This is one of the keys to motivating people at work: giving them a sense that they have some say in what they do. We all tell ourselves stories, create our own narratives and invest what we do with the meaning that Frankl wrote about. When people work on a project that gets cancelled, when their position is downgraded or when they lose their jobs, it all “goes pfffft, like a deflated balloon”, Ariely writes. It is not just the change at work that is disturbing. “It’s the sense that your own life matters less — that who you are has been belittled somehow.”

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