Has the world of work really changed that much post-pandemic? We have no shortage of zeitgeists to examine. Is it the Great Resignation, the Great Reshuffle, or the Great Exhaustion? Should we all be quiet quitting? Or is your boss quiet firing you? But the workplace issues that spur these conversations are deeper-seated than a passing movement—and none of them address the work required to rightsize the role of work in our lives.
Enter the meta skill for change at work: better awareness. Awareness grounds our ability to sense both limitations and potential. To create change within organizations, it’s useful to understand awareness on three levels:
Self-awareness: Our ability to clearly see our own values, strengths, thoughts, feelings, behavior, and impact.
Other-awareness: Our ability to see, understand, and leverage each other in meaningful ways.
Organizational awareness: A company’s ability to view itself honestly, owning its potential and addressing its limitations.
These types of awareness fit together like nesting dolls, building on each other. At its center, our strengthened sense of awareness must start with the self; that helps us build awareness of others, which expands our view into our organization. With full awareness, we are able to bring fresh eyes to the dynamics within the system in which we work, the people we work with, and ourselves. What we truly see, we can truly change.