Transforming the daily grind
What are the characteristics of "good work"? And how can we transform the daily grind into something that is genuinely purposeful and rewarding?
It's a new year, and here in Wellington, most of us have started back at work after the Summer break. I enjoy my day job, but I have to admit Googling "how to avoid the back-to-work blues" on the first Monday back, as I loitered in the coffee shop queue, waiting for a much-needed flat white.
Which got me thinking - what are the characteristics of "good work"? How can we transform the daily grind into something that is genuinely purposeful and rewarding?
There's obviously a lot of literature on this topic, but I particularly love the ideas of Dan Pink and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
Pink talks about the issue of intrinsic motivation - or motivation for the task itself, rather than any associated reward like money or status.
He explains that intrinsic motivation at work can be built up if we "AMP" jobs - giving people more:
• Autonomy - or the ability to control what they do, how, and when
• Mastery - seeing work as an opportunity to continually learn and master skills
• Purpose - linking people's day-to-day work to something greater than themselves, ie to the bigger picture
In a similar vein, Csikszentmihalyi explains that rewarding jobs often have the characteristics of games or sports.
"The more a job inherently resembles a game - with variety, appropriate and flexible challenges, clear goals and immediate feedback - the more enjoyable it will be, regardless of the worker's level of development" (Flow, p152)
I think we could combine these two sets of ideas, to start to develop a blueprint for good work. I find it useful to think in pictures - in this case, thinking about the horizon, the midground and the foreground of focus.
• Looking to the horizon - and helping people to understand how their work connects to a bigger purpose that they care about.
• Looking to the mid-ground - and helping people to set appropriate goals or challenges, and giving them feedback about their progression. Finding ways to cultivate a mindset of continual learning and growth.
• Looking to the foreground - and giving people autonomy about how they work, ensuring there is sufficient variety in the tasks and projects people are given.
If more jobs had those characteristics, I think the back-to-work blues would be far less common.
We're already heading in the right direction, for instance, with more companies allowing flexi-work, and articulating their purpose or their "why", in order to attract Millenials. But there's always room for improvement. And for those tough Mondays, there's always coffee!
For more inspiration - check out Dan Pink on the puzzle of motivation
(This post was originally published on the Collective Wisdom blog, which has now been integrated with Thrive Lab)