According to this article in Scientific American, there is a fair bit of psychological research into how we find meaning and happiness in our lives. The two are often correlated; feeling that our lives have meaning helps to make us happy, although sometimes short-term happiness has to take back seat to longer term personal development. 
Purpose is one key aspect of meaning. It is not surprising that people feel greater satisfaction when they feel their lives have purpose, and that much of the literature on business leadership talks about motivating people by giving them a clear sense of purpose. The classic (and possibly apocryphal) story is that of the NASA cleaner who, when asked what his job was for, replied that he was helping to send a man to walk on the moon.
My academic friends tend to have a clear sense of purpose for much of their work. They see their students learn. They see their research grow, one paper at a time. In the support groups of Universities, that ideal is still present, although we tend to be more removed from seeing the benefits of our work. (I like to remind my colleagues that our job is to support the academics who do the real work of the University).
My University’s mission statement is clear: we are here to create, disseminate and curate knowledge, by pursuing excellence in teaching and excellence in research. But in our day-to-day tasks, that sense of purpose tends to be swallowed by bureaucracy, by process or by routine. Instead, we are trying to complete a project, or to maintain service levels, or to follow a process, or to win money from the next round of funding. (This last applies to academics too!).
Even when we do look beyond our immediate tasks, the language we use tends to hinder rather than help. “Alignment with University strategy” is a mind-numbing way of saying that a project will help students to pursue their education. The sector-wide talk of “enhancing the student experience” is no better: we should focus less on an abstract idea of “the student experience”. If we concentrate instead on helping actual students, the “student experience” will follow naturally.
So when we are doing benefits analysis for our projects and plans, perhaps we should drop the management-speak and simply explain what each project will mean for students or for researchers. And make sure that every member of staff, and every contractor, gets to see the how the work they do on a day-to-day basis contributes to supporting our students through their education or to supporting our staff in their research. Benefits mapping should not be an abstract exercise; the people who did the work should get to see the results.
Purpose is one key aspect of meaning. It is not surprising that people feel greater satisfaction when they feel their lives have purpose, and that much of the literature on business leadership talks about motivating people by giving them a clear sense of purpose. The classic (and possibly apocryphal) story is that of the NASA cleaner who, when asked what his job was for, replied that he was helping to send a man to walk on the moon.
My academic friends tend to have a clear sense of purpose for much of their work. They see their students learn. They see their research grow, one paper at a time. In the support groups of Universities, that ideal is still present, although we tend to be more removed from seeing the benefits of our work. (I like to remind my colleagues that our job is to support the academics who do the real work of the University).
My University’s mission statement is clear: we are here to create, disseminate and curate knowledge, by pursuing excellence in teaching and excellence in research. But in our day-to-day tasks, that sense of purpose tends to be swallowed by bureaucracy, by process or by routine. Instead, we are trying to complete a project, or to maintain service levels, or to follow a process, or to win money from the next round of funding. (This last applies to academics too!).
Even when we do look beyond our immediate tasks, the language we use tends to hinder rather than help. “Alignment with University strategy” is a mind-numbing way of saying that a project will help students to pursue their education. The sector-wide talk of “enhancing the student experience” is no better: we should focus less on an abstract idea of “the student experience”. If we concentrate instead on helping actual students, the “student experience” will follow naturally.
So when we are doing benefits analysis for our projects and plans, perhaps we should drop the management-speak and simply explain what each project will mean for students or for researchers. And make sure that every member of staff, and every contractor, gets to see the how the work they do on a day-to-day basis contributes to supporting our students through their education or to supporting our staff in their research. Benefits mapping should not be an abstract exercise; the people who did the work should get to see the results.
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