From Managing to Mastering Stress

From Managing to Mastering Stress

3
Product offering

From Managing to Mastering Stress

Netti Fuglesang

nfu@voluntas.com

Rasmus Hjalgrim

rhj@voluntas.com
The paradox of stress management  

Maybe you as an individual or organization find tackling stress akin to the Sisyphean myth, where putting a lot of effort and time merely leads you back to the beginning or even to a worse state. Then (unfortunately) you are not alone. 

Despite an increasing amount of focus and resources put into stress management, the prevalence of stress and its negative implications appear to keep rising. This paradox raises the question: “Is there an alternative way of addressing stress to reverse this trend?”  

Having now surveyed more than 50,000 employees and leaders across several industries and countries on how they experience meaning at work and explored the concept of meaningfulness and its relationship to stress for almost a decade, Voluntās’ data points towards two answers: 

  • We need to nuance the way we think and talk about stress   
  • We need to foster a culture of self-awareness    

This is exactly what we at Voluntās teach in our Stress Mastery Course and what we will dwell upon in our upcoming webinar. 

Equipping employees, leaders, and organizations with a nuanced understanding of what stress is to them and how to master it through self-awareness.

Webinar

Unlock the first step towards stress mastery by watching our introductory webinar.

This engaging session offers a glimpse into the essence of the Stress Mastery Course, highlighting the pivotal role of meaningfulness and self-awareness in becoming better at tackling stress.

THE PARADOX

The complexity of tackling stress 

When organizations today are called upon to tackle stress, they face an overwhelming challenge as it is, firstly, difficult knowing where even to begin, and, secondly, stress has become a victim of mainstream and uninformed notions about the concept. This situation leaves organizations vulnerable, and they end up going for a stress management strategy that is either too broad or too narrow, too collectively or individually oriented, and, more importantly, not tailored to their specific culture. 

To back this up, although people are inclined to regard stress as something bad that should be avoided, stress is an inevitable part of the culture in some of the most meaningful organizations we at Voluntās have worked with. Yet, the reverse also holds true in that: 

  • People reporting low levels of meaningfulness are five times more likely to experience unbearable stress 
  • People reporting unbearable stress experience 12% less meaningfulness 

MEANINGFUL LEARNINGS FROM THE WEBINAR

(Self)-Assess what is needed

Understanding what role stress plays in your organizational culture, your everyday life and how you should approach it requires the ability to look inward and self-assess your needs, capabilities, and limitations. Yet, this is easier said than done as we are constantly impacted by activities and psychological mechanisms that lead us away from the path towards self-awareness and instead compromise our health and social needs, worrying unnecessarily and, ultimately, becoming unbearably stressed. 

Many of these mechanisms and instances of unbearable stress are preventable, especially with help from other people, but organizations often lack the knowledge and skills to nurture an environment where this is possible. 

Download white paper

Learn why we at Voluntās find it essential for individuals and organizations alike to change the way they think and talk about stress and to foster self-awareness if they want to tackle the paradox of stress management: The prevalence and negative implications of stress appear to rise despite increasing efforts to manage it.

Having participated in the webinar, you will have insight into: 

  • What stress is and what it is not and its relationship to the experience of meaningfulness 
  • The damaging effects of too much and too little stress 
  • The importance of striving for the perfect (im)balance between stress and recovery 
  • Psychological mechanisms that cause unbearable stress and how to combat these 
  • Practical tools for mastering stress at an individual, team, and organizational level 

If you find any of the above interesting and relevant, we strongly encourage you to sign up for the webinar and download our white paper. The white paper elaborates on the paradox of stress management and the concepts of stress, unbearable stress, and self-awareness from a philosophical and scientific standpoint. 

We look forward to seeing you. 

TAILOR-MADE TO YOUR ORGANIZATION

About the course

The Stress Mastery Course teaches employees, leaders, and organizations how to nuance and optimize the discourse around stress and foster a self-aware culture. 

The Stress Mastery Course consists of six parts, and the content is tailor-made to your organization’s specific context. 

The participants receive exercises between and after the workshops to ensure the implementation of the learnings.

Netti Fuglesang

Associate Partner & Head of Voluntās Norway

Rasmis Hjalgrim

Associate

Follow us on social media

How to create a meaningful place to work during extreme growth?

How to create a meaningful place to work during extreme growth?

Client Case

How to create a meaningful place to work during extreme growth?

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB), a subsidiary of Fujifilm, and a global contract manufacturer in the life sciences sector, is undergoing a multifold transformation. Challenging the norms of the industry, FDB wants to demonstrate that the best way to control their rapid expansion is not by installing rigorous systems, it is by installing trust between humans.

Nicolai E. E. Iversen

nei@voluntas.com

Ebba Hansen

eha@voluntas.com

Carl Emil Zacho Böye

czb@voluntas.com

Situation

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB), a global leader in contract manufacturing for the life sciences sector, is undergoing significant transformation. Led by CEO Lars Petersen, FDB aims to redefine industry standards by emphasizing human-centric culture and leadership rather than relying solely on traditional rigorous systems and processes.

Challenge

FDB faces the complex challenge of scaling its operations and revenue significantly while maintaining a meaningful and empowering work culture. The company aims to quintuple its revenue from $1.3 billion to $5 billion by 2030, an ambitious goal that necessitates massive operational and cultural shifts. The primary challenge lies in balancing rapid growth with fostering a workplace environment that prioritizes trust, transparency, and psychological safety, moving away from traditional hierarchical and process-heavy management styles.

Solution

FDB has adopted a revolutionary approach by embedding trust and human sensibility at the core of its operations. The company has eliminated extensive systems and bureaucratic processes, instead promoting a culture where employees are empowered and trusted. This philosophy is encapsulated in their “People Fundamentals,” which guide behavior and interactions within the organization. Leadership development at FDB focuses on emotional intelligence, active listening, and fostering a strong sense of purpose and belonging among employees. This transformation is supported by substantial training programs and events dedicated to cultivating trust and open dialogue among leaders. This shift aims to create a sustainable balance between growth and maintaining a meaningful work environment, ultimately positioning FDB as a trusted partner in the life sciences industry.

TRANSFORMING LIFE SCIENCES BY HUMANIZING CULTURE & LEADERSHIP

Meaning in Madness?

Manufacturing with a Purpose

From DNA sequencing to the final medication product packaged and delivered into the hands of patients, FDB is an end-to-end contract drug manufacturer. From early stage to large-scale production, they support the full lifecycle of biologics development by scaling the manufacturing process. As this year’s Meaningfulness at Work study revealed, both manufacturing (72) and pharmaceuticals (71) are industries facing challenges in meaningfulness at work, scoring below the average (74).

With FDB being an end-to-end manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, they find themselves in a placewhere they need to make an extra effort to create meaningfulness at work among employees. According to President & CEO Lars Petersen, the purpose potential is clear:

“What especially gets me up in the morning is the transformation I believe is so fundamental. I actually do believe that we are a big part of transforming the entire industry where the cost of drugs needs to be lower and where the speed of getting drugs to patients needs to be faster. This requires that we move beyond a contractual, transactional model and instead prove ourselves as a trusted partner to our customers, becoming an integral part of the ecosystem. A partner for life with unprecedented delivery.”

Founded
1923

Yearly Oxygen
USDb 1.3 (2023)

Human beings
4.400

Vision
To be the leading and most trusted global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization in the biopharmaceutical industry.

SCALING CULTURE

Being A ‘People First’ Company

In the midst of an $8 billion investment plan, FDB is aiming to quadrupling their revenue by 2030 – from 6 large-scale bioreactors to 36. In a world that is renowned for process engineering, tight controlling, and clear chains of command, it would naturally also permeate the governance, organization, and culture of the company. Meticulously cascading targets. Calibrating bonuses with individual performance reviews. Documenting standard decision-making processes. Instead, FDB has made a conscious effort to get rid of all such measures to pave the way for limitless trust, empowerment, and ownership.

“We are trying to keep systems and processes to an efficient minimum to make sure people are the center in everything we do,” Lars Petersen explains.

“Some say that we are building a ‘hippie’ culture. But this is simply about creating a culture of trust, where transparency, being yourself and having psychological safety enables people to speak up at any given moment and be okay with making mistakes as long as we learn from them. Being in a way where people can take ownership, because you know you are trusted and empowered if you do so.”

While production processes and quality assurance as a drug manufacturer is naturally managed with extreme rigor, the underlying assumption is that the human potential of the organization – the people – is best realized by systematically minimizing processes, rules, and bureaucracy.

This philosophy is written into 9 People Fundamentals, which sets the tone and direction for how everyone is expected to show up, interact, and lead. “We lead people – and manage processes”, as one of them reads, continued by “We bring our full selves to work”. The People Fundamentals, however, are not implemented through an extensive roadmap or follow-up system. There are activities and tools, yes, but the primary objective is to create a continuous conversation and mindset around how the right growth can be balanced with the right culture.

Not as opposites, as either-or, but constantly weaving them together to never settle for the ordinary, allowing a touch of madness in pursuing something unprecedented, but without decaying into chaos or anarchy. Always balancing the meaningful and the meaningless.

REIMAGINING LEADERSHIP

Followership above Force

This balancing act requires training. Training in some of the muscles that are often overlooked or under-stimulated in the traditional leadership gym. When the philosophy is about trust, ownership, and empowerment, the mastery required rhymes more with active listening, human sensibility, and emotional intelligence than any other managerial disciplines. To create meaning for people in their work, leadership in itself is the least important driver. In other words, it is not how you as an individual leader perform that creates a meaningful working environment – it is how you as a leader can facilitate a strong sense of purpose, belonging, and personal growth. This, however, breaks with some of the truths many leaders who come to FDB are born and raised to believe in.

“Don’t come in here with the typical mindset of a leader saying, ‘I will deliver in 100 days.’ Forget about delivery. Try to relate to people, try to understand the culture before you even think about delivering anything. And to be honest, eight out of ten of our leaders are going through quite a journey to reconfigure. We even have leaders saying that they had to be broken down completely and rebuilt before they really understood what was going on. We invest that much in our journey, and we are fully aware that this might not be for everyone,” Lars Petersen says.

“We try to deconstruct some of these myths and false truths about leadership to champion a culture where leaders serve not just the business objectives but the human spirit in the organization. This sometimes also entails eradicating inflated egos to foster an environment of true team spirit as opposed to solo climbing the career ladder.”

To manifest this focus, FDB in February brought together more than 100 leaders from across the globe. The full event was dedicated to talking exclusively about strategy, leadership, and culture – not least which habits, norms, or systems the leadership community needs to say goodbye to in order to take the next quantum leap.

“We spent 75% of our time discussing our cultural DNA and how to cultivate trust among our leaders and teams. We asked our leaders upfront to submit all their hopes and concerns to facilitate an open dialogue about what excites us about our growth journey, but also what makes us worried. This is fundamental to build trust,” Petersen shares.

Did the leaders then embrace this focus? Or did they leave thinking it was a complete waste of time? Looking at the impact, the numbers tell a quite convincing story. After the event, FDB were able to track an improvement of 9% in how much the leaders believe in the strategic direction with both their hearts and minds, while improving the level of optimism around FDB’s future by 10% – shortterm as well as long-term. Further, the level of trust in the organization at large increased by 8%. The event itself was rated 9.17 on a 10-point scale – a testament to the appreciation of having time to reflect and connect on how to humanize the culture and leadership.

Nine People Fundamentals at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies

We foster psychological safety

We bring our full selves to work

We seek attitude when we hire & promote

We assume trust & expect ownership

We value teams over hierarchy

We support individual growth through empowerment

We lead people & manage processes

We lead through purpose & meaning

We lead for the future

Meaningfulness at Work 2024

Meaningfulness at Work 2024

Meaningful organizations

Meaningfulness at Work 2024

Nicolai E. E. Iversen

nei@voluntas.com

Voluntās was created from the fundamental belief that all human beings have the inherent right to live a meaningful life. That is why we exist: To realize human potential in all corridors of life – making every workplace, community, and country on the planet full of hope and dignity.

Every year, we study how employees feel organizations perform when it comes to fostering a meaningful workplace – a place where there is a strong sense of purpose, leadership, belonging, and personal growth. Meaningful workplaces ensure the best possible conditions for realizing human potential.

To have like-minded partners join in pursuing our impact of making more lives more meaningful, we are honored to this year have partnered with the DI Federation of Danish Professional Service Firms.

SUMMARY

The four primary insights

1. Globally, meaningfulness at work determines 49% of meaning in life.

Meaningfulness at work accounts for 49% of the overall sense of meaning in life globally. However, this varies by country; in India, work is a strong predictor of meaning in life (76%), whereas in Ukraine, work contributes less (18%) to overall meaning in life.

2. Leadership is the least important driver and also the lowest-performing driver.

Leadership is the least important driver of meaningfulness at work, with only 7% of respondents worldwide considering it the most important. It is also the lowest-performing driver, primarily due to leaders’ inability to inspire employees to reflect on the organization’s purpose.

3. Youngest generations experience the lowest sense of meaning.

Young professionals under 25 experience the least meaning at work, continuing a trend from 2023. They feel significantly less safe to speak their minds, feel less challenged in their jobs, and struggle to understand the importance of their role within their organizations.

4. The employee who experiences the most meaning is more than 65 years old and works in Mexico or India as a full-time HR professional within financial services.

The employee who experiences the least meaning is 24 years old and works in Australia or UK as a part-time supply chain worker within chemicals.

GERMANY

Sinnhaftigkeit am Arbeitsplatz 2024

Voluntās wurde aus der grundlegenden Überzeugung heraus gegründet, dass alle Menschen das angeborene Recht haben, ein sinnhaftes Leben zu führen. Aus diesem Grund existieren wir: Um das menschliche Potenzial in allen Lebensbereichen zu verwirklichen und jeden Arbeitsplatz, jede Gemeinschaft und jedes Land auf der Welt voller Hoffnung und Würde zu machen. Jedes Jahr untersuchen wir, wie Mitarbeiter die Leistung von Unternehmen einschätzen, wenn es darum geht, einen sinnvollen Arbeitsplatz zu schaffen – einen Ort, an dem es ein starkes Gefühl von Purpose, Führung, Zugehörigkeit und Persönliches Wachstum gibt. Sinnhafte Arbeitsplätze schaffen die bestmöglichen Voraussetzungen für die Ausschöpfung des menschlichen Potenzials. Es ist uns eine Ehre, dass wir in diesem Jahr eine Partnerschaft mit dem DI Federation of Danish Professional Service Firms eingegangen sind, um gemeinsam mit gleichgesinnten Partnern unser Ziel zu verfolgen, mehr Leben sinnvoller zu gestalten.

MORTEN ALBÆK

Measuring meaningfulness

– a never-ending quest

I founded Voluntās nine years ago, and this is the fifth edition of the Meaningfulness at Work Report. A Report that represents my own and Voluntās’ never-ending quest to explore what constitutes meaningfulness in our lives in general and at work in particular. For this reason, it’s also only natural that we want, in the years to come, to increase the number of respondents and countries and that we want to constantly challenge, improve, and sophisticate our methodology to fulfill our aim of creating a genuinely global report that yields unique insights on how the sense of meaning is evolving on the international labor market. While we are humble enough to acknowledge that our Meaningfulness at Work Report 2024 isn’t completely global yet and that our method, of course, will be strengthened for each report we publish, then we are equally proud that we, with this report, publish what is unquestionably one of the most extensive studies ever done on the anatomy of meaning at work. We invite even more academic research partners, as well as privatepublic collaborations, foundations, think tanks, etc., to join in on our pursuit of understanding, measuring, and increasing meaningfulness at work – because feeling meaning in the work you do is a vital part of living a meaningful life.

CREATING MEANINGFUL WORKPLACES

Meaningfulness at Work Report #24

This years report is now available for download.