Work That Produces Continuous Reward

September 11, 2012 By David Griesing 1 Comment

You spend time everyday getting yourself ready for work because you want your sweat equity to provide you with more than just a paycheck. It takes regular priming, recharging and calibrating of your engine (see the last post) to obtain regular returns like empowerment from your work.

We all spend a sizable chunk of our lives working. As a result, you want to benefit as much as you can from the huge investment of time and energy you’re making. When your workday’s over, you want the satisfaction that comes from learning new things, stretching yourself, and becoming more capable. You also want your work to make a positive difference in ways that are consistent with your values because tremendous personal satisfaction comes from that too.

Becoming the best version of yourself. Helping to make the world the kind of better place you want it to be. These are the essential ingredients of fulfilling work.

But work that provides a return like this demands something from you as well. While it helps to get ready for it everyday, you also need to be “in the game for the long haul,” so that your work produces continuous reward for you and for others. That means you’ll also need a plan to disrupt the tendency we all have to fall off our best game and settle into complacency.

You generally know when you’re coasting and what it feels when you’re in a rut. Before long it becomes boring, predictable, pretty lifeless and ultimately pretty unsatisfying, right? So what can you do about it?

To continuously breathe new life into your work, one solution is to introduce new skills and perspectives into your job before you start slipping into your “comfort zone.” In their terrific article “Throw Your Life a Curve,” Juan Carlos Méndez-García and Whitney Johnson literally show us what this would look like.

The authors use a familiar graph that illustrates how innovative products rapidly penetrate markets to show us how bringing new knowledge or innovation into our jobs can change our individual work experiences just as dramatically. The graph they re-purpose to make their argument is called the S-curve.

When an innovative product like the iPhone is introduced, it takes off gradually (from lower left). However, when it hits a tipping point of awareness in the marketplace, the product enjoys a near vertical upturn in sales, until it approaches market penetration, when sales taper off at the peak of the curve.

Méndez-García and Whitney argue that something similar happens when you shake things up at work by bringing new ideas and skills into your job.

As we. . . mov[e] up a personal learning curve, initially progress is slow. But through deliberate practice, we gain traction, entering into a virtuous [upward] cycle that propels us into a sweet spot of accelerating competence and confidence. Then, as we approach mastery, the vicious [downward] cycle commences: the more habitual what we are doing becomes, the less we enjoy the “feel good” effects of learning: these two cycles constitute the S-curve.

What you need to do when the “feel good” effects start tapering off is the most interesting part.

As a worker, you essentially do what Apple has done so successfully as a company. While you are still enjoying the empowering effects of mastery in your current S-curve (or for Apple, while its current iPhone is still selling), you make the “jump” to the next curve by, once again, bringing new skills and knowledge into your job. Jumping from one curve to another in this manner can allow you to continue “the virtuous cycle” in your work in the same way that it allows Apple to enjoy continuous profits when it introduces its next generation iPhone.

As a worker, you risk loosing your competitive edge if you don’t continuously shake things up with new information. But as importantly, you risk loosing the empowering rush that comes when you’re in the “sweet spot of accelerating competence and confidence”—a phrase that perfectly captures what’s best about personal growth on the job. As the authors conclude:

[T]hose who can successfully navigate, even harness, the successive cycles of learning and maxing out that resemble the S-curve will thrive in this era of personal disruption. (italics added)

This is one roadmap for maintaining the flow of satisfaction, and even exhilaration on the job. Simply shake things up by introducing new (and wisely chosen) ways of thinking into your work whenever you find yourself approaching your comfort zone.

When you take active responsibility for the quality of your work like this, continuous reward for you, and for the company that’s lucky enough to have you, are sure to follow.

Get Ready for the Work of Your Life Everyday

September 5, 2012 By David Griesing 3 Comments

You’re back to work after Labor Day, after one of the calendar’s great punctuation points. It’s a time for putting the pedal to the floor, to use some of the gas you’ve been storing up for the sprint to December.

When the weather starts ventilating in the stretch formerly known as Indian Summer, it brings not only the promise of cooler days but also of harvests to come. For most of us, change for the better “is in the air.”

This is the annual time (along with post-New Year’s resolutions) when you put to the test all those ideas you’ve been saving and plans you’ve been making during the lull in your work calendar. It’s when you start getting valuable feedback from what you’re doing differently. It’s the season of possibilities, of successes/failures, of two steps forward and one back. You can learn something everyday about whether you’re making your work what you need it to be—as long as you’re open to that deep learning experience.

No lessons are more important than what you find out from putting your ideas into action and your plans into practice. It’s essential to give yourself time to absorb those lessons so you can be more effective tomorrow and the day after. But it can be hard to give yourself more time when it seems that you’ve just given yourself so much time.

However effective summer downtime was at replenishing you—that is, however much sun and water you managed to soak up—taking small intervals of time off everyday once your “back to work” can be just as essential. It is these daily allotments of time-for-yourself that will enable you to integrate what you’re learning as you strive to realize your work goals.

For example, should you double down on the path you’re set for yourself, tack a little to the left or right, or start moving in a whole new direction? These are questions you should be asking yourself everyday when you’re actively road-testing your plans to become happier and more productive.

Since there is an opportunity to be more effective when you’re trying to get where you want to be, why not take advantage of it? Some simple suggestions.

Most of us are creatures of habit, particularly when it comes to looking forward to something. My dog Rudy (who is somewhere north of 100 in human years) still manages to remember to come over for a treat—same time/same place every night. We’re like this too once the rewards start coming for us. The confidence that comes from having more control of the work path you’re on will be that reward for you.

As a creature of habit I recommend that you give yourself 15 minutes of quiet, uninterrupted time at the beginning, middle and end of every day. Thinking of yourself as an engine, these are the times to:

1. Prime Your Engine,

2. Re-Charge Your Battery, and

3. Recalibrate.

It’s a daily effort to learn, to replenish and most of all, to integrate by putting it all back together.

You Prime Your Engine when you first wake up: before coffee or other interruptions. Go somewhere that’s quiet and dim. You still have access to what your unconscious and sleepy mind is telling you. Listen to it. Think about what your dreams and “your gut” are saying to you about the day before and the day ahead. Don’t force it. Just relax and let it come. Have a pad handy and jot down notes if you want. Then go about doing whatever you do everyday. 15 minutes, and you’ll have some marching orders.

When you throw yourself into work the way I do, you don’t need to eat at mid-day as much as you need to absorb and relax. A great way to Recharge Your Batteryis by taking a short walk outside, either alone or with others, where you can be flooded with nature. A park, a garden, the woods out back: what you want is detail for your senses to body surf through. Look at it, smell it, feel it and let you mind wander through it as your walking. The sense-awakening effects of nature will help you to absorb the morning and start looking forward to the afternoon. Try it. You’ll be surprised. (And then have lunch.)

You Recalibrate Your Engine just before bed. Research in neuroscience is confirming that your mind continues to process while you sleep and dream—especially issues with an emotional component. What are you afraid of? What is the piece of the relationship puzzle you’ve been unable to find? In the lights-down-low/quiet-time before sleep, “give your dreams a path to follow” a question to resolve, a barrier to get around. You’ll pick up the thread the next morning.

We don’t give ourselves enough quiet time, enough time alone, or enough time with nature. I’ll talk about these different stages of Engine Maintenance—and some of the thinking behind them—at greater length another day.

In the meantime, no day is better than today to start taking regular time with yourself to get ready for the work of your life.

Neil Armstrong on Work

August 28, 2012 By David Griesing 4 Comments

Neil Armstrong, American astronaut and first man to set foot on the moon died this week. Many have eulogized him for his capability, his tenacity and his reluctance to seek out the spotlight. He certainly had all of those qualities.

Because of who he was and what he did, people listened to what Neil Armstrong had to say over the years, especially about what it was like to be part of the American space program in the 1960’s. Much that he said was recorded, and this is what he had to say about the work ethic of the tens of thousands of men and women who helped to extend our footprint into the new frontier of space during that era. (The quotation is from NASA’s Oral History Project):

Neil Armstrong

When I was working here at the John Space Center, then the Manned Spacecraft Center, you could stand across the street and you could not tell when quitting time was, because those people didn’t leave at quitting time in those days. People just worked, and they worked until whatever their job was done, and if they had to be there until five o’clock or seven o’clock or nine-thirty or whatever it was, they were just there. They did it, and then they went home. So four o’clock or four-thirty, whenever the bell rings, you didn’t see anybody leaving. Everybody was still working.

The way that happens and the way that made it different from other sectors of the government to which some people are sometimes properly critical is that this was a project in which everybody involved was, one, interested, two, dedicated, and three, fascinated by the job they were doing. And whenever you have those ingredients, whether it be government or private industry or a retail store, you’re going to win.

Those Space Center workers were “interested” because they were part of something bigger than themselves, “dedicated” because they were working for something they believed in deeply, and “fascinated” because they couldn’t believe their good fortune to have jobs that brought them both.

That’s the kind of work I’m writing about on these pages—work that all of us can do and should do, but usually aren’t doing.

Why do you think that’s so?

Is 21^st Century America so different?

Why aren’t more of us working for our hopes and dreams, fascinated by the possibilities?

And what does that says about our future?

Playfulness Can Help You Achieve Your Work Goals

August 22, 2012 By David Griesing Leave a Comment

Tenacity with a little playfulness thrown in can be a powerful combination when you’re looking for—and finally doing—the work of your life.

If you were armchair running, swimming, paddling and shooting your way through the Summer Olympics like I was, I think you’ll agree: they gave us a lot to chew on when it comes to tenacity and playfulness.

Take gymnastics, for example. Or platform and springboard diving if you prefer. What’s so excruciating about watching these competitions is how often tight plus nervous ends in a lost opportunity. On the other hand, all you have to do is recall gymnast Gabby Douglas’ all-around performance to appreciate what can happen when tenacity makes room for playfulness. As soon as Gabby’s smile said “I’m enjoying myself,” the rest was pure magic.

Gabrielle Douglas of the U.S. competes in the floor exercise during the women's individual all-around gymnastics final in London — GABBY DOUGLAS photo/Mike Blake Reuters

Sometimes playfulness is integral to the moment, as it was for Gabby and the purposeful individuals in my last post, The Power of Laughter at the Most Serious Times. Other times, playfulness follows the tenacity like a sigh of relief, and changes the whole meaning of the story.

As the Olympics rolled into their closing ceremony, the pageantry marked a triumphant end to what had been a long, hard year for London. You’ll recall the scenes exactly one year ago, when thousands of rioters smashed windows, looted stores and torched parts of the City. One of those looters burned down much of the 144-year old House of Reeves furniture store in the borough of Croydon. In the days and weeks that followed, the 5^th generation Reeves brothers and their 81-year old father came to embody Britain’s World War II motto “Keep Calm and Carry On,” as they struggled mightily to put their business back together.

While the media was busy debating whether the riots represented class struggle or opportunistic criminality, the community summoned up its better angels to coalesce around the Reeves family as they got back on their feet. The lifeline extended to the family included over 4000 photographs from young people, holding up statements of encouragement and denying the hooligans the last word.

When their new showrooms opened this week, Trevor and Graham Reeves sat on a sofa outside their store, playfully gesturing to their storefront, which they had wallpapered with all of those photographs. It did more than express their gratitude. It provided a moment of effervescence: the grace note after a very hard year.

HouseofReeves2 — TREVOR & GRAHAM REEVES Photo/zuma press

Having the tenacity to find and do work that expresses your values can be serious business.

When you can laugh at yourself and the odds you’re facing along the way, and celebrate what you achieve with playfulness, your path will be easier, the crowds pulling for you larger, and the story you’re writing far more impactful.

The Power of Laughter at the Most Serious Times

August 3, 2012 By David Griesing 1 Comment

I just returned from the #140edu conference in New York City, where I talked about our needing to have a discussion about values in our schools so that our kids have “toolboxes for living and working” when they go out into the world. (You can find much of what I had to say in posts I’ve filed here over the past month on values training, on learning your vocation, and on a school’s values being the beginning, not the end, of the discussion.)

Of course, values are not just something we should be talking about in our schools. We should be having conversations about what’s important to us—and how to act on our beliefs—with families, friends and colleagues so that we can boldly (and optimistically) face the difficult decisions that inevitably confront us all. When you know what’s important to you, a lot of the bad stuff that comes your way can be put in a proper context, liberating you to move forward in a way that makes sense to you in spite of all the challenges and uncertainties.

But that’s the serious part.

As with all of the #140 character conferences sponsored by Jeff Pulver, this one was an amazing collision of thought leaders and their thoughts, with results that managed to be playful one minute and profound the next.

Because of the range of its take-aways, and still finding myself a little hung-over from “that amazingly broad moment,” I’d like to share with you a couple of stories (one from the conference, and the other from half a world away) because of what they have to say about the power of laughter at the most serious times.

In the “recovery room” outside the auditorium of the 92^nd Street Y where the #140edu presentations were occurring in a fire-hose of 10-minute intervals, I found myself talking with a young teacher. I quickly discovered that she needed to make an immediate decision to quit or keep her job in a Bronx classroom before the next school year starts. We weren’t three lines into our conversation when she said: “I can’t imagine going back.” What she didn’t say was: “I’ve been sitting on this fence for awhile, and I don’t have another job.” Her school had plainly done nearly everything it could do to make her feel devalued.

I appealed to the serious-grounded-thoughtful-and-obviously-talented part of her by saying: “The best decisions I’ve made in my life were like jumping off a cliff with no sense of the bottom or how horrible it could be. But if you believe in yourself and in what you are trying to do, you will land successfully—stronger and better—and never look back. At least it had always worked that way for me.”

At this penultimate moment of seriousness, she looked at the huge nametag they had given me and said: “Don’t you find it ironic that we’re here at an education conference and your name is spelled wrong?” Of course, I hadn’t sensed the irony because I hadn’t noticed. Because I hadn’t, and because of her inability to be anything other than a “teacher correcting misspelled words” during a conversation about a key decision point in her life, all of our seriousness deflated into laughter.

Now there was a glimmer of hope in her eyes! At that moment, her laugh made my jumping-off-the-cliff advice seem like it would really work for her—and there’s a good reason for that. Realizing goals you truly believe in is a whole lot easier if you can also manage to see the funny things that are happening around you along the way.

At around the same time we were talking, but a half a world away, another collision of the dead serious and truly playful was going on.

Belarus, one of the former Soviet republics, has one of the most deplorable human rights records in the world.

Sweden is close enough geographically that some of Belarus’ wafting stench led two of its courageous citizens, Thomas Mazetti and Hannah Frey, to try and do something about it. Their goal a few days ago was raising awareness, challenging indifference, and expressing their solidarity with the human rights activists in Belarus, whose very small voice is barely heard outside their troubled country.

Mazetti & Frey — Thomas Mazetti & Hannah Frey

Mazetti and Frey believed enough in the values of freedom, courage and responsibility that they spent $184,500 of their own money to rent a plane, personally fly it over Belarus, and drop 879 teddy bears with parachutes bearing human rights slogans into the country.

While they managed to fly into and back out of Belarus without being shot down, killed, or imprisoned, there is no question that they put their lives at risk for something that was of the utmost importance to them. But notice how they did it. They alleviated their serious moment with teddy bears, and as a result, every news organization in the world picked up their story.

The #140 character conferences, a young teacher in the Bronx, and two Swedish activists all have something to say to us about finding a place where the most serious purpose can spend time with laughter and a sense of humor.

I’d love to hear your stories about when you’ve found a way to bring either laughter or lightness into your deepest commitments—and while doing so, made it far more likely that you would reach your personal goals.