Purpose. Impact. These terms are thrown around more than ever these days, including in some unexpected places, like one of the worlds largest investors annual letter. Purpose statements are printed on everyday objects and impact investing or sustainability are as likely as gross margins to be discussed over lunch in some offices.

We have yet, though, to pay as much attention to the concept of meaning, at our collective peril. This oversight is a root cause of companies and investments inadequate progress toward becoming better for the people and planet around them.

Why do we need to develop this third, perhaps apparently overlapping, concept? Without meaning, impact is neutral: defined as a marked effect or influence, by the Oxford English Dictionary. Similarly, purpose without meaning is an ambitious mission that fails to engage or motivate the people required to get it done. Purpose, impact, and meaning are closely related, but they are not synonyms or substitutes. We need all three to fulfill our human potential and build a healthier, more equitable version of capitalism.

We are living in the time of peak purpose where your dish soap or toothpaste label is as likely to have a purpose statement as a not-for-profits annual report. This is a good thing, and arguably not surprising: humans are evolutionarily predisposed to do things that contribute to some outcome larger than our own survival. And now that our careers and purchases are so intertwined with our identity, we have even higher expectations that the companies we work for and buy from to have this same sense of purpose.

We get anxious when we dont understand the larger goal that our daily efforts are advancing. Indeed, ample research has shown that identifying and pursuing a purpose improves individuals physical and mental well-being. Other studies have shown organizations to perform better (financially and in other terms) when they have a purpose AND employees are clear about what that purpose is and how they contribute to it. But none of these benefits are felt if the purpose isnt anchored by specific impacts and the meaning that they have to each individual participant.

These days, there is also a lot of talk about impact. Impact investing is all the rage these days, though many deals that claim the label dont pass muster for many experts (at least not as being markedly different from deals that have always happened) as simply good business.

Millennials have become famous for wanting measurable and immediate impact from their jobs, purchases, and donations. Theyre not the weird ones, its just that the rest of us are products of the last industrial revolution, in which we operated machines, pushed paper, or otherwise served as cogs in processes that separated us from our direct impact.

Purpose and impact at the organizational level are also having a heyday. Larry Finks annual letters pushed his portfolio CEOs a plurality of the global economy at this point to consider their organizations purpose and impact, beyond financial returns. In August 2019, 181 CEOs of large, publicly traded corporations issued a statement, revoking Milton Friedmans position that shareholder value was the primary and sole purpose of corporations.

The concept that hasnt been making headlines is meaning. This is a problem. Without meaning, impact is a neutral term: a marked effect or influence, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Similarly, purpose without meaning is a lofty aspirational statement. And while other creatures also are driven to contribute to something larger than their own evolutionary success (ever seen an ant colony work, or eaten honey?), what is uniquely human is the meaning that we are able to ascribe to those efforts. In other words, the impacts of our actions, and what purpose they serve. So without making meaning of the impact of our actions, and why they matter in a larger sense, over time, we are not fulfilling our human potential. Were just ants building a hill.

Ants work hard and collaboratively, but without the human ability of assigning meaning to their ... [+] efforts.

Dont want to be an ant? Great, heres your playbook.

First, lets agree on definitions.

Consider your morning workout. Its impact might include releasing endorphins, strengthening your heart or muscles, burning fat, distracting you from worries about the day ahead, providing quality time with friends, exposing you to potential new friends, building your confidence to tackle other, non-physical challenges, upholding your side of a bet with a friend or group, or preparing you for a marathon or other physical feat. These are all wonderful effects, but will not matter equally to every person or even to a single individual at different times of their life. This is where it matters that we make meaning of our impact. A prescribed marathon training routine or group commitment to regular workouts are proven to have far higher persistence rates than the famous new years resolution to work out more. The stronger the sense of significance, what the workout means to you the more likely you are to perform the act, meet your goals, and unleash your potential in this area of your life.

So imagine youre someone who finds great purpose in supporting friends and family. You build a workout routine that has the impact of keeping your heart healthy and body strong. This will mean that you are around for a long time and able to play with grandchildren, nieces and nephews, biological or otherwise. You also know that in our increasingly inactive culture plagued by diabetes and heart disease, its powerful to set an example of physical fitness. The impact of setting this example has great meaning for you as part of how you advance your purpose of supporting your friends and family.

Taking the time to make these connections between the impact of your workouts to their specific meaning for you, and how that ladders up to your purpose, provides powerful motivation. You likely wouldnt be as motivated by the other impacts of your workout mentioned above, such as social contact or buffer arms.

On the other hand, the heart health and longevity that directly advance your personal purpose are way too distant and abstract for other people whove just moved to a new city and have a purpose to build a community of fellow devotees of physical activity. They would be most motivated by workouts with a social element and a group of regular participants who might become friends.

Meaning is a critical element to derive the observed benefits of living and working with purpose.

We can apply the same meaning-making process in our professional lives. Imagine that youre a supply chain manager and have taken to mentoring and now more actively sponsoring a newly hired woman on your team. You see great potential, and shes very interested in integrating circular economy principles and social responsibility into your companys approach. Over time, your support has the impact of providing this woman with formative learning experiences, advancing her career and salary, improving conditions for the factory workers in your supply chain, and extending the useful life cycle of your products.

Most of us can see the meaning of all of these impacts. But well derive more motivation and fulfillment by focusing on the ones that connect most directly to our individual sense of purpose. In other words, if you see your purpose as reducing gender inequality, focus on the two former impacts and the meaning they have to you in elevating a woman toward your companys leadership. On the other hand, if your purpose is about reducing waste, spending time thinking about the meaning of your colleagues impact extending your products life cycle.

Playing the four-year-old favorite Game of Why is a simple way to get from impact to meaning and eventually the overarching purpose of your work. Your inner dialog (or eventually conversation with a direct report) could go something like this:

A: Why are you sponsoring this female colleague?

B: So that she gets a promotion.

A: Why do you want her to get a promotion?

B: So that she has more influence on our companys future.

A: Why do you want her to have influence?

B: Because our senior leadership team isnt yet representative of the diversity of our customers gender identities.

A: Why [you get the idea by now]?

B: Because when leadership represents customers gender mix we create a company and products that are better for all stakeholders and improve the companys performance.

A: Why?

B: Because that will provide advancement, professional satisfaction, and wealth to our female colleagues as well as products that best serve our female customers needs.

A: Why?

B: Because our society functions best when all of its members reach their potential, and currently were losing out on serious potential economic growth and social innovation.

We're born to want to know 'why,' as you know if you've spent time with a four-year-old!

Just keep asking yourself why, and be curious about your answers. This simple process works amazingly well with colleagues and direct reports to help them connect the dots between their impact on your team and the meaning they do or could draw from it, and eventually the purpose that unites and motivates their work.

Its exciting to be part of this twenty-first century evolution of corporate purpose, which is leading us to a more equitable and regenerative form of capitalism. But we must both 1) ground our lofty individual and organizational purposes in action, and 2) help all employees connect the dots of their day-to-day impact to its meaning the significance it has to them personally. Without investing the time and money to learn and do this meaning-making process, we are just ants building hills. And leaders commitments in Davos, at the Business Roundtable, and in the BlackRock portfolio, will remain admirable but empty pledges.

On the other hand, when we make the time to understand and then share the current and potential impact of our work, and explore what it might mean to us each as employees, we create the motivating drive that is required to transform our economy. We have all the technology and resource to make our impact more positive. The meaning-making process is simple remember our four-year-old Game of Why. And purpose emerges organically once we are really paying attention to themes in the meaning we derive from our work, individually and collectively.

All thats required is that we believe that businesses can and should work alongside the public sector and not-for-profits to have positive impact on the planet and all people. And then remember that work can be a powerfully meaningful part of the human experience. If we make these basic shifts in belief systems (which have long been and are still held by many global communities), we are positioned for a rapid transition to the most equitable, peaceful, and healthy global society ever.

The transition to a healthier, more equitable and regenerative capitalism is within reach.

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How Impact, Meaning, And Purpose Are Different (And Why You Should Care) - Forbes