Very Real Meaning

By | September 24, 2008

Umair Haque posted about the importance of meaning in next-generation businesses and institutions on his Harvard Business Publishing blog, asserting that it’s a key ingredient of the businesses that will replace the ones that are falling down around us.

I agree with him and am fascinated by the idea that this qualitative quality is emerging as a very real component of next-gen business.

I commented on the post because I thought the notion of meaning as a driver of business in a connected, information-rich world needed to be drawn out further, which I know is exactly what Umair intends. Here it is:

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I’ve been waiting for this post, Umair.

As you say, institutional decay . . . and the new DNA that will replace it. That’s right on and thanks for articulating it so clearly and succinctly (the chatter most definitely dies down in the face of this insight).

I’d like to draw out the necessity of meaning more, though, because intuitively I get it and agree, but I don’t think the link between meaning and next-generation businesses (and institutions . . . or as institutions) is totally clear.

What I do know is that in a connected economy people – us – own the business environment and the products and services that flow from it . . . and, increasingly, from us.

And so, what is meaningful to people and groups/communities naturally becomes the background field for what they pay attention to, interact with, buy, and so on – and that field of meaning, even if it’s unconscious, is going to, particularly as more industries and institutions collapse, get richer and deeper.

In the absence or reduction of structure (. . . but above chaos), people will simply ask themselves more often: “What do I want?”

GenY and what they “expect” in the workplace is a good example of meaning exerting its influence – individually and culturally – on the less encumbered: http://snipurl.com/3tkz4

Meaning, of course, means different things to different people, and can be extremely low grade, so, obviously, we need radical new institutions, too, for helping people cultivate quality meaning, and I know a lot of educators are already working on that.

But, assuming that can be done, then, yes, I think meaning, in a connected economy/culture, must – as in no choice – be tied to business strategy, value, and success.

I also think that meaning as a business driver is going to be the hardest thing for most people to understand. It just seems so foreign to the way business has been done for a dozen decades.

But in a way, it’s so simple. It just comes back to information, to connected people with zero-cost information at their disposal.

Obviously, they’re going to ask themselves, in this prevalent information context, what should I do with this information in my “communities, networks, and markets”? Meaning is going to drive that to a large extent.

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