Contribution Thinking is a powerful paradigm for reconceptualizing our work and careers. This paradigm is built around six key principles:
One, contribution thinking means making a positive difference to (i) oneself, (ii) to one’s organization/ immediate ecosystem (iii) to society at large. (It is best contrasted with acquisitional thinking or consumptional thinking widely seen in society).
Two, contribution thinking means engaging with work and life at two levels together – being (who am I) and function (what I do). Working at both generates deep engagement and transformative encounters with our work, relationships, and life itself.
Three, contribution thinking means integrating competence with purpose. Competence alone is powerful, but when integrated with purpose, competence turns into a force for change. Integrating competence with purpose forces one to go beyond narrow functional and role identities, and see work in terms of what needs to happen in the world around us.
Four, contribution thinking means thinking stakeholders and humans, not sales and profits alone. The purpose of all work is to make life better – for oneself and society. Seen in this light, work which does not acknowledge stakeholders and humans will not be sustainable – for the individuals involved, organization or the planet.
Five, contribution thinking means engaging on win-win terms. This means new modes of dialogue, new practices for solution building and it means new criteria for choice making. Win-win thinking is the foundation of a sustainable society.
Six, contribution thinking means expanding our success paradigm from quantitative metrics to include qualitative and quantitative metrics. This is applicable to organizational and project contexts and to individual and career contexts.