AARHUS UNIVERSITY Meaning at Work: Using Meetings in the Organization to Create Meaning for Participants Fourth World Congress on Positive Psychology, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA June 24-28, 2015 Nina Tange and Ib Ravn Research Program on Organization and Learning, Department of Education, Aarhus University, Campus Copenhagen and Website:

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY What is meaning? 2 1. Today’s program Meaning at work and in meetings Meaning-creating processes in meetings

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY Positive emotions. Engagement. Relationships. Meaning. Accomplishment. The meaningful life: Using you signature strengths in the service of something larger than yourself (Seligman, 2002, p. 263) “We grasp the meaning of objects and events by taking them out of their apparent brute isolation and finding them to be parts of some larger whole, which explains them, that is, renders them significant” (Dewey, 1910, p. 117) 3 2. Meaning in PERMA (Seligman, 2011)

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY 1.You use your strengths & realize your potentials (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) 2.You make a unique contribution (Crocker et al., 2006) 3.Your organization creates value in society (Ghoshal et al., 2001) 4.You work w. others to accomplish sth. important (Baumeister & Leary, 1995) 4 3. When is work meaningful? (Ravn, 2009) 1. Use of strengths 3. Value creation 4. Productive community 2. Contribution

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY Goals are unclear: Exactly what are we supposed to accomplish (that will connect us to something larger)? Manager talks too much and it’s not relevant to me Discussions are unfocused and incoherent (Allen et al., 2015) Meeting participants are passive, bored and alienated = A meeting often disconnects participants from any larger organizational whole or meaning Meetings often lack meaning (Rogelberg et al., 2010)

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY The organizational meeting is potentially a forum for creating meaning at work – if it addresses the four factors We did an intervention study in Denmark: Three partnerships (bank, local government, state agency) (Ravn, 2013, 2014) Intervention: We trained 105 managers in meeting facilitation 6 5. Our intervention research on meetings Pre- and post-measurements (survey): Does this increase meaning and value creation, as seen by the participants?

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY ”Do you contribute through the meeting?” Pre: 50%, post: 66% ”At the beginning of the meeting, is it clear what the overall purpose of each agenda item is?” Pre: 12%, post: 41% Management group meeting 4 times a year, full day, 15 branch managers. Hardly any involvement. We redesigned for meaningful participation The bank: Some results

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY 1.Specify meeting goals “The importance of this agenda item for our work is…” (Steger, Dik & Duffy, 2012) 2.Talk in pairs – with a relevant other “How do we use our strengths? – and contribute the best we can?” (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). “How does my work connect with that of my peers?” 3.Anchoring the meeting goals ” How and what can you contribute towards the shared goal?” 8 7. Redesign: Processes that create meaning (a)

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY 9 8. Redesign: Processes that create meaning (b) 4.Co-creation Top management present ideas-in- progress, involve middle managers (through talk in pairs) & use their feedback 5.Best practice in small groups Making sure peers see, appreciate and learn from your contribution and positive deviance (Spreitzer & Sonenshein, 2003) 6.Two consultants, free of charge Helping someone with their challenge. Connects you with their work & them (Dutton & Ragins, 2007)

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY Identify a recent work task that you did well and which you found connected you to a larger wholeness in your life (Silent reflection, 2 minutes) 1.Find a person you don’t know and tell him/her about it (5 minutes) Meaning process #5: Best practice in dyads 3.That person responds by picking out one important thing you said and telling it to you. (1 minute) 4.Switch roles (again: minutes)

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY 1.Meeting type: Information meeting with presentation. Do interaction before and after (other than Q and A) 2.Optimize seating, so people can see each other 3.At the start: Meet people 4.The six processes that create meaning (slides 9+10) 5.Dyad task digests the presented material 6.Silent reflection – lets everyone think 7.Questions? “Grab us in the hall, now or later!” 8.Individual take-aways for maximum impact: (1) Unless you have to rush, you team up in triads on your way out. (2) Introduce yourselves. (3) Tell each other about your best outcome from this session Meeting techniques today

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY Allen, J.A., Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., & Rogelberg, S.G. (eds.)(2015). The Cambridge handbook of meeting science. Cambridge University Press. Baumeister, R.F., & Leary, M.R. (1995). The need to belong: desire for inter- personal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497. Dewey, J. (1910). How we think. New York: Dutton. Crocker, J. (2008). From egosystem to ecosystem: Implications for relationships, learning, and well-being. Wayment, H.A. & Bauer, J.J. (eds): Transcending self-interest: Psychological explorations of the quiet ego (pp ). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association. Dutton, J.E., and Ragins, B.R. (eds.)(2007). Exploring positive relationships at work: Building a theoretical and research foundation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Ghoshal, S., Barlett, C.A., & Moran, P. (1999). A new manifesto for management. Sloan Management Review, 40(3): Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Oxford University Press Literature (a)

I Nina Tange and Ib Ravn AARHUS UNIVERSITY Ravn, I. (2009). Meaning in Work Life: Definition and Conceptualization. First World Congress on Positive Psychology, Philadelphia, PA, USA, June Ravn, I. (2013). A folk theory of meetings – and beyond. European Business Review, 25(2), Ravn, I. (2014). Training managers to facilitate their meetings. International Journal of Management Practice 7(1): Rogelberg, S.G., Allen, J. A., Shanock, L., Scott, C., & Shuffler, M. (2010). Employee satisfaction with meetings: A contemporary facet of job satisfaction. Human Resource Management, 49(2), 149. Seligman, M.E.P. (2002). Authentic happiness. New York: The Free Press. Seligman, M.E.P. (2011). Flourish. New York: The Free Press. Spreitzer, G. M., & Sonenshein, S. (2003). Positive deviance and extraordinary organizing. In: Cameron, K. S., Dutton, J. E., & Quinn, R. E. (eds.): An introduction to positive organizational scholarship. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. (pp ). Steger, M. F., Dik, B. J., & Duffy, R. D. (2012). Measuring meaningful work: The Work and Meaning Inventory (WAMI). Journal of Career Assessment, 20, 322– Literature (b)