Page 196 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

THE WHY OF WORK

For example, when Helen came in from the outside as
a principal of a middle school, she discovered that many
of the teachers had fallen into routines that were not really
conducive to learning. They may have started teaching with
high levels of creativity and innovation, but over time their
teaching had become rote. To encourage innovation, she
moved every teacher’s classroom assignment over the sum-
mer. Some teachers who had been in the same classroom for
many years resisted, but Helen used this symbolic change
to signal new beginnings and encourage innovation. Even
people on assembly lines endure the rigors of routine better
if they can talk to friends, listen to music, control the pace of
the line, or approach their work with humor.

Autonomy. Work may vary depending on how much control
an employee has over the work done. A friend worked part
time at a men’s clothing store. He soon became bored with
the job—who could get meaning out of selling clothes?
However, the store owner was continually challenged and
engaged with the work and found it stimulating and excit-
ing. The salesperson saw his job as primarily taking orders
from customers. The owner worked to figure out what cloth-
ing and styles sold the most, to create advertisements and
marketing to solicit new customers, and to manage inven-
tory to make money. The self-employed often work longer
hours and have more demanding and stressful jobs than
their employees, but they find more meaning in their work
because they have control. Employees can sometimes feel
the same sense of ownership if they participate in an aspect
of the work that they can control and benefit from, if they
see the complete job versus one element of it, or if they have
a say in key elements of their work experience.

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