Why Modern Work Sucks…and what to do about it

(Prefer to watch on video than read?  Click here.  5 minutes, with captions.)

What’s the standard response to “how’s work going?”  It’s the deep sigh.

It seems that a lot of modern work just sucks. I’ve got some good news – there are reasons for it, and there are also some things we can do.

A quick warning though – this is NOT the solution. Anyone peddling that is a charlatan. Instead, it’s a few ideas to help. Because that’s all anyone can ever give you.

Truth Serum? Could we handle work reality?

Prefer to watch rather than read?  Click here for the video, 5 mins with captions.

Indulge me in a little work fantasy, which combines two very unlikely sources – authors Jan De Visch and Otto Laske…and Jim Carrey!.

Jan De Visch and Otto Laske are researchers and consultants, and one of their brilliant books is Dynamic Collaboration. 

In this book they refer to Job 1 and Job 2:

No Discord at Work – Lessons from Jerry

The show Seinfeld was known to be a reasonably harmonious set, a ‘lack of discord’.  When Jerry Seinfeld was asked a few weeks ago why he thought that was the case by life-maximiser Tim Ferriss on his podcast , he gave an answer that was startling in its simplicity:

Tim: To what would you attribute that lack of discord?

Jerry: I don’t like discord.

You probably don’t like it either, right?  But what do you actually do?

Jerry continued:

Jerry: I don’t like it, and I am fearless in rooting it out and solving it.  And if anyone’s having a problem, I’m going to walk right up to them and go “Is there a problem?  Let’s talk about this”.  Because I cannot stand that kind of turmoil.

51 – The magic number for ownership, accountability and engagement

Prefer to watch on video than read?  Just click here – 5 mins with captions.

Engagement, ownership, accountability…whatever you want to call it, we all want to see (and feel) more of it.

Like all things, half of the game is internal, and there’s a magic number that can help get us there.

Pretty Pictures

Let’s start with our standard managerial hierarchy…

…even the way it looks give us a certain sort of vibe.

Here’s a more modern way to draw it:

Looks a bit kumbaya with being in a circle and all, but taking out the cynicism, it looks a bit more like everyone’s involved. 

Some Radical Common Sense

School holidays means the chance for me to hang out with my kids, so the next video will be out next week. (I’ll be covering innovation – what it is, what you need to keep an eye on to make it work.)

So this week, it’s just some radical common sense to ponder…

Work is all about relationships. This is because everyone is producing something for someone. There’s no choice in this. So get better at getting along with people.

Work is all about delivering something. This is because everyone is producing something for someone. There’s no choice in this. So get better at producing whatever you are producing.

Parent or Partner? The deep reason behind getting KPIs to work

Prefer to watch on video?  Click here – 5 minutes, with captions.

‘We need to get KPIs sorted’ is a common refrain, which carries with it the assumption that it is the lack of these things that is constraining performance.

Unfortunately or fortunately…there’s deeper stuff going on that we need to be aware of if we want this sort of thing to work.  And if we’re not aware of it, sorting the KPIs will actually make things worse!

You’d know from your own experience that when the next initiative is introduced, including KPIs, the sensible response is to smile politely until it blows over, then get back to work.  This is a deep issue of ownership, and to understand it, we need to go deeper into working relationships.  And for this, we’ll use the work of Peter Block.

How to beat the New System Blues

(If you’d prefer to watch this on video rather than read, just click here)

You put it in a new system, you’ve got it through the initial getting it up and running. It’s still not quite causing the joy that you thought it would cause, particularly for the people who are using it. What you and your people have got is a case of the New System Blues.

Here’s what to do about this.

ACKNOWLEDGE IT

The first thing we do is… acknowledge it. This means say out loud that the new system, in many circumstances does not work as well for the people who are using it as the old system did.  Why?  Because it’s true!  If people are experiencing something, then that is their experience!  You can’t win that battle.

The real work is (often) not about the system

My work with my clients who have built their own businesses often looks like org design and work systems.

But that’s just the surface.

Someone who is talented and entrepreneurial enough to build a business from their own kitchen table to being able to cover the lease agreement for offices that house 30+ staff has no trouble understanding the work.

That’s not the issue, and heading to another seminar, or listening to someone like me describe what has to happen is not going help.  It’s the equivalent of reading more recipe books as a method to get some food on the table.

The challenge is to see this work as the business priority.  And there are multiple signals available that can be used as a way to put this work off until later.  Cash flow is a great one, and might even be the case.  Organising a group of people to do great work is definitely no longer an issue if we can’t make payroll.  Pressing needs of what we might call ‘pillar’ clients is another.