Recently, I’ve been thinking about the idea of significance. If you read the last article I published on LinkedIn, you know that I recently re-read “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown and “Building a Second Brain” by Tiago Forte. Both of those books talk about the sheer volume of information that is coming at us each day and how to filter through that knowledge for the most important components, and then how to store those valuable bits for later.

We can add the book I read this week to the pile, “The Song of Significance” by Seth Godin. His new book {a manifesto for teams} has such an interesting framework–short passages that articulate the current state of affairs in many organizations and how leaders can proactively build teams around significance, increase, and safety. (I’m a sucker for leadership books that use nature to illustrate their point, and this one is built around the idea of honeybees. He had me from the jump.)

The idea still continues to resonate in my own mind: what is the most significant thing we can be thinking about, doing, capturing, talking about in a particular setting? What is just noise, habit, a default way of being or thinking that we need to rid ourselves of? Perhaps it comes down to an intentionality that we find lacking in many scenarios, industries, and teams. We could blame this lack of intentionality on COVID-19 (there’s some legitimacy there), we could blame it on the focus on industrialism/mechanization rather the human element (again, some legitimacy), but regardless of WHY we have this lack of intentionality toward the significant, I am drawn toward the way of the essentialist in this realm.

Godin puts forth that a way of thinking that brings health is “what do humans need”? This creates significance in team interactions, but I would argue that this way of thinking also provides a good backbone for most scenarios in life. To create that organizational psychological safety, managers can ask themselves “what does my team need?”. Maybe it’s more communication, more face-to-face interactions with leadership, or more space for deep work. In a fast-food drive thru, the employee with this human-focused mindset would likely ensure that I had a straw and napkins before sending me off with a smile. At dinner with family, I might find myself doing a lot of listening, rather than sharing my opinion at every turn, to allow someone to be heard.

Significance. It is what people crave, what they have to offer, and what we need to help uncover in our daily interactions. I intend to focus on significance this week, both working to create it in my team and in pursuing it in my personal work. What do the people in my life need and how can I best position myself and my work to meet those needs? Answering this question with intention will bring both human fulfillment (for all parties involved) and an organizational focus that is sure to create increase as a byproduct.