The hybrid work model has tremendous potential. It can unleash productivity, shrink distances in time and space, and even contribute to reducing our carbon footprint. However, it also has the potential to dilute the culture of organizations, alienate people, and even lead to complete meaninglessness. Before we fully embrace this form of work, we need to be aware of its concrete consequences and how to vaccinate against them. Otherwise, it will be much more difficult – and expensive – to create a strong culture where people thrive and produce results.
By Nicolai E. E. Iversen, Chief Philosophy Officer, Voluntās
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Global Meaningfulness Report 2020-2022
We are in a meaning recession. The number of people who find their work meaningful has declined two years in a row – from 76% of all people in 2020 to only 64% in 2022. Especially, the feeling of belonging to our organization has plummeted. We don’t feel as connected, seen, or heard, and it’s harder for us to see how the values and virtues that define the culture around us align with our own. Coupled with a heated job market where the opportunity for a slightly higher salary and a fresh start glimmers around the corner, it’s no wonder that many organizations have focused on promoting well-being, retention, and making themselves particularly attractive to new recruits.
As a cardinal point in that effort, the hybrid workplace has galloped, strongly driven by lockdowns and forced work from home, as part of the answer to what the modern organization looks like. Flexibility, remote work, and virtual meetings have become a new normal in the way we work and collaborate. The praises and success stories are many, but the truth is that the narrative for the hybrid workplace is highly overrated, and in a busy everyday life, we risk forgetting to rethink how we can cultivate our culture and sense of belonging in a world that is becoming increasingly digital.
Because yes, we appreciate the extra flexibility. But most of us still want to spend the majority of our working time in the workplace – 3.5 days a week for men and 3.1 days a week for women. And most companies, even the modern and progressive ones, still have an “office-first” approach to what they expect from their employees. There is a good reason for this because even though culture doesn’t sit in the walls, it is created between people. And when we say goodbye to the physical space, we also say goodbye to a lot of intimacy, closeness, and confidentiality. Something we need to replace in other ways. The world’s most comprehensive study of what creates a good life unequivocally points to the most important factor for our well-being as good relationships with other people – belonging and connectedness.
A research group from Oxford last week showed how digital teaching and school closures during the Corona pandemic have led to significant learning loss among school children, which can still be measured here two years after the first school closures. My own nephew, who is one of the absolute finest people I know but needs an extra hand in academic terms, gave me his heartbreaking story of how he used to be able to compensate for his lack of academic flair by being able to ask his “stupid” questions to his teacher during more confidential breaks. Now – with digital teaching – he was either silent in class for fear of being exposed in front of everyone or relegated to writing on Aula and maybe getting an answer in 3-4 days.
Similar effects are taking place in our organizations as we recruit and onboard new colleagues virtually and increasingly meet and interact with each other in virtual environments. While we gain comfort, efficiency, and, for some of us, time, we also lose out on culture, cohesion, community, and tacit knowledge. After two years in the virtual cave, it can be hard to adjust to the outside world. There are other people on the road, loud noises around us, and the coffee machine is further away. It’s no wonder that the first people who emerged from Plato’s cave quickly sought refuge in the darkness again. They were overwhelmed by the light, by how the world really is, and so they retreated and settled for looking at shadow images of the real world. In the dark, you can wear sweatpants and slippers without anyone noticing. You can reach both the coffee machine, the toilet, and the bedroom within a short radius of your desk. Here, there are only planned or self-selected distractions.
Yes, life is hard, but it’s all the difficult things that give meaning to the good. And it doesn’t make sense for us to stay in the cave for too long at a time. So before we devolve into a clinical, meta-verse version of what it means to belong in an organization, we should cultivate our humanity and culture, now more than ever. In a future where we have more pixels and fewer physical interactions to create the same necessary sense of belonging and presence, we should at a minimum train our muscles, our processes, and our structures to reinforce what used to come naturally but now requires active effort.
Here are our specific recommendations on how we can systematically (re)train what we risk losing:
Train all leaders (and employees) in active listening.
With simple techniques, you can strengthen the conversation culture and the presence – the result is increased inclusion and belonging as well as fewer misunderstandings.
Conduct a cultural “due diligence” of all steps in the employee journey.
We know that 89% of all failed recruitments are due to a lack of cultural “fit.” Only 11% can be attributed to insufficient technical skills. We have helped organizations create cultural stumbling blocks that ensure that the culture cannot be bypassed – even when everything is done virtually – and the initial results are very positive.
Create a dedicated “Belonging” strategy that is as ambitious as your IT strategy.
What architecture, requirements, rules, concepts, and rituals should ensure that as many people as possible feel a sense of belonging to the organization? Christmas parties and summer parties are no longer enough (and probably never have been) to make social relationships flourish. What started as a revelation of possibilities has a cost. Hybrid work forms risk exchanging productivity and comfort for a loss of meaning and culture. A loss we can only insure against if we take the effects seriously in time and adapt the infrastructure in our organization to reinforce everything we know people need to perform our best – in life and in work.
On 10th January 2023 Voluntās and the Center for Applied Meaningfulness took a giant stride towards establishing meaningful academic collaborations in India when signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Institute of Social Sciences – Asia’s oldest school for professional social work.
Esbjerg wants to create the world’s most human university with a central focus on education, human development and a high degree of belonging.
Voluntas and the star architect company Bjarke Ingels group are supporting the project.
Based on Morten Albæks philosophy of a meaningful life, the students must embark on an educational journey based on becoming self-realized people who master their encounters with life’s coincidences, opportunities, and challenges.
In recent years, Tunisia has undergone profound political and social changes and currently faces a severe economic crisis The unemployment rate reached 18.4% in 2021, with 40% of under 25s and 24.8% of women out of work. There are growing disparities in living standards between regions and political participation has declined.
Within this context, radicalisation, and exposure to violent extremism –in part linked to the phenomenon of the return of jihadist fighters (foreign fighters) – is a major challenge in Tunisia, particularly among marginalized youth. This risk is aggravated by the lack of detection mechanisms throughout the country and the absence of continuous dialogue between young people and public authorities, particularly the security sector.
Despite signs of recovery from the initial downturns caused by COVID-19, tension, conflict, and insecurity continued to be prevalent in 2022. Globally, according to the United Nations, the number of forcibly displaced people surpassed 100 million for the first time. Furthermore, Europe suffered the resurgence of war with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which disrupted food and energy supply chains and impacted the standard of living for hundreds of millions. Drought and extreme weather conditions were observed on all continents, and rates of already-common conditions such as depression and anxiety went up by more than 25 percent (World Health Organization), while the sense of meaningfulness at work continued to decrease according to our research. Addressing these challenges requires a contextual understanding of the current state of the world as well as the various factors at play.
At Voluntas, we believe that every human being has the potential to grow, innovate, and create a positive impact on their workplace, community, country, and the world they live in. Voluntas’ mission is to facilitate and support the realization of this potential of millions of women, men, non-binary individuals, boys, and girls. We aim to catalyse personal and collective growth and meaningful change.
To do so, in 2022, we inspired tens of thousands, worked directly with almost 1.000 leaders, and supported more than 50 organizations in increasing the sense of belonging, purpose, leadership, and personal growth of their constituents, effectively enhancing their performance and impact. As part of this, we have listened to more than 40.000 employees to understand what drives their meaning at work and in life. With fact-based decision-making being at the core of our approach, we conducted 30+ impact studies covering 35+ countries supporting partners to tailor their programming and policies to the actual needs and dynamics of communities. Furthermore, we have had the privilege of collecting and sharing the voices and opinions of almost 100.000 persons that would otherwise go unheard. We have done all this by being present with partners in organizations and communities – even under challenging circumstances and in fragile contexts.
Together with our partners, we have supported migrants living in some of the world’s most unstable environments; we have listened to the stories of survivors of violence and used their experiences to inform our efforts. We have engaged with youth to understand their perspectives on the world and have gathered valuable insights into how different members of society experience and define meaningfulness. These insights have allowed our partners to adapt their internal structures, programming, and policies to maximize their impact.
Beyond projects, 2022 has also been a year of academic ventures and research collaborations. As such, we supported the publication of the first business case with Harvard Business School focusing on how to drive meaningful cultural change in organizations and embarked on the ambitious task of developing a global Youth Meaningfulness index together with the ALV Foundation with the goal of informing public policies and foster well-being for generations to come. We also started a collaboration with Saint Joseph University in Lebanon, allowing us to share our experiences from working in the field with future generations of practitioners through teaching and mentoring, as well as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India focused on exploring ESG metrics and linkages with meaningfulness and social impact.
In 2022, we expanded our global footprint to new geographies, including Beirut, Mumbai, Oslo, and San Francisco. We consolidated our work in Libya and Sudan and increased our efforts to prevent violent extremism in Tunisia. We also conducted workshops in Australia, Germany, Japan, the UK, the US, Singapore, Spain, and Sweden on meaningfulness in the workplace and beyond. Our team has nearly doubled in size as a result, going from 40 to 70+ talented individuals boasting different academic and cultural backgrounds and nationalities.
In 2022, our founder and CEO Morten Albaek released a book focusing on dissecting the anatomy of meaningfulness and human potential called ‘False Truths in Life.’ This work continues to shape our culture and external ventures in Denmark and across the world.
We are grateful to all our partners for the meaningful collaboration we experienced in 2022. We do not only care about the work we do, but also about how we do it and only by working together with like-minded partners can we achieve the positive impact on people’s lives we aim for. We appreciate your willingness to join us on this journey and your openness to our approach.
As we embark on 2023, we are excited to continue our work for more meaningful organizations, brands, societies, and planet.
On 10th January 2023 Voluntās and the Center for Applied Meaningfulness took a giant stride towards establishing meaningful academic collaborations in India when signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Institute of Social Sciences – Asia’s oldest school for professional social work.
Esbjerg wants to create the world’s most human university with a central focus on education, human development and a high degree of belonging.
Voluntas and the star architect company Bjarke Ingels group are supporting the project.
Based on Morten Albæks philosophy of a meaningful life, the students must embark on an educational journey based on becoming self-realized people who master their encounters with life’s coincidences, opportunities, and challenges.
In recent years, Tunisia has undergone profound political and social changes and currently faces a severe economic crisis The unemployment rate reached 18.4% in 2021, with 40% of under 25s and 24.8% of women out of work. There are growing disparities in living standards between regions and political participation has declined.
Within this context, radicalisation, and exposure to violent extremism –in part linked to the phenomenon of the return of jihadist fighters (foreign fighters) – is a major challenge in Tunisia, particularly among marginalized youth. This risk is aggravated by the lack of detection mechanisms throughout the country and the absence of continuous dialogue between young people and public authorities, particularly the security sector.
At Voluntās, philosophers, anthropologists, psychologists, economists, dramaturgists, sociologists, political scientists and people of yet other academic backgrounds are all management consultants by profession and philosophers by heart. Together, we specialize in advising and working with companies, directorates, boards, investors, foundations, owners, leaders and governments on how to create, adapt and drive a meaningful culture, brand, society and planet.
We believe that this approach significantly increases the quality of living, while we know that it sustainably accelerates the productivity and profitability of doing business.
We pursue advisory and analytics to realize human potential and make more lives more meaningful for the colleagues in organizations, the consumers of brands, the citizens in societies and for all us children of our blue planet.
info@voluntasgroup.com
+45 3111 6020
Established in 1936, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has a rich legacy of social research. It has contributed continually towards creating an ecologically sustainable and just society by catering to the emerging needs of India. TISS offers some of the most contemporary and socially relevant study programs in social sciences and applied human service professions.
With a special emphasis on marginalized and vulnerable groups, the diverse social research areas of institute include – climate change and action, sustainability and renewable energy, disability and access, mental health, gender studies, migrants and migration, human trafficking, and disaster risk management.
Whilst there exists an abundance of well-defined indicators to measure and track company efforts in the realm of “Environment” and “Governance”, what constitutes social impact can be given even more attention.
Current dimensions such as customer satisfaction, labor standards, safety conditions are often measured by prescribed indicators which only partially captures the lived experience of company beneficiaries, employees, and local communities. As such, TISS and Voluntas are committed to explore a more inclusive framework to capture the meaning organizations can generate for their (1) employees (2) local communities (3) city and (4) customers and suppliers.
This will be done through jointly drafting whitepapers supported by TISS students’ urban and rural fieldwork as well as the preparation and teaching of ESG reporting courses directed towards companies and municipalities in Maharashtra.
The partnership also includes internship opportunities for TISS master students at Voluntas’ Mumbai office.
Voluntas is very proud to have entered an academic partnership with such an esteemed academic institution and look forward to working alongside the Labour Market Research Facility and Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability over the next three years.
On 10th January 2023 Voluntās and the Center for Applied Meaningfulness took a giant stride towards establishing meaningful academic collaborations in India when signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Institute of Social Sciences – Asia’s oldest school for professional social work.
Esbjerg wants to create the world’s most human university with a central focus on education, human development and a high degree of belonging.
Voluntas and the star architect company Bjarke Ingels group are supporting the project.
Based on Morten Albæks philosophy of a meaningful life, the students must embark on an educational journey based on becoming self-realized people who master their encounters with life’s coincidences, opportunities, and challenges.
In recent years, Tunisia has undergone profound political and social changes and currently faces a severe economic crisis The unemployment rate reached 18.4% in 2021, with 40% of under 25s and 24.8% of women out of work. There are growing disparities in living standards between regions and political participation has declined.
Within this context, radicalisation, and exposure to violent extremism –in part linked to the phenomenon of the return of jihadist fighters (foreign fighters) – is a major challenge in Tunisia, particularly among marginalized youth. This risk is aggravated by the lack of detection mechanisms throughout the country and the absence of continuous dialogue between young people and public authorities, particularly the security sector.
Esbjerg wants to create the world’s most human university with a central focus on education, human development and a high degree of belonging.
Voluntas and the star architect company Bjarke Ingels group are supporting the project.
Based on Morten Albæks philosophy of a meaningful life, the students must embark on an educational journey based on becoming self-realized people who master their encounters with life’s coincidences, opportunities, and challenges.
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More and more students suffer from loneliness, stress and unhappiness and therefore our main idea is to embrace existential aspects of learning at least as much as the academic ones. All learning starts with self-understanding and insight into who you are and want to become, as well as what you can and cannot do. We therefore want to educate people for life skills through a culture that stimulates self-insight and self-respect and thus the foundation for a healthy and meaningful life
Morten Albæk
Founder and CEO
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Esbjerg Municipality and the largest companies in Esbjerg stand behind Education Esbjerg such as Blue Water Shipping, Microsoft, Mærsk, Deloitte and Ascanius.
Through a master’s course, the students must be linked to the companies, in order to build a bridge between theory and practice, students will be linked to companies throughout their masters course
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We believe in core expertise, digital frameworks, mentoring schemes with the business world and translation of academic knowledge into practical knowledge and application.
We believe in togetherness and well-being through cooperation, friendships and unforgettable moments.
We believe in fostering self-knowledge and self-respect and realizing human potential.
Education Esbjerg combines academic knowledge and applied experience with training in self-understanding and healthy social relationships. This combined curriculum will breed well-being, self-respect, and lifelong learning.
Convert knowledge and data about students into meaningful initiatives and optimizations
Creation of greater self-insight and self-knowledge through conversations with fellow students about existential topics
Lecturers and graduate students are offered a free coaching education, where they share their own insights and experiences with bachelor students via individual coaching sessions
Build Denmark’s strongest student communities in collaboration with cultural and sports associations
Ongoing measurement of the drivers of students’ sense of meaning – from the day they first enter to their graduation. The measurements of meaing provide continuous insight into the direction for the further development of the framework for the students’ everyday life
8 out of 10 of the country’s students in higher education feel stressed – and close to half feel lonely[1].
In Southwest Jutland, 19 out of 20 young people leave the region when they have to start a master’s degree – and only 1 out of 7 return three years after completing their education[2].
If the number of highly educated people in Southwest Jutland is raised to the national average in 2030, estimates indicate that if the number of highly educatied people in Southwest Jutland is raised to the national average by 2030, the region would see 800 new jobs and an additional 600 billion DKK in GDP (2018 level)[3] 3) strengthening of public finances by over DKK 200 billion DKK (2018 level) [4].
[1] Dansk Magisterforening, Stress blandt studerende, 2020
[2] Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut, Et nyt perspektiv på trivsel: Studierelaterede følelser på de videregående uddannelser, 2019
[3][4] Højbjerre Brauer Schultz, Samfundsøkonomiske konsekvenser af uddannelsesniveauet i Sydvestjylland, 2020
On 10th January 2023 Voluntās and the Center for Applied Meaningfulness took a giant stride towards establishing meaningful academic collaborations in India when signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Institute of Social Sciences – Asia’s oldest school for professional social work.
Esbjerg wants to create the world’s most human university with a central focus on education, human development and a high degree of belonging.
Voluntas and the star architect company Bjarke Ingels group are supporting the project.
Based on Morten Albæks philosophy of a meaningful life, the students must embark on an educational journey based on becoming self-realized people who master their encounters with life’s coincidences, opportunities, and challenges.
In recent years, Tunisia has undergone profound political and social changes and currently faces a severe economic crisis The unemployment rate reached 18.4% in 2021, with 40% of under 25s and 24.8% of women out of work. There are growing disparities in living standards between regions and political participation has declined.
Within this context, radicalisation, and exposure to violent extremism –in part linked to the phenomenon of the return of jihadist fighters (foreign fighters) – is a major challenge in Tunisia, particularly among marginalized youth. This risk is aggravated by the lack of detection mechanisms throughout the country and the absence of continuous dialogue between young people and public authorities, particularly the security sector.
In recent years, Tunisia has undergone profound political and social changes and currently faces a severe economic crisis The unemployment rate reached 18.4% in 2021, with 40% of under 25s and 24.8% of women out of work. There are growing disparities in living standards between regions and political participation has declined.
Within this context, radicalisation, and exposure to violent extremism –in part linked to the phenomenon of the return of jihadist fighters (foreign fighters) – is a major challenge in Tunisia, particularly among marginalized youth. This risk is aggravated by the lack of detection mechanisms throughout the country and the absence of continuous dialogue between young people and public authorities, particularly the security sector.
An integrated approach through actions at local, national, and institutional levels targeting a range of actors with complementary roles and responsibilities.
Based on best practices drawn from the final evaluation of the EU-funded IcSP actions carried out by Voluntas between February and June 2021, “Nos Racines” has been designed under a cascading grants funding format. This approach will be implemented through partners, ICCG and FACE Tunisia, with local non-state actors (civil society organisations) operating on different sub-themes. This will ensure the territorial anchorage of the implemented actions, while responding to different local needs in a mosaic approach, thus allowing for a better adaptability of the project toolbox, and a refinement of both territorial and beneficiary targeting.
Some key figures
The project is implemented by Voluntas as Lead Partner, and ICCG and FACE as co-partners. The project will also include partnerships with institutional and local actors
Project activities implemented with non-state actors and institutional partners in nine governorates across Tunisia.
Ifrikya Center for Common Ground (ICCG) will empower its local civil society partners to conduct a process of multi-stakeholder community dialogues, thus building trust between key stakeholders (youth, local authorities, security forces, etc.) targeted by the project. ICCG will also build women’s capacity and empowerment to identify and prevent early signs of vulnerability among young people, with the support and collaboration of local women’s organisations and institutions in the target localities (Mothers’ Brigade).
Foundation FACE Tunisia aims to have an impact within communities as part of a local approach, by strengthening the resilience of those most at risk from violent extremism, but also by playing a key role in preventing violence itself. The action will promote the social and professional (re)integration of young Tunisians in vulnerable situations, with a particular focus on women and youth ex detainees.
Voluntas, while leading the overall project, will implement capacity building sessions for 100 preachers and imams selected by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The aim is to provide technical support in modern mediation and communication skills, in order to bring imams/preachers closer to their respective communities, especially youth. This will help limit the exposure of the most vulnerable populations to potentially extremist religious discourse.
Voluntas will also support the institutional and technical development of the National Commission for the Fight against Terrorism (CNLCT), in order to contribute to the strengthening of its capacity as a key actor of preventing violent extremism in Tunisia.
European Union Delegation in Tunisia
The 2011 Revolution marked a turning point in the EU-Tunisia partnership. Since then, the EU has been a key partner supporting Tunisia’s transition towards a modern democracy. Through all its instruments, the EU is supporting democratic and socioeconomic reforms, accompanying electoral processes, promoting human rights, strengthening civil society actors, enhancing economic and trade integration, and improving security. Since 2011, EU assistance to Tunisia has amounted to almost €3 billion with over €2 billion in grants and €1.1 billion in macro-financial assistance (concessional loans).
On 10th January 2023 Voluntās and the Center for Applied Meaningfulness took a giant stride towards establishing meaningful academic collaborations in India when signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Institute of Social Sciences – Asia’s oldest school for professional social work.
Esbjerg wants to create the world’s most human university with a central focus on education, human development and a high degree of belonging.
Voluntas and the star architect company Bjarke Ingels group are supporting the project.
Based on Morten Albæks philosophy of a meaningful life, the students must embark on an educational journey based on becoming self-realized people who master their encounters with life’s coincidences, opportunities, and challenges.
In recent years, Tunisia has undergone profound political and social changes and currently faces a severe economic crisis The unemployment rate reached 18.4% in 2021, with 40% of under 25s and 24.8% of women out of work. There are growing disparities in living standards between regions and political participation has declined.
Within this context, radicalisation, and exposure to violent extremism –in part linked to the phenomenon of the return of jihadist fighters (foreign fighters) – is a major challenge in Tunisia, particularly among marginalized youth. This risk is aggravated by the lack of detection mechanisms throughout the country and the absence of continuous dialogue between young people and public authorities, particularly the security sector.
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