Early in humankind’s existence, we stumbled upon several meaning making determinants that appeared most productive and that led to the creation of systems and processes to support the nearly constant human pursuit of meaning. According to Steger, Oishi, and Kashdan (2009) these include self-purpose, self-value, self-efficacy and self-worth. The systems, processes, and institutions that have supported human meaning making over the millennia have enjoyed casual acceptance and only iterative changes until the 17th century. Even through the revolutionary changes in meaning making through the Industrial Revolution and the advent of the Information Age, these values appear to hold constant. Meaning itself may shift because life offers the opportunity of constructive and or objective second thought, but the guiding values of the process do not appear to shift or change.
We find at the root of meaning making values: things we care about and that have proven to lead to meaning in the past. It appears, certain combinations may provide more meaning than others, but the evidence is only provided by anecdotal accounts, not by rigorous scientific study. Benjamin Franklin’s thoughts on values add clarifying insight:

We stand at the crossroads, each minute, each hour, each day, making choices. We choose the thoughts we allow ourselves to think, the passions we allow ourselves to feel, and the actions we allow ourselves to perform. Each choice is made in the context of whatever value system we’ve selected to govern our lives. In selecting that value system, we are, in a very real way, making the most important choice we will ever make.

John Dewey famously wrote in the context of meaning in an external setting, “Values: Things that matter, objects one desires or holds dear. The term may have a social or cultural meaning, referring to values held in common. There is no genuine social unity without values (valued objects) held in common” . The modern workplace plays a primary role in creating these valued meaning making experiences.

Next week we will begin to look more closely at the key meaning making principles that leaders must not only understand, but practice.

Values and Principles

Principles are external natural laws, that is, “laws whose content are set by nature and that therefore have validity everywhere” (Natural Law, 2010, para. 1). Stephen Covey (2010) suggests, principles are “universal and timeless,” (para. 3) applying to everyone, everywhere, all the time. The word “values” is often used interchangeably with principles. They are, however very different. Values are defined as “Worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor; utility or merit… a quality considered worthwhile or desirable” (2010, para. 1). In the context of this paper, values are “…internal and subjective. Covey proclaims that values govern people’s behavior, but principles ultimately determine the consequences” (2010, para. 3). There may be social input components to values, but values are ultimately personal.

That we are meaning driven beings is less in dispute than why we are meaning focused, even meaning obsessed at times. Frankl noted that “meaning differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour” (as cited in Viktor Frankl: A Man’s Search for Meaning, 2010, para. 15). Whatever the origins of the human desire for obtaining meaning, it is clear that the desire exists. We must, however, be clear that we don’t jump to conclusion and enthusiastically toss all motivations and desires into the search for meaning basket. As Frankl and others point out, the desire to live a “worthwhile” life is not the same thing as striving for a “meaningful” life. However varied and unique the desire for meaning in life, there are other driving interests of fulfillment. This is important to recognize as we attempt to define the key principles of meaning making. And thus “knowing that meaningfulness analytically concerns a variable and gradient final good in a person's life that is conceptually distinct from happiness, rightness, and worthwhileness [among other motivators and goals] provides a certain amount of common ground” (Meaning of Life, 2007, para. 13) for the discovery of guiding principles.