Strategies for Great Work

If you ask most people in most organizations whether they're doing as much Great Work as they'd like, the answer is No.

And that includes the leaders of the organization. It's not like there's a small group of senior people plotting and planning to keep everyone else doing less Great Work than they'd like.

So, if you are reading this and thinking that you'd like to be doing more Great Work and less Good Work - well, you're not alone.

Would you like more Great Work in your life?

But, in the succinct words of football coach Lou Holtz, when it comes to Great Work "when all is said and done, a lot more is said than one.“

The challenges are numerous - and here are just some I've come across.

"I'm too busy dealing with the day to day to even figure out what Great Work might be for me.“

"I could spend every waking hour just on my email. How can I get out from the minutiae?“

"Great Work involves taking a risk - and if you make a mistake around here, you're doomed.“

"We say we want Great Work - but in fact, what we really value is the safety and reliability of Good Work."

The challenge of doing Great Work

We're looking at just what is the difference between Bad, Good and Great Work.

In "What Rules Are You Making Up", we uncover some the assumptions about "how stuff gets done around here" - and help think about what rules you might be able to break.

In "No Going Back" we explore three different ways you can increase the level of commitment you have to the work that matters.

In "How Do You Want To Be Remembered?" we look at how freeing it is to stop taking yourself-and your work-quite so seriously.

And in the final article, we look at the art of the After Action Review – a tool that originates with the military which provides a powerful structure for any debrief.

Each article has a "From Idea to Action: Something to Practice" section, to help you get these ideas "in your bones" and translate them so that they're real and relevant for your life.

Five strategies to help

Let me introduce you to Milton GlaserI'm almost certain you haven't heard the name of Milton

Glaser.But you probably know at least one of his works of art – the famous logo:

INYIn his book, Art is Work, Glaser says that all the work we do- and bywork he's not just talking about your "9 to 5" job but EVERYTHING you do falls into just one of three categories

1. Bad WorkHave you ever caught yourself at work thinking: why on earth am I

doing?This is an hour of my life I'll never have back..."That's Bad Work.

Are you doing Great Work? Or merely Good Work?

In organizations, it often comes under the label of bureaucracy.

It's the meetings that go on and on and on with no end in sight.

It's the paperwork that "they" need you to complete - for no apparent purpose.

It's the processes that date back to the 1970s and create ten steps when there needs to be only one...

Richer Sounds is an audio and hi-fi store in the UK. It's highly successful - in fact, it's been in the Guinness Book of Work Records for years for its sales success.

And it has something called the "Cut the Crap Committee.“

And for Bad Work, the test is simple. If you suspect there would be work for a 'Cut the Crap Committee' of your own, then you've got Bad Work on your hands.

(Remember, the test here is not how well you do the work. In fact, part of the curse of Bad Work is that most of us can deliver it at an excellent standard!)

2. Good Work

Good Work is what most of us do most of the time.

There is certainly no shame attached with doing Good Work. You're doing work that uses your skills, it gets stuff done, it pays you a wage.

Organizations love people doing Good Work because this is the work that is profitable, efficient and largely error-free.

But Good Work has its limitations. At an organizational level, it's work that will sooner or later become commoditized. And at both an organizational and personal level, it's work that creates a comfortable rut. It's work that doesn't bring out the very best of the organization, and it doesn't call forth the full potential of the people doing it.

And the real danger is that in today's lean, outsourced and tech-savvy firms, there's so much Good Work that could be done that it eclipses the time and space to do Great Work.

3. Great Work

Great Work is that work that challenges and inspires, which brings with it risk and reward, exhilaration and sometimes terror.

At an organizational level, Great Work is something that every CEO proclaims as important - innovation, "Blue Ocean Strategy", differentiation - and finds a challenge to implement, as there is an inherent tension between the promise of Great Work and the reliability of Good Work.

And on a personal level, Great Work is a place where impact and effect trump efficiency and process. It is a place of inspiration, where suddenly all your past makes sense ("A-ha! That's why I did that, learned that, screwed that up, experienced that!"). Great Work is a place that honors your skills, your passion and your experience.

Great Work is also a difficult place to be. The temptation to "downgrade" to the comfort of Good Work is constant. Your "inner critic" is rampant, whispering "Who are you to try this? Who do you think you are to be this ambitious? Don't you know you're doomed to failure?"

Here's a quick exercise. In this circle below, divide it into three segments that represent the proportion of each of these types of work in your life today.

From Idea to Action: Something to Practice

How much Great Work are you doing? Good Work? Bad Work?

Having asked thousands of people this question around theworld, the typical answer is something like this:

Bad Work: 10-40% Good Work: 50 - 80% Great Work: 0-25%

And knowing this now, you're faced with the realization that it's your

decisions - what you say Yes to, what you say No to - that has the

great impact on what this "pie" looks like.

So, thinking about your work right now...

What would you have to say "no" to, to double the amount of Great Work in your life?

What would you have to say "yes" to, to halve the amount of Bad Work in your life?

The way things are done around here

Some years ago, I worked for a company that helped create newproducts. My job title was "inventor" and part of the process wasrunning sessions that would generate hundreds and hundreds of ideasas solutions to a particular challenge.

One of the best "games" I knew to come up with ideas was to list all the"rules" about what could and could not be done with that challenge. Thisin itself is a powerful process, because for the most part these rules arerarely made explicit. They're just the unquestioned "way things are

done"

Who makes up these things?

Of course, many of the "this is the way we do things around here" are part of the company culture you found when you walked through the door on your first day at work.

But the sad truth is, many of the rules you're dutifully following - and sometimes chafing under - have been invented by you. We're all terrific at making up or assuming the rules - and then carefully following them.

What rules are you making up?

Here are some of the primary rules that I see people create:

Time

"This is urgent." "It always takes this long to do this task." "This is the deadline, and it can't be changed."

Responsibility

"Only I can complete this task." "To be a good [insert role: mother, manager, leader,

acrobat, etc] I must..."

Status

"I can't approach that person." "I'm not allowed to ask for help"

What rules do you operate by?

Cost

"Something like this must cost this amount." "The price is fixed." "It's not negotiable." "I can't ask for what I want."

Process

"These are the steps you must go through to complete this task." "This is what it means to be successful."

"This must be done in person." "It's considered rude if..."

What rules do you operate by?

So what do you do with all these rules? Ignore all of them? Of course not. I rather like the former Commander of the USS Benfold, MikeAbrashoff's, suggestion:

If a rule doesn't make sense, break it. If a rule does make sense, break it carefully.

From Idea to Action: Something to Practice

Think of a challenge you're facing right now, something you'd like to get unstuck on. Review the list of rules above and work out what you've made up about your challenge.

Pick three rules you'd like to break. Break one of them.

(Go on - you know you can).

Does this mean Anarchy?

Can you think of a time when you fully committed to something?

Went full out? Took a leap of faith? Went, "What the heck, why not?" Put your money down? Went past the place of no going back?

Did you feel your body react as you recalled that moment? Did you notice that you held your breath, that you shifted your body slightly as you reconnected?

Such is the power of commitment.

Here are three insights about taking the plunge, stepping up to the plate, and what that commitment looks like.

No Going Back

If you're struggling to commit to a bold task, then you're almost certainly struggling with fear. Fear of starting, fear of failure, possibly even fear of success. It just comes with the territory.

What's needed is courage. Courage is possible once fear is acknowledged - and the decision is made to press on regardless.

Courage comes from knowing that the fear is there, but that the goal you're striving for is more important than that fear. Courage comes from breathing, and seeing fear shift into excitement.

What's possible here, as Aeschylus writes, is.to "Overcome fear and behold wonder."

1. Commitment = feeling fear

There's an old joke: five frogs sitting on a log. One of them decides to jump off. How many are left? Five - because deciding doesn't mean doing.

You'll know you are committed when you're on the move. It might be getting out of the house, it might be making the phone calls, it might be rehearsing that tough conversation.

But unless there's movement, there's no commitment.

So ask yourself this question: if people were watching you, how would they know that you were committed?

2. Commitment = moving

An insistence on perfection (and for nothing but perfection) can

immediately deflate the balloon of commitment.

Whatever you are committing to, it is almost certain that you will

stumble and quite possibly fail. And then you can decide whether

that failure is permanent or temporary.

I had dinner with David Allen, author of the international bestseller

Getting Things Done, and he told me that it took a year to write the

first draft of the book - and then he had to abandon it.

And he decided that this was a temporary failure, not a permanent

one. And so he wrote the second draft.

Where have you given up? Was it too soon?

3. Commitment = persisting

You may have heard of "burning your boats" as a metaphor for commitment. Legend has it that Hernando Cortes, en route to dismantling the Aztec Empire, burned his boats on arrival so his rebellious crew had no option but to press on.

The truth is, he didn't burn his boats but ran them aground, and not as a way of getting his crew to commit to battling the Aztecs.

John H. Coatsworth, director of Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, puts it like this: "Cortes beached the ships to prevent anyone from heading back to Cuba to report to the Spanish nobilities that he was engaged in an utterly unauthorized and illegal expedition. He was running for cover."

The low down on "burning your boats"

What's the big thing, the Great Work that you want to commit to?

Out often, how would you score your current commitment?

And now you've done that, realise that this is a trick question. There is no "half way" on commitment. You either are, or are not. (It's either a ten or it's nothing).

So, imagine you're now fully committed - ten out of ten.

What wouldn't you do to make this a success? (This is a more powerful question than jumping to "what would you do?")

And now you've written that short list, what's left?

Pick one of those actions. Make it one that excites you and also scares you. Write it down. Write down when you'll do it. And now write down who you'll ask to support you, by

creating accountability And here's what you'll tell them: What you'll do. By when.

And how you'll come back to let them know.

From Idea to Action: Something to Practice

A single blue and white plate

Last year I visited Istanbul for the first time. It's a brilliant, beautiful city, full of the swirl of history you'd expect at a place where Europe and Asia meet.

I explored the Tokapi Palace in Istanbul, the 15th century home of the Ottoman sultans. Amongst the stunning architecture and tiles, jewelry and armor there was one part of the complex dedicated to showing the vast collection of Ming Dynasty porcelain.

I couldn't help reflect on how hundreds of years ago an anonymous Chinese potter had created this beautiful plate with its beautiful patterns of blue on white...

Which had traveled across land and seas to end up in Istanbul... Where it humbly hosted the various dishes of the Sultan...

And where it provided inspiration for the Iznik potters, makers of the famous tiles that now adorn palaces and mosques...

And where it continues to provide inspiration for artists, tourists and Turks who visit the Palace.

How do you want to be remembered?

Later in the day, outside the Palace, I came across a small stub of stone by a tram stop. On it was a sign that had this poignant declaration:

"This stone pillar is all that remains of a Byzantine triumphal arch from which road distances to all corners of the empire were once measured.“

The arch, like the empire, had vanished.

The porcelain bowl had survived.

Vanished

What I took from this is not so much that the fragile survives and the seemingly immortal has vanished. Rather, it strikes me how random and how unlikely it is that there will be any lasting legacy of who we are and what we do.

I ask, "in a hundred years, will it matter?" I might as well ask, "In a hundred years, will I matter?“

The answer? Probably not.

Will I matter?

It would certainly be easy to sigh and shrug and ask, "Why bother?“

For me though, that answer - "in a hundred years, I probably won't matter" - is liberating.

It points to the paradox of our existence: both overwhelmingly meaningful and overwhelmingly insignificant.

It is freeing. It means we can do the work that matters and that inspires us without the burden of it being perfect, or timeless or "right". We are granted willingness not to take it too seriously AND to strive for Great Work.

And so, feeling liberated and inspired while I look out today at the morning bustle of Istanbul life, here is....

Feeling a little down?

Knowing that my death is certain and my time of death is uncertain... Knowing that the work I do matters and also will not last...

I'll strive to do Great Work. I won't take things too seriously. I'll strive to create things of beauty. I'll enjoy today. I'll love the people in my life.

From Idea to Action: Something to Practice

What would make your Manifesto of Insignificance?

What does that free you up to commit to?

What are the principles you want to live your life by so that you could do more Great Work?

My manifesto of insignificance

It's what you do after you've done it

Moving on-Most of us don't bother with a post-event analysis. But even when we do, they can be painfully horrible affairs: a combination of passive-aggressive politeness with no one willing to mention the "dead moose" (or "dead elephant" or "dead kangaroo", depending on your country of origin) that is in the room. (For those unfamiliar with the phrase, we're talking about the thing that's big and rotten and getting in the way of everything).

It's not what you do...

An After Action Review (AAR) is focused primarily on learningand building community. It is founded on two relatedprinciples:

This is not to judge success or failure (and hence apportion blame) but rather the focus is on what can be learned for moving forward.

There's a belief (what Norman L. Kerth calls the Prime Directive) that regardless of what's discovered, the participants understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.

With that in place, there are five simple and profound questions to ask

Two principles & five questions

1. what did you intend?

This can be a simple restatement of your objectives. What were you

trying to achieve?

2. what happened?

This is useful for just getting a sense of what really happened. You can rest assured that your perspective of events is only one of the versions.

The objective here is to collect both "the facts" (such as costs, number of people involved, figures, etc) and differing opinions on what worked and didn't work, what circumstances influenced what happened, and other factors.

When commenting on others' roles, capture specific behavioural events (what they did, what they said) rather than your conclusion about what they did (X did a poor job because...).

3. what can we learn about it?

There will be different levels of learning here, from the very specific ("don't wear Brand X socks - they give you blisters") to the more abstract ("this project wasn't close enough to my life purpose for me to be motivated").

Don't forget to ask here, "What did we do well that we need to discuss or else it will be forgotten?" It's very easy to jump to "the mistakes." It's most powerful to start with what's been working.

Capture also "what still puzzles us?" You won't be able to figure everything out. Be explicit about what it is that still is a mystery.

4. what should we do differently next time? This is powerful because it plants seeds for the "next time"

conversation. Without these seeds, we default back to a collective memory of "this is how we do things around here" which most often does not capitalize on the collected wisdom.

5. what should we do now? There may well be actions to take right now: things to do,

people to connect with. As with all actions, set up accountability: what will be done, by whom and by when.

Look back on a recently completed project or event. It might be a family holiday. It might be a project at work. It might be a date with your girlfriend or boyfriend.

Thinking about what happened, write down your answers to these five questions:

1. What did you intend?2. What actually happened?3. What did you learn?4. What will you do differently in the future5. What should you do now?

If you're feeling bolder, invite the others involved in the process and have the conversation with them as well.

From Idea to Action: Something to Practice