUCANs to reflect on their lives and disrupt it intentionally. He saw many successful VUCANs were horribly unhappy with divorces and substance abuse.
What happened? HBS grads were the generation’s ‘best and brightest’ but against conventional wisdom were the unhappiest What happened? Christensen asked 3 profound questions:
- How can you be sure you’ll be successful and happy in your career?
- How can you be sure your family, close friends, and workrelationships are a long-term source of happiness?
- How can you be sure that you’ll live a life of integrity, engagement, and purpose?
Work Lesson Earned: So, what’s the meaning and measure of YOUR life?