Favorites of 2012: On being wrong about business talks. Business talks are boring.
Among all the things I was certain of when I started writing for TED, that one was near the top of the list, just under ‘ice is cold’ and ‘brains are gooey.’ I worked as a physicist for a few years before switching over to writing (with a short jaunt in between in comedy), so just never cared much for business. My time as a scientist was spent doing research, talking to people about research, lecturing about research, annoying family members by going on and on about research and, very occasionally, sleeping. My time as a writer is spent doing the dishes as a way of procrastinating. Neither lends itself to thinking about the problems of organizing a corporation, crafting an advertising message or thinking about work/life balance. At TED, I was hired to write about the science talks, and it was wonderful.
As I watched more talks, though, one theme started to emerge that I fell in love with — the idea of being wrong. To Give Your Employees Meaning, Start With Mission - Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer - HBS Faculty. By Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer | 11:00 AM December 19, 2012 It is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life.
And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. -Jim Collins Do you feel that you have work worth doing? If so, you are among the more fortunate of our readers. Must it be this way? Why is meaning so important? Unfortunately, too many companies don’t even try to make work meaningful for the people doing it. The Company’s primary objective is to maximize long-term stockholder value, while adhering to the laws of the jurisdictions in which it operates and at all times observing the highest ethical standards.Dean Foods Company Mike Brenner and Steve Van Valin, of the consulting firm Culturology, talk about sources of “meaning amplification” that managers can tap in their quest to sustain employee engagement.
To accomplish this, leaders have two tasks. The #1 Career Mistake Capable People Make. Simon Sinek, Optimist. Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation. Dan Pink. The Philosophy of Motivation. Peter Drucker, the legendary management theorist, told us that we have to “accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer.”
In other words, we can’t just order people around and expect them to do what we want, we have to get them to want what we want. An entire industry of compensation consultants has emerged to answer that question, but nevertheless most employees feel unmotivated. Why is that? We need to drastically change how we think about incentives. For years, compensation specialists have focused on rational benefits to employment, with poor results. A Failed Rational Model Traditionally, employment has been viewed economically. However, it should be clear that there is something wrong with that notion. When motivated people wake up in the morning, they don’t think, “I have to send this e-mail, so that I can earn a certain amount towards my rent, a fraction of my vacation time and a sliver of my health benefits.
The Importance of Dignity In his book Drive - Greg.