Remember when you spent hours on that spreadsheet and finally got it to work? Or solved a complex engineering problem? Perhaps you tried a new counselling technique that worked beautifully, or finally got the app to do what you wanted.
Using our skills provides us with a real sense of achievement and satisfaction. We spend years, decades even, building and practicing our skills and seeing the fruits of all that learning gives us a real buzz. The feeling is even sweeter when we push our skills to the edge of what we thought was possible.
On the flip side, when our contribution is not valued, motivation drops. In a well-known study by behavioural economist Dan Ariely, participants were asked to build a Lego model. One group saw their completed models set aside before moving on to the next. Another group watched their models immediately disassembled in front of them.
The second group experienced a sharp drop in motivation.
It turns out that we are not only motivated by using our skills, but also derive a sense of meaning when those skills result in something useful. In other words, when we feel we have made a contribution. I’m defining contribution here as using our skills to achieve something of value.
This sense of contribution is an important part of our sense of who we are. The doctor who sees themselves as helping remove pain for people. The shop assistant who helps people feel good by choosing the right clothes. The barista who knows that the best days start with a perfect coffee.
Using our skills helps us feel that we matter. That sense of contribution is one of the four elements of meaningful work.
Contribution in a rapidly changing world
Technology has always been the great disruptor of work. Now knowledge work is being unsettled by the advent of artificial intelligence. This raises two key questions for knowledge workers:
- how do I stay relevant; and
- how do I navigate the rapidly changing nature of work?
How to stay relevant
Your career can be viewed as a series of learning cycles. We move into new areas, experiment, build competence, and then, often sooner than expected, move again. The rhythm is no longer long periods of mastery, but shorter cycles of exploration and consolidation. We call these learning cycles.
In this context, the most valuable capability is not what you know, but how effectively you learn. Your capacity to adapt, re-skill, and reorient your contribution becomes more important than any single body of expertise.
The concept of ‘learning mode’ is useful here.
According to UNSW Professor Peter Heslin and his colleagues, the thing that is missing - and the key to a sustainable career - is being in a learning mode. This occurs when people hold a learning mindset as they cycle intentionally through the experiential learning phases.
Every experience is a learning opportunity, but we have to actively make it so. If you go to your next leadership development course thinking it will be a waste of time, it likely will be. However, in a learning mode, you learn intentionally and are more aware of that learning.
First, start with the question: What are you going to learn? Actively shifting into a learning orientation allows us to see the experience we are about to have as something we can learn from.
Second, actively experiment and seek feedback throughout the experience. Try different things. Tweak as you go.
Third, reflect on what happened. Have a conversation with someone about the experience. Talk through what unfolded and what you would do differently next time.
How to navigate a rapidly changing work environment
For much of our working lives, a ‘job’ has felt like something solid. A defined role. A set of responsibilities. It gives us a sense of certainty and, for many, a sense of identity.
But that sense of solidity is beginning to soften.
More and more, work is no longer something that fits neatly into predefined boxes. Instead, our work is more fluid, shaped by shifting priorities, and the constant pull of what matters most right now. Think about your current job description. Most likely a large chunk of your time is spent doing the last bullet point: “...and other duties as required by the business”.
Rather than stepping into a fixed job, we are increasingly stepping into a living system of work that asks us to adapt, respond, and re-shape what we do in real time.
Of course, artificial intelligence is accelerating this change. Tasks that once defined entire roles are being automated or augmented. What used to take hours now takes minutes. What used to require specialised expertise is becoming more accessible. And in the space that opens up, something deeper is being asked of us.
Not just to do tasks, but to exercise judgement. Not just to produce outputs, but to create meaning, direction, and value.
This is a profound shift. The centre of gravity in our work is moving from what we do, to how we think, relate, and contribute.
And yet, the idea of a ‘job’ is not disappearing.
It still carries deep social meaning. To have a job is to have a place, a rhythm, a form of belonging. Our institutions, our systems, and even our language are built around it. We should not underestimate how powerful that is.
But within that familiar container, something is changing. The boundaries of work are becoming more fluid, expectations less fixed, and career paths less linear. This creates both opportunity and unease. We are being asked to take greater ownership of our role, our responsibilities, and ultimately our contribution.
As AI reshapes tasks and redistributes effort, the central question shifts from what the job requires to what you uniquely bring: your contribution. This shift asks us to move beyond predefined roles and into a more active relationship with our work. One where we are continually shaping, rather than simply performing, our role.
This is where capability becomes central.
Not just technical skills, but the broader capacities to navigate uncertainty, learn quickly, collaborate meaningfully, and apply sound judgement in complex situations. In a world where the content of jobs is shifting, your ability to contribute becomes your anchor.
Careers now are less about climbing a stable ladder and more about evolving your contribution over time.
At times, this will feel unsettling. There is a real loss in letting go of the idea that work can be fully defined in advance. But there is also a quiet invitation here to engage more deeply with what you bring, how you grow, and where you can make a difference.
The job may remain as the container, but what sits inside it is changing.
And for those willing to step into that change, there is the possibility of something richer, more active, more thoughtful, and ultimately a more meaningful way of contributing.
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Edwin is the CEO of Trevor-Roberts and has spent the last 2 decades exploring how people find meaning through their work. He is also Chair of the Advisory board at the Centre for Work, Organisation, and Wellbeing at Griffith University.
