Creating workplaces of mattering with Zach Mercurio

What is mattering and how is it different from belonging and inclusion?

Zach Mercurio: Belonging is about feeling welcomed, accepted, and connected to a group—like being picked for the team at recess. Inclusion is being invited to play in the game; it’s about being invited to take an equal, active role in the group.

But mattering is different. Mattering is feeling that the team wouldn’t be complete without you—feeling significant to individuals in the group.

At its core, mattering is a survival instinct. The first thing we do as humans is the “grasp reflex”: We reach out in a hugging motion right after we’re born. We do that not to procure food, but to matter enough to another human being so that person will keep us alive.

When that instinct isn’t met, we face an instinctual stress of insignificance, which is what too many people are facing today. It results in withdrawal—isolating, staying silent, quiet quitting—or acts of desperation, like complaining, blaming, or protesting.

Mattering is more elemental. It happens through interpersonal interactions and in moments. It’s the sense that your presence and contributions are essential, not just accepted or included.

That’s why, when building inclusive workplaces, it’s important to go beyond belonging and inclusion and intentionally foster mattering for every individual.

Catalyst research shows that empathy is a powerful driver of team agility and innovation. How do you see empathy fitting into this picture? Are empathy and mattering the same thing?

Zach Mercurio: Empathy is an essential skill, but it’s not exactly the same as mattering.  

My research shows that mattering comes from three primary experiences:

1. Feeling noticed—being seen and heard.
2. Feeling affirmed—knowing your unique gifts make a unique difference.
3. Feeling needed—knowing you are essential.

Noticing is the foundation of mattering, and the foundation of noticing is empathy. Empathy is about relentlessly understanding someone’s lived experience so you can see, hear, and value them in their unique ways. It’s a foundational skill because you can’t truly care for someone if you don’t understand them.  

The challenge is that many people in today’s workforce, especially our younger generation, have never had to show compassion or empathy in real time due to our reliance on digital technology and short, transactional communication. Rebuilding that skill is essential to helping people feel understood and, ultimately, that they matter. 

What should employees be doing right now to foster mattering, and how does that scale up to managers and leaders?  

Zach Mercurio: I would argue that we need more of people’s unique voices, perspectives, strengths, and ideas than ever right now. But it’s hard for anything to matter to someone who doesn’t first believe that they matter.

If we want people to engage, to share their voice, we first have to show them that their voice is significant. This is how we change the system from the inside out.  

Even if you don’t have positional or systemic power, you always have interactional power. You don’t need anyone’s permission for how you show up in your next interaction. Commit to the skills: really see people, take an interest, affirm others, and show those around you that they’re needed. Make this a daily practice.

For managers and leaders: They should be relearning, honing, and evaluating themselves on the skills to see and hear people, create psychological safety, and ensure people can speak up without fear. They need to affirm people’s unique strengths and tell the story of the unique difference each person makes. Leaders should make sure people feel needed, relied on, and indispensable to a bigger purpose. 

What about those who’ve been invisibilized by the workforce—janitors, caterers, frontline workers? How can organizations help these individuals feel that they matter, especially given the stigma often attached to these roles?

Zach Mercurio: In one of our first studies, we embedded ourselves with a group of cleaners for a year and a half to understand what made work meaningful.

One story stands out: a woman who had been a janitor at a university for nearly 30 years. She started out feeling ashamed of her role because of the social stigma attached to “dirty work.” But her supervisor sat her down, opened a dictionary, and read the definition of “custodian”—a person responsible for a building and everyone in it. He told her, “Jane, that’s you. You are important.” That moment reframed her identity, gave her evidence of her significance, and buffered her against stigma. Now, she’s incredibly proud of her work because she feels worthy and capable—she knows she matters.

If you’re in a frontline occupation, or manage people in those roles, remember: relationships become even more important in the face of social stigma. But it’s not the job of the person who feels invisible to make themselves seen. We all need to reflect on our own social ignorance—like not making eye contact with a trash collector or nudging past a janitor in the airport. These small moments of anti-mattering create the stigma that supervisors have to reframe. It’s up to all of us to see and acknowledge each other’s work.