Frameworks / Man's Search for Meaning
Meaning lives where three things meet.
Viktor Frankl survived the Nazi camps with a conviction: people can bear almost anything if they have a reason to. He found three places that reason comes from.
From the book Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (1946)
›All three
Good work, people we love and a chosen attitude toward hardship. Where all three meet, life carries meaning, whatever happens.
The idea
In brief.
Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's account of surviving Auschwitz and other concentration camps, followed by the theory he built from it. Frankl was a psychiatrist. He watched who held on and who gave up, and concluded that the drive to find meaning is the deepest one we have.
He wrote that we find meaning in three ways: by creating a work or doing a deed, by experiencing something or loving someone, and by the attitude we take toward suffering we can't avoid. I draw them as three overlapping circles: professional proficiency, meaningful relationships and suffering. Where all three meet is a life, and a career, that means something.
Frankl called the freedom to choose our attitude "the last of the human freedoms." Circumstances can take almost everything. They can't take that.
The circles
Three sources of meaning.
Work
Professional proficiency
Meaning through what we create and do: becoming excellent at work that matters, for someone or something beyond ourselves.
Love
Meaningful relationships
Meaning through the people we love and the experiences we share. Frankl kept going in the camps by holding on to the image of his wife.
Attitude
Suffering
Meaning through how we face what we can't change. Pain we can avoid, we should. Pain we can't avoid can still be met with dignity, and that choice is ours.
- Burnout and driftWhen an owner or leader has lost the spark, we look at all three circles. Usually one has gone quiet.
- Purpose at workWe connect the company's purpose to each person's work, so people can see why what they do matters.
- Hard seasonsEvery leader hits a stretch they can't control. Frankl's turn helps: stop asking what you want from life, and ask what life is asking of you.
- The next chapterFor owners thinking about an exit, the question gets real: what will make life meaningful after the business?
Try this
Questions to ask your team.
- Which of the three circles is strongest in your life right now? Which is weakest?
- Does your team know why their work matters, beyond the paycheck?
- What are you carrying that you could choose to face differently?
- Which relationships keep you going?
- What would make the next ten years meaningful, not just successful?
Related insights
More frameworks
- Hitting the CeilingWhy growth stalls, and how to break through
- The Ideal Team PlayerHumble, hungry and smart
- First, Break All the RulesThe 12-level climb to a great workplace
- The Five DysfunctionsFrom trust to results
- OutgrowProactive sales growth, every week
- The Core Values IndexBuilder, Merchant, Innovator, Banker
Next step
Build a business, and a life, that mean something.
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