Nutgraf

In a follow-up to my earlier post about Do More Great Work, author Michael Bungay Stanier has kindly agreed to answer a few questions and share some advice on how to make your work work for you.

Why am I finding this subject so captivating? My workplace philosophy so far has been “when in doubt, work harder.” It is slowly (yes yes, too slowly)  dawning on me that this is perhaps not always the answer and doesn’t produce the best results – for me personally or professionally, or for the work or my employer. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it can even be – gasp – frustrating  when you feel like you’re working flat-out and not getting stellar results.

So, if I can beat myself up less while getting better results and improving my job satisfaction and the satisfaction of my job with me? That sounds pretty awesome.

Michael Bungay Stanier offers a strategy to focusing your efforts,

• Do More Great Work, the blog post
• Do More Great Work, the Web site

You’ve included 15 “maps” or hands-on exercises to help people identify their strengths and goals. Was there one really good one that didn’t make the cut?

Well, there’s a 16th map people can find at www.DoMoreGreatWork.com which is about “Who Really Matters?” and it helps you decide which relationships are most important for you to nourish

You mention in the book that you transitioned from a career in marketing to one in personal development and executive coaching. What was your “ah ha” moment, when you first saw your new path?

It was more an experience of whittling away what wasn’t right until I was left with what was. In some ways, I’ve been involved in coach-like activities for most of my life. One of the key tipping points was when I lost my job as an internal change agent within a big company, and I started Box of Crayons. Suddenly, the question of “what are you doing?” was more apparent.

In one of the exercises, you suggest making a list of people (real and fictional) we admire. I love your idea of thinking of them as a virtual board of advisers, helping us to chart our own best path. Care to tell us about one or two people on your board?

Sure thing. Buzz Lightyear – love his “to infinity and beyond” sense of anything is possible. Peter Block, who’s a brilliant writer about taking responsibilitiy for your choices. Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil who combines creativity and joy with business savvy.

What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received?

“Don’t take any advice.” I’m only half in jest when I say that. The most recent piece of wisdom that I find helpful is “make everything a project” – that makes the start and finish of things much clearer, rather than getting sucked into “business as usual”

And what’s the best piece of other advice? (cooking, home maintenance, school… whatever)

Last week Marshall Goldsmith said, you have a choice to be happy or not be happy. Chose to be happy.

Is it really that easy? Can the secret to professional fulfillment be found between these covers? Can Michael Bungay Stanier help me tweak my career? And recapture some of the glitter and shine that has – and this is totally my own fault – worn off over the millennia?

Should I even be talking about career enhancement in a public forum while I’m on maternity leave, or will this raise eyebrows at a workplace I haven’t been to in weeks? Er… let’s get back to the book.

Right off the bat I dig his style. The first page follows principles of good content delivery – it uses numbers to draw you in instantly and gives you a road map for what to expect:”…share four tips… suggest three things you can do… and finally I’ll share the first of fifteen maps…” You know what’s coming and that it’s been thoughtfully organized. This is not going to be a meandering journey, which is great because you’re probably reading this in the first place because you are in a state of general frustration. I like this guy.

The thesis is that there are three kinds of work:

Bad Work: Stupid meetings, outdated procedures, busywork that doesn’t help anyone. It’s soul-sucking, demoralizing and hugely frustrating. It wastes time, money and energy.

Good Work: Work that you can do happily enough, but that doesn’t really light your fire or move your professional ball forward. We all do a bunch of this – it’s necessary, it can be comforting in a habit-y kind of a way and it’s a big part of what keeps the doors open at your company. If you’re reasonably lucky, you’ll spend most of your time doing Good Work.

Great Work: This is the exciting, meaningful stuff that makes a difference to you, to your colleagues and your field. This is where innovation happens. We could all use more of this.

This is a pretty exciting concept, and is an interesting way to categorize all of the elements of your workday. We spend a lot of time on the job, and who wants to just trudge through large swaths of your waking life? Great Work, however, comes with risks. When you’re pushing the envelope and taking things to the next level, not all of them will be successful. Successful Great Work will come from people who have developed their expertise. In other words, Great Work is built on a foundation of Good Work.

The Secret to Meetings

In particular, his position on meetings is alluring. It’s revolutionary. It’s enticing. It’s: Don’t. Meetings, he posits, are a waste of time and energy. While we almost certainly can’t just do away with them categorically, I do agree that we have too many meetings generally – many of which are inefficient and some of which are downright coma-inducing.

The Road to Spiffy

The section on innovation also speaks to me – namely the concept that you can’t innovate on a dime. Often, we work away, trudging more or less effectively through the day, churning out great piles of Good Work, which we do well. And then, once in a while, we are summoned to come up with great ideas. In a group setting. Preferably before 3:00. This, he posits, is not a recipe for Great Work. Starting fast with a cold engine, and working in a committee can stifle the boldest, most creative ideas. Even if they’re functionally impossible, the fringe is where inspiration happens. You can always rein in something that’s just too crazy, and wind up in an awesome and viable position. It’s much harder to spiff up a dull idea. You have to start from your spiffiest position, you know?

Portable Context

Do More Great Work offers a framework to take you out of your usual Good Work thinkery – to see outside of the rut of the competent. It’s a tool to help you define Great Work, identify opportunities, chart your path, and even get back on track when challenges derail you. The inspiration, work and risk must be yours, of course, but career satisfaction is a tantalizing goal.

• Do More Great Work – The Web site
• Cute or HR – Bad work at work.
• BookGraf on Facebook: Good books? Great company? No effort? What’s not to like?

What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received?

Another random workday e-mail from Spouse:

“I came to the realization that an idiot is a very complex mechanism. That is why it is practically unpredictable and so difficult to interface with. You also cannot bargain with or threaten it. ”

Honestly, these make my day.

• Advice Project: Do you have a keen workplace observation, or advice for how to succeed?

Once in a while, Spouse will send me an e-mail during the workday outlining a new theory about the nuances or workplace or interpersonal behavior. They are usually pretty incredible because he is in many ways a smart, smart man. He has consented to let me share this theory, which I think is just delightful and gave me a lot to think about.

Spouse says:

I think that people’s overall “well-meaning” towards someone, their benign disposition towards them and willingness to do favors (or even move a muscle) in order to make that person’s life easier, rest at a set of predetermined “ceilings,” much like the energy levels of the orbits of electrons, and not along a continuous range.

Okay class, are we with him so far?

Therefore, if they are on a “benign quantum level” of 1 towards you (bystander), and it takes, say, 7 abstract arbitrary “favor units” (funits) to move them to level 2 (ally), and you’ve been nice to them on 6 different occasions, but in increments of only 5 “funits” each, they are still BQL 1 relative to you, and still won’t move too many muscles when you need help, but you’re 30 funits out-of-pocket, which just were wasted into the “office space” around you…

So, if you’d done one pretty nice thing – valued at 7 or more funits – while having been neutral or a mild jerk on 5 other occasions, you’d be ahead of the person who was consistently nice.

Of course, perhaps after releasing 30 funits into the surrounding environment one has decreased the overall “bitching entropy gradient” of the surrounding office space, and as a result now reduced the BQL-jump ceiling from 7 funits to, say, 4.37, and then somebody just comes along and with a simple expenditure of very few funits gets someone who is still BQL 1 toward you to become their best BQL 3 buddy. Now you’re still out 30 funits, and have not benefited at all, but others have, and at much lesser funit expense.

And now you’ve gone and improved the overall environment, reducing the alliance barrier for others, but still not generating any direct allies for yourself. Boo. Spouse closes by positing that we should use this theory to build a working model to maximize our ROI for funit expenditure.

Hands off ladies, he’s mine.

I worked for a nonprofit national media company a few years ago. At my first official meeting reviewing my performance, my boss – unshaven, in shorts and a torn t-shirt – said “I know that I can hand you any ungodly pile of shit and you’ll just dig in and work through it until it’s done.”

At the time, I was pretty proud of that. Now, [an unnamed number of] years later, I’ve got a different perspective.

Really digging into a task, wrestling it to the ground, beating it into submission and making it do my evil bidding is very satisfying. But it’s not the key to workplace success. That’s not what makes the powers that be give you that pony you’ve always wanted (I’m going to name mine Pickles). Look around – the hardest grinding workers who just put their heads down and burrow in, reliably delivering product – even great product – aren’t the stars. It’s more of a combo-platter of skills, politics, disposition, corporate priorities, “intangibles” (like palette of personalities and the weather), and – yes – work delivery. How that plays out specifically, and how to position oneself to greatest advantage varies, and is a skill set worth cultivating.

That, and dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Those years of wearing jeans and Phish t-shirts to the office probably didn’t do me any favors.

What do you know about succeeding in the workplace? Please. Tell me.