Making Work Matter: How to Create Positive Change in your Company and Meaning in Your Career

by Nancy McGaw (published May 7, 2024) 

Business has enormous potential to create economic value and positive impact on society and the planet. Innovative employees, who see opportunities for companies to change, can be key to unleashing this potential. How can employees create pathways for change within their companies? How do they become the internal change agents or intrapreneurs that the world needs to help solve some of our toughest environmental and social challenges?

After a career as a corporate banker for nearly two decades, Nancy McGaw joined the Aspen Institute and quickly became an ardent student of values-based leadership with a keen interest in learning from and supporting intrapreneurs. In 2009 she launched the First Movers Fellowship, that became a world-renowned leadership program. The program mentored hundreds of innovators from the world’s largest companies, who were looking to take their innovations forward, and create products, services or management practices that are good for business and create social and environmental value.

In her book, Making Work Matter: How to Create Positive Change in your Company and Meaning in Your Career, McGaw shares how the business managers and leaders, who were selected to be part of the program, created positive change—from Paul Dillinger who launched the Wellthread™ Collection at Levi’s® to produce garments that not only look great but are sustainably produced at every step of the design process, to Gyanda Sachdeva who developed tools on LinkedIn to connect hiring managers with a diverse pool of freelance professionals, and Rahul Raj who piloted Walmart’s guaranteed take-back program for electronics that enabled customers to return and buy refurbished products, effectively keeping them out of landfills, and building a new, profitable revenue stream for the company.

The book combines over forty inspiring stories with the mindsets, best practices, and practical advice you need to become an intrapreneur. In effect, McGaw shows you how to begin your own journey by reflecting on the work that matters deeply to you, exploring ways to bring your innovative ideas to life, collaborate with likeminded colleagues, and stay on the changemaking path even when challenges arise.

Whether you are a manager or an individual contributor working in finance, marketing, R&D, talent management or sustainability, this book will be an indispensable guide to building a career that delivers value—to you, your company, and to society.