Deloitte's 2019 revelation that purpose-driven companies outperform their rivals was a wake-up call. But fast-forward to less than three years later, Deloitte confessed a snag – the intangible nature of purpose leaves organizations grappling.

What went amiss? Purpose is indeed crucial. It aligns with our innate quest for meaning – a quest that McKinsey quantifies with a staggering statistic: 70% of our life's purpose is tied to our work. But herein lies the conundrum – purpose primarily addresses extrinsic outcomes, while meaning is deeply intrinsic.

Howard Thurman, the civil rights activist addresses the need for intrinsic meaning best:

The essence? Meaning flourishes from work that innately thrills and invigorates us.

Enter the stage, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's "Flow" – a state of profound immersion where energy surges, focus sharpens, and involvement deepens. Through research spanning students, musicians and other cohorts, researchers have been able to correlate the flow state with higher levels of self-reported satisfaction. More recently, researchers have been able to study subjects in a state of flow, and see differences in neural arousal.

But how do we engineer this elusive state in the workplace?

Clarity and Feedback: Clear goals, ample resources, and constructive feedback form the foundation.
Balancing Challenge and Skill: Pursue the equilibrium where ambition intersects competence, a nexus vital for both peak performance and well-being.

Autotelic Activities: Match people with work that they find rewarding in and of itself, nurturing an intrinsic motivation that transcends outcomes.

Leaders need to create workplaces that infuse extrinsic (Purpose) and intrinsic (Flow) elements. Purpose might lay the groundwork, but it's the intricate blend of purpose and meaning that ignites productivity and meaning.