How to Do More Meaningful Work in Any Company

SUMMARY: Excel professionals achieve more meaningful work by adopting an all-Excel strategy that automates repetitive tasks and scales reporting—with help from ChatGPT or Copilot. By building flowbooks that streamline data imports, transformation, and output, users can process larger datasets, drive cross-functional analytics, and tailor outputs to varied stakeholder needs. This shift from scutwork to brainwork empowers strategic contribution, turning Excel into a storytelling platform that enhances clarity, agility, and impact. Here’s an introduction to the new strategy.

You don’t have to search for a more meaningful job. You can build one—right where you are.

Most people think their only options are to quit or endure. But there’s a third path—transform the job you already have.

That’s the promise of the Excel Data Plumbing Strategy.

According to MIT Sloan Management Review’s The Three Green Flags of Meaningful Work, over half of all workers are looking for new jobs. Gallup’s latest workplace data in The Great Detachment: Why Employees Feel Stuck shows the same trend: employees want more than a paycheck. They want to grow. They want to contribute. And they want to matter.

But what if your current role doesn’t give you that opportunity?

If you use Excel in your job, you don’t have to wait for your manager to rewrite your role or offer you a better position. You can start building a better job yourself, using a strategy that turns Excel drudgery into management insight.

The Excel Data Plumbing (EDP) Strategy gives you that power. You can use it to eliminate the gruntwork that’s draining your energy and replace it with high-value projects that spark your curiosity, grow your skills, and earn you recognition.

Here’s how…

Stop Waiting. Start Flowing.

You don’t need to stay stuck doing the same report updates period after period. You don’t need to keep copy-pasting data from exports into spreadsheets, fixing broken formulas, or chasing formatting errors at 10:30 PM the night before a deadline.

The Excel Data Plumbing (EDP) Strategy helps you end all that.

It’s based on a key principle: Always flow your data—like water—from its source, through structured steps in your workbook, to your Excel work, which you can update with one command. 

This approach turns your workbook into a flowbook. The outputs you produce become reflows. And your role becomes something entirely different. You’re not just an Excel user anymore. You’re an Excel Data Plumber—a builder of automated, intelligent, agile Excel work.

You stop being invisible. You stop being replaceable. You start doing the work that makes managers notice—and remember. And you start having more time for your personal life.

Meaningful Work Has Three Ingredients. Excel Data Plumbing Gives You All Three.

MIT Sloan Management Review identifies the three “green flags” that define meaningful work: community, contribution, and challenge. When you apply the Excel Data Plumbing Strategy, you unlock each of these in practical, immediate ways.

1. Community: “I matter here.”

You don’t build a meaningful career in isolation.

As an Excel Data Plumber, you become the person who can help others—particularly managers—solve their thorniest problems.

• In Finance, you could help with data-driven decision making, scenario modeling, cost optimization, strategic reporting, etc.
  
  
• In Marketing, you could help with assessing A/B split testing, micro-influencer marketing, niche marketing, engagement metrics, etc.
  
  
• In HR, you could help to forecast or assess workforce trends, employee burnout, upskilling programs, skills-based recruitment, etc.

You stop being “the spreadsheet person” and become a connector—someone others rely on, someone who adds value across departments.

That’s how you build community. Not by waiting to be included, but by stepping into a role others depend on.

2. Contribution: “My work makes a difference.”

Gallup’s research has shown for years that one of the top drivers of engagement is knowing your work matters.

When you stop spending hours editing data and start creating dashboards that help your team forecast better, manage cash smarter, or detect performance shifts earlier—you see the impact.

So do your managers.

The EDP Strategy gives you the time to ask better questions—and the tools to answer them with confidence. You’re not just showing “what happened.” You’re explaining why. And why it matters.

Often with the help of GenAI.

You go from producing outputs to generating insight. And insight always gets noticed.

3. Challenge: “I’m getting better.”

You can’t grow while you’re drowning in scutwork.

But as you start to clear the repetitive work off your plate, you can start to learn again. You can use GenAI tools like ChatGPT to teach yourself better forecasting techniques. You can use Power Query to reshape difficult datasets. You can use external data—like economic indicators or competitor metrics—to add context that’s typically missing from internal reports.

You’ll start to see Excel as your professional springboard—not your time trap.

Your Job Can Be Meaningful—Even If Your Title Isn’t

No one is going to rewrite your job description and hand it back to you with “strategic thinker” at the top. But that doesn’t mean you have to wait.

You can build meaningful work into your role by transforming what you do each day. Here’s how to begin:

• Automate what’s repeatable. Use Power Query and the EDP flowbook structure to transform periodic Excel work into reflows that refresh with one click.
  
  
• Choose better problems. Use your freed-up time to answer questions and offer insights that are important to your managers.
  
  
• Use AI to grow faster. When you hit a roadblock, don’t wait for training. Ask ChatGPT. It can teach you Excel, business strategy, data storytelling, financial engineering—whatever you need.
  
  
• Show your work. Create a Golden Portfolio of your best dashboards and reports—using external data. Make it visual. Make it strategic. Use it to document your value—to your manager now, and to your future managers.

When It’s Time to Move On, You’ll Be Ready

Sometimes a company won’t support your professional growth, no matter how hard you try. But even if that’s the case, the EDP Strategy still helps you—because it prepares you for your next move.

Instead of saying “I updated reports,” you’ll say:

“I built flowbook-automated Excel work that freed up 100 hours per month on average and gave managers strategic visibility into our cash cycle.”

Instead of saying “I want more responsibility,” you’ll demonstrate it—right in your Golden Portfolio.

Potential employers will remember you—not just because of what you said, but because of what you demonstrated.

That’s why The Three Green Flags of Meaningful Work encourages employers to highlight stories and examples during interviews. Your portfolio is your story. It shows you don’t just want meaningful work—you create it.

The Job You Want May Already Be Hiding in the Job You Have

Gallup and MIT Sloan Management Review are right: people want jobs that matter. But not everyone realizes they can start creating those jobs themselves—especially if they work in Excel.

If that’s you, start today.

You don’t need permission to get better at Excel. You don’t need approval to use ChatGPT as your mentor. And you don’t need to wait to eliminate 90% of your repetitive work—while saving your company gut-wrenching costs.

Start now. You can automate your scutwork, free up your brainwork, and start designing your job from the inside out.

It won’t happen overnight. But it will happen faster than you think. And the results will compound.

Because the truth is: Meaningful jobs aren’t given; they’re developed.

And you already have the tools.

Start doing work that matters—eliminate scutwork with the Excel Data Plumbing Strategy. Join the EDP Institute today.