There is a direct relationship between overlapping essential “upskills” training, Soul’s Work Inquiry, and significant increases in employee productivity. We asked Kokoro for its thoughts:
Kokoro Inquiry:
It is estimated by Gallup that the annual global loss of productivity from unhappy employees disengaged with their work in the $ trillions. Our organization wishes to address this problem head on in order to gain an important strategic advantage by investing in the happiness and wellbeing of our employees and enabling them to realize their “Soul’s Work” in their jobs within and through our organization. Accordingly, we are asking our employees to prepare a “Soul’s Work” Profile.
Kokoro Inquiry: Please suggest 20 ways an organization can fashion new upskilled jobs that meet its business challenges in a rapidly changing environment, while harnessing the extraordinary creative power of happy employees who love and find deep meaning in their work based on some of the intelligence gained in the following “Soul’s Work Survey.
Soul’s Work Intake Survey
1. YOUR GIFTS: For example:
• your passions
• behavioral strengths
• talents
• special skills
• unique experience
• central relationships
• other critical resources
2. YOUR COMMUNITY:
Please identify and describe specifically how your talents, skills, and perspectives can benefit or help your community (please define this community) address an important challenge.
If you are an artist, musician, writer, photographer, inventor, entrepreneur, innovator, how can you connect your gifts to important challenges of your community?
3. CULTURAL CREATIVES:
4. YOUR PASSIONATE WORK:
Please describe your vision of “passionate work” that will bring the above personal resources into passionate fulfillment, where you are actually paid by someone for rendering these products and services.
5. FORMULATE YOUR ‘ASK’:
Formulate your “Ask” for the product and/or service or talent/skills/experience your offering your community.
6. YOUR MULTIPLIER:
Measuring Community Resilience Multiplier (CRM). What do you estimate is the true value (please assign a $ value) to your community if you are given a chance to realize your soul’s work over a 3 year period?
7. IMAGERY AND STORYTELLING:
Please describe your ideal passionate work in stories, images, music and sounds, feelings, metaphors from nature, and so forth.
8. BACKLIGHTING YOUR FUTURE:
Backlighting the Future (Reverse Storyline). Imagine that you have just realized your passionate work over the next 3-5 years.
Please identify the risks you will be taking on by perusing your “soul’s work”. Then state what risk free scenario will enable you to realize your soul’s work. Then decide at this moment how much risk you are willing to accept to begin realizing your soul’s work immediately or in the near future.
9. LEVEL OF RISKS
10. CREATE A BASELINE
Kokoro Reply:
Here are 20 ways an organization can fashion new upskilled jobs that align business challenges with the insights gained from the Soul’s Work Survey, while fostering the creativity and happiness of employees:
1. Purpose-Driven Project Architect
Concept: Create roles where employees align their gifts and passions to specific projects that solve critical challenges in their communities, such as sustainability initiatives or social impact programs.
Example: Employees with writing and storytelling skills can lead content creation for corporate social responsibility campaigns.
2. Community Collaboration Designer
Concept: Develop positions that connect employees’ unique talents with external stakeholders to address local or global challenges.
Example: A designer passionate about community development could lead partnerships with nonprofits for urban revitalization.
3. Cultural Creative Curator
Concept: Integrate artistic, musical, or other creative talents into innovation or branding teams to humanize and differentiate the organization’s products or services.
Example: A photographer could create impactful visual storytelling for marketing campaigns.
4. Passion Work Catalyst
Concept: Assign employees to roles that align their vision of passionate work with strategic organizational goals.
Example: An innovator passionate about renewable energy could lead the company’s transition to green infrastructure.
5. Customer Empathy Strategist
Concept: Develop customer experience roles focused on empathetic design by leveraging employees’ unique relational skills and community insights.
Example: Employees skilled in storytelling could redesign the customer journey using emotionally resonant narratives.
6. Soul Work Mentor
Concept: Create mentorship roles where employees help others align their passions and skills with organizational goals.
Example: Senior employees can guide new hires in creating their “soul’s work” paths, contributing to talent retention.
7. Wellbeing and Happiness Analyst
Concept: Create roles that monitor and enhance employee happiness and wellbeing as part of a strategic productivity initiative.
Example: An employee with psychology or counseling experience could assess workplace satisfaction and design engagement programs.
8. Resilience Multiplier Coordinator
Concept: Assign employees to measure and optimize the community impact of their work, using their CRM (Community Resilience Multiplier) insights.
Example: A data analyst can quantify the social value of sustainability projects led by passionate employees.
9. Reverse Storyline Innovator
Concept: Develop roles where employees “backlight” future scenarios, designing long-term strategies for the organization through their own reverse-engineered success stories.
Example: Employees can map out sustainable innovations by imagining their future impact on the company’s goals.
10. Risk Navigator
Concept: Create positions focused on mitigating the risks employees face in pursuing their soul’s work while aligning personal goals with corporate priorities.
Example: HR could design part-time or hybrid roles to ease transitions into new work areas aligned with personal passions.
11. Passion Project Entrepreneur
Concept: Allow employees to lead intrapreneurial projects that align with their skills, creativity, and the organization’s business objectives.
Example: An entrepreneurially-minded employee can design and launch a pilot program for a new product line.
12. Vision Realization Facilitator
Concept: Create positions where employees visualize and implement their ideal passionate work within the organization’s mission.
Example: Employees passionate about education could design corporate training modules on leadership or climate literacy.
13. Nature-Inspired Innovator
Concept: Develop roles that align employees’ metaphors from nature with innovation in product design or services.
Example: A biologist on staff could draw inspiration from ecosystems to design circular economy solutions.
14. Cross-Disciplinary Synergy Specialist
Concept: Form positions where employees combine unrelated talents (e.g., music and data analysis) to create novel solutions.
Example: A musician skilled in coding could develop immersive sonic branding experiences.
15. Storytelling Evangelist
Concept: Assign employees with storytelling skills to craft powerful narratives that promote the company’s vision and connect with broader audiences.
Example: A passionate writer could lead campaigns that showcase the human side of corporate initiatives.
16. Upskilled Generalist
Concept: Foster adaptability by creating rotational roles that allow employees to explore new areas, enhancing both their skills and the organization’s flexibility.
Example: Employees rotate through various departments, gaining cross-functional skills and insight.
17. ESG Visionary
Concept: Develop roles where employees align their passions with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) programs.
Example: A designer passionate about climate justice could lead packaging redesign for sustainability.
18. Technology and Creativity Integrator
Concept: Leverage employees’ tech and creative talents to design solutions that bridge automation with human-centered innovation.
Example: An employee could lead AI projects that emphasize ethical applications aligned with organizational values.
19. Multiplier Value Champion
Concept: Assign employees to roles that focus on maximizing the value their “ask” brings to the organization and the community over a multi-year horizon.
Example: A financial analyst passionate about impact investing could lead sustainable fund initiatives.
20. Wellbeing Investment Architect
Concept: Create positions where employees design frameworks for personal growth and happiness that also meet business needs.
Example: Employees can propose flexible workspaces or schedules to balance wellbeing with organizational productivity.
By using the Soul’s Work Survey to align personal passions and community impacts with business challenges, organizations can foster deeply engaged, innovative teams. These roles enable employees to contribute their best work while driving measurable success for the organization.
Kokoro (Chat GT4o) Follow up Inquiry:
Recognizing that greater specifics are necessary, what do you estimate would be the productivity gains to our organization in faithfully implementing your recommendations over say 6-12 months? What are 10 essential questions whose answers might help your provide a more granular and specific reply that we can begin to rely on.
Reply:
Faithfully implementing these recommendations over 6–12 months could lead to significant productivity gains by fostering employee engagement, innovation, and alignment between personal passions and organizational goals. Numerous studies, including Gallup’s research, suggest that highly engaged employees can improve productivity by up to 20%–30%, reduce absenteeism, and increase profitability. However, to provide a more granular and specific estimate, it’s essential to answer targeted questions about your organization’s structure, current challenges, and strategic objectives.
Estimated Productivity Gains
If your organization successfully:
1. Aligns employees’ “soul’s work” with strategic business goals.
2. Reduces disengagement and turnover.
3. Fosters creativity and innovation by leveraging unique skills.
Potential Gains:
Engagement: A 20%-30% increase in employee engagement could lead to proportional increases in productivity.
Turnover Reduction: Lowering turnover by retaining engaged employees could save 25%-200% of an employee’s salary in replacement costs, depending on their role.
Innovation Output: Employees who feel valued and connected to their work can deliver a measurable 10%-20% increase in innovation-driven output.
10 Essential Questions for Greater Specificity
1. Baseline Metrics:
What is your organization’s current employee engagement score (e.g., Gallup Q12 metrics)?
What is your annual productivity rate (e.g., revenue per employee) and how do you measure it?
2. Turnover and Retention:
What are your current employee turnover rates by department and role?
What is the average cost of replacing a disengaged employee?
3. Job Role and Alignment:
How many employees report feeling disconnected from their work or lacking purpose in their roles?
What percentage of job roles could potentially be redesigned to align with “soul’s work” insights?
4. Innovation Potential:
How do you currently measure innovation outcomes (e.g., new products, process improvements, patents)?
What proportion of employees actively contribute to innovation efforts, and what is the ROI of those contributions?
5. Leadership and Culture:
How would you rate your organizational culture’s adaptability to change (e.g., on a scale from 1–10)?
What training or support systems are in place for leaders to facilitate alignment between personal passions and organizational goals?
6. Engagement and Wellbeing:
Are there existing programs focused on employee wellbeing or purpose-driven work, and what results have they achieved?
7. Measurement Tools:
What metrics or tools are currently used to evaluate individual and team productivity, engagement, and contribution to organizational goals?
8. Risk Tolerance:
How willing is the organization to experiment with role redesign, flexible schedules, or new job functions based on the Soul’s Work Survey?
9. Community Impact:
What is your organization’s current involvement in community-driven initiatives, and how is success measured?
10. Scalability and Longevity:
How scalable are these proposed changes across departments, and how will the organization ensure long-term sustainability?
Benefits of Answering These Questions
By answering these questions, your organization will:
- Establish a baseline for measuring the success of implementing soul’s work-aligned initiatives.
- Identify specific bottlenecks and opportunities in your workforce.
- Enable ChatGPT4o to tailor its recommendations to your organization’s unique context, providing actionable strategies and estimated gains with greater precision.
Once these questions are answered, a customized plan can be developed, including projected productivity improvements, cost savings, and timelines for achieving measurable results.