The problem with work is a lack of purpose, and a lack of knowledge about how to build it.
Every person wants to feel that the work that they do is meaningful. Find me a person who says they truly desire for their work—for the majority of their contributions in life—to have no purpose. We all desire it.
So the problem, then, is: how do we create a purposeful workplace?
Most workplaces operate under a complex inhuman chaos that easily leads to malaise and disengagement. The problems are cultural, structural, and endemic: infighting, passive aggressive behavior, individuality, game playing, ladder climbing, loss of motivation, complacency, self-interest, and more.
These are a consequence of an organization which fails to think systematically, fails to understand human psychology, fails to base their work methods on real knowledge, and fails to understand the statistics behind all components human or otherwise.
In essence, organizations that fail to achieve systemic quality through these means are the ones which fail to achieve purpose. Aim to improve the system, and the end result and the structure under which it's produced improves as a side effect.
It is pure and almost zen-like in its simplicity, but instead, lacking the necessary knowledge and the means to implement it, most corporate environments devolve into a haystack of individual-focused complexity, which leads to the dark center of corporate culture which we all dread: the one which robs our work of purpose.
Things that can kill the workplace environment (some I've seen, others I've heard about during the years from acquintances):
* Performance metrics that are too exact, defined or constrained. Where everyone turns to gaming them. Your peers' input becomes the crucial factor in your raise? "Ok, start rubbing everyone's back. Don't challange stupid decisions to avoid not being a "team player". Start seeing people let bugs slide so they can "save the day". Other stupid thing is "lines of code written and/or bugs squashed" -- Start seeing large files stretched out with useless drivel. Or stupid little bugs created and squashed to boost stats.
* Management failure. Micro-managing. Breathing down people's necks.
* Management failure. Too macro-managing. Disappear for days without letting others know. Assign projects then never check up on them later.
* Management failure. Encourage in-fighting by assigning conflicting projects to people (tell Steve to make it blue, and then tell Joe to make the button green).
* Management failure. Strategic decisions, product features are made and discussed in secret then ordered are sent from above to the workers. Workers don't know what the end goal is, just that they need to build this GUI or this Web page that does this one thing.
all of these are sadly true and happening frequently.pretty sure the company i work for went through all these phases and more after having been a little successful. (so now it dies slowly i guess?)
Every person wants to feel that the work that they do is meaningful. Find me a person who says they truly desire for their work—for the majority of their contributions in life—to have no purpose. We all desire it.
So the problem, then, is: how do we create a purposeful workplace?
Most workplaces operate under a complex inhuman chaos that easily leads to malaise and disengagement. The problems are cultural, structural, and endemic: infighting, passive aggressive behavior, individuality, game playing, ladder climbing, loss of motivation, complacency, self-interest, and more.
These are a consequence of an organization which fails to think systematically, fails to understand human psychology, fails to base their work methods on real knowledge, and fails to understand the statistics behind all components human or otherwise.
In essence, organizations that fail to achieve systemic quality through these means are the ones which fail to achieve purpose. Aim to improve the system, and the end result and the structure under which it's produced improves as a side effect.
It is pure and almost zen-like in its simplicity, but instead, lacking the necessary knowledge and the means to implement it, most corporate environments devolve into a haystack of individual-focused complexity, which leads to the dark center of corporate culture which we all dread: the one which robs our work of purpose.
Improve the system, understand how every part of it works, and improve everything. Begin at Deming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming