In a recent NY Times opinion piece, Swarthmore Professor Barry Schwartz wrestled with the disheartening results from the latest Gallup engagement survey indicating that…”almost 90 percent of workers were either ‘not engaged’ with or ‘actively disengaged’ from their jobs.” In trying to figure out why this is so, Schwartz rejects the idea that “it’s just human nature to dislike work” and that most of us work only for a paycheck. On the contrary, he argues:

Of course, we care about our wages, and we wouldn’t work without them. But we care about more than money. We want work that is challenging and engaging, that enables us to exercise some discretion and control over what we do, and that provides us opportunities to learn and grow. We want to work with colleagues we respect and with supervisors who respect us. Most of all, we want work that is meaningful — that makes a difference to other people and thus ennobles us in at least some small way.

Take a look at that last sentence again: “Most of all, we want work that is meaningful—that makes a difference to other people and thus ennobles us in at least some small way.”

When was the last time anyone in your organization took a look at your mission statement on your wall? Does its language pack an emotional wallop? Does it say—in a clear, compelling way—that the work of the organization is work that “makes a difference to other people and thus ennobles us in at least some small way”?

We’re all looking for a cause—something we can give ourselves to with energy and passion. Many of us—and given the Gallup findings referenced above, I think we can say most of us— find our cause outside of work. We find it coaching Little League, volunteering at the local food pantry or hospice, or working for a political candidate. But typically, and sadly, we don’t find it at work.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “It’s just business; it’s not personal.” Think about that. I think this is just the opposite message leaders should be delivering. We should want our people to take the work they do very personally—whatever that work involves.

So how do you build this sense of purpose in your organization?  How do you turn your mission statement into a cause? You start by getting your people involved. Give them a chance to sit with one another and talk about what the company does. How do the company’s services or products make a difference to its customers? To the larger community? How does each function and role in the organization touch the customer? How does each individual touch and affect what the company does?

As one of my mentors used to say, “There are no back office jobs.” What he meant is that every role in a business has an impact on the company’s performance. Every role, even if it does not directly engage with the customer, has the potential to influence—for good or bad—how the customer perceives the company.

In other words, every job in the company is important. Every job has value and dignity. Get your people together and give them a chance to see that for themselves. Give them a chance to connect the dots between what they do and how the company contributes to its customers and the larger community. If you do that, you’ll have taken a huge step toward bringing out the best in your people and your organization.

Virgin Atlantic Airways has what I consider a great mission: …. “to embrace the human spirit and let it fly.” Why not get going on turning your mission statement into a cause. Get your people to fly!