GREAT AT WORK.

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GREAT AT WORK
How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More
by: Morten T. Hansen

The big question: Why do some people perform great at work while others don’t?
The author decided to explore the way people work—their specific work practices as
opposed to the sheer amount of effort they exert—accounts for greatness at work. That led
the author to explore the idea of “working smart,” whereby people seek to maximize output
per hour of work. The phrase “work smarter, not harder” has been thrown around so much
that it has become a cliché’. Who wants to “work dumb”? But many people do work dumb
because they don’t know exactly how to work smart.

In 2011 the author launched one of the most comprehensive research projects ever
undertaken on individual performance at work. We can think of work as consisting of job
design characteristics (what a person is supposed to do), skill development (how a person
improves), motivational factors (why a person exerts effort), and relational dimensions (with
whom and how a person interacts). After creating these categories the author examined
factors within each.

The research ended with seven “work smart” practices that seemed to explain a substantial
portion of performance. When you work smart, you select a tiny set of priorities and make
huge efforts in those chosen areas (what the author calls scope practice). Your focus is
creating value, not just reaching preset goals (targeting). You eschew mindless repetition in
favor of better skills practice (quality learning). You seek roles that match your passion with
a strong sense of purpose (inner motivation). You shrewdly deploy influence tactics to gain
the support of others
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that the ones you do attend spark vigorous debate (rigorous teamwork). You carefully pick
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These seven practices upend

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instance, the author thought that people who prioritize well would perform well, and they
did, but the best performers in the study also did something else. Once they had focused on
a few priorities, they obsessed over those tasks to produce quality work.
That extreme dedication to their priorities created extraordinary results. Top performers
did less and more: less volume of activities, more concentrated effort. This led to the
“work scope” practice called “Do Less, Then Obsess.”

A more precise definition of working smart: To Work Smart means to maximize the value of
your work by selecting a few activities and applying intense target effort.
The seven “work smarter” practices didn’t just improve performance. They also improved
people’s well being at work. The study shows you can perform exceptionally well and still
have plenty of time to do things you love and other work. Being great at work means
performing in your job infusing your work with passion and a strong sense of
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 performing in your job infusing your work with passion and a strong sense of
purpose, and living well too.

MASTERING YOUR OWN WORK:

DO LESS, THEN OBSESS:
Picking a few priorities is only half the equation. The other half is the harsh requirement that
you must obsess over your chosen area of focus to excel.
Do Less, Then Obsess affects performance more than any other practice of the seven
traits.

People try to do more to improve performance. “Doing more” creates two traps. In the
spread-too-thin trap, people take on many tasks, but can’t allocate enough attention to
each. In the complexity trap, the energy required to manage the interrelationship between
tasks leads people to waste time and execute poorly.

Three Ways you can Implement the “Do Less, Then Obsess” principle:
1. Wield the razor: Shave away unnecessary tasks, priorities, committees, steps,
metrics, and procedures. Channel all your effort into excelling in the remaining
activities Ask: How many tasks can I remove, given what I must do to excel?
2. Tie yourself to the mast: Set clear rules ahead of time to fend off temptation
and distraction. Create a rule as trivial as not allowing yourself to check email for
an hour.
3. Say “no” to your boss” Explain that adding more to your to-do list will hurt your
performance. The key to greatness is saying “no” so you can apply intense effort
to excel in a few chosen areas.

REDESIGN YOUR WORK:

How can you boost your performance if you don’t redesign? The obvious alternative is to
put in longer hours, working harder in the same way. Does working long hours increase
performance? Working longer hours enhances performance, but only to a point. If you work
between 30 and 50 hours per week, adding more hours on the job lifts your performance.
But once you are working over 50 the benefit of additional hours drops off.
Redesign isn’t about working longer hours. It's about changing how you work. Yet, not all
redesigns generate better results. What distinguishes a great redesign from a not-so-great
one?
Value, but what is value? We should evaluate the value of our work by measuring how
much others benefit from it. That’s an outside-in view, because it directs attention to the
benefits our work brings to others. The typical inside-out, by contrast, measures work
according to whether we have completed our tasks and goals, regardless of whether they
produce any benefits.

The advice “start with goals” when planning an effort, is wrong. We need to start with value
then proceed to goals. Ask yourself: what benefits do your various work activities produce,
really?

Another problem is our perverse tendency to equate volumes of activity with

accomplishments. Being busy is not an accomplishment.
Equation that emphasizes value:
The value of a person’s work=Benefits to others x quality x efficiency
The phrase “benefits to others” can mean contributing to your department, your office, a
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 The phrase “benefits to others” can mean contributing to your department, your office, a
colleague, your company, your customer, your clients, or your suppliers (or even to the
community or environment). The benefits themselves can take various forms, including
enabling others to do their jobs better, helping create new products, or devising better
methods for getting work done.
The second component of value is the quality of your work—the degree of accuracy, insight,
novelty, and reliability of your work output. The final component of value is how efficiently
you work.
Putting it all together, we get a more precise view of value; to produce great value at work is
to create output that benefits others tremendously and that is done efficiently and with high
quality.

If you want to perform at your best you need to home in on a few key tasks and channel
your efforts to perfect them—the “do less, then obsess” principle. But which activities
warrant such? If you’re going to focus on a tiny set of activities, they’d better be the right
ones. The answer is to redesign work so as to focus on activities that maximize value.

Question how things are done, and look for new ways to do things, then look for quantum
change. The key is not the degree of change you are undertaking. Instead, it’s the
magnitude of the value the change (redesign) can create. To identify opportunities for
redesign, chase “pain pints,” problems plaguing a set of people.
What pain points can you spot in your workplace? What do people complain about again
and again? What gets people confused and frustrated and say “this sucks”? Where does
work tend to get bogged down? Ask stupid questions. Sometimes we fail to imagine great
redesigns because we’re trapped inside webs of convention. We only see the current use of
a practice, process, or method. Effective redesign requires that we loosen the shackles of
the familiar and ask why things are the way they are, and whether there’s a better way.
Once you’ve gotten into the habit of asking such questions, ask some “what if” questions.
The combination of asking a “stupid” question and crafting some “what-ifs” can help you
discover a nifty redesign and lift your performance.

Explore five ways to redesign work to create value:

1. Less Fluff: eliminate existing activities of little value.
2. More Right Stuff: increase existing activities of high value
3. More “Gee whiz”: create new activities of high value
4. Five Star Rating: improve quality of existing stuff
5. Faster, Cheaper: do existing activities more efficiently.
DON’T JUST LEARN, LOOP:
The Learning Loop is an approach to learning while you perform your daily work. To learn
well at work, we must overcome important challenges that people don’t face when trying to
master skill in sports, music, chess and memory tests. The Learning Loop is the process of
asking questions (DO), gauge, the outcome of soliciting an idea (Measure), receive analysis
and suggestion (Feedback), and alter the plan to ask a second question (Modify). The
steps are DO, Measure, Feedback, Modify, Redo, etc,
These are open end questions.
To be great, you must be willing to learn, investigate new technology, trends, and changes
in the world for 15 minutes a day. Ask questions to get feedback. Learning in business is
not three to four hours a day of Deliberate Practice. A business day is a changing
environment and you must learn as you work. This means getting feedback from peers,
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 environment and you must learn as you work. This means getting feedback from peers,
mentors, subordinates, and even the water cooler.

P-SQUARED (PASSION AND PURPOSE):

To be passionate about work is to feel energized by it, to experience a sense of excitement
and enthusiasm. For some, passion is a quiet, inner sense of satisfaction and contentment.
For others, it’s a louder, “let’s go!” kind of a thrill.

You also have to have a sense of purpose when you make valuable contributions to others
(individuals and organizations) or to society that you find personally meaningful and that
don’t harm anyone.
Purpose and passion are not the same. Passion is “do what you love.” While the purpose is
“do what contributes.” Purpose asks, “What can I give the work?” Passion asks, “What can
the world give me?” People who had both Purpose and Passion for their
activity/organization had better performance ratings. People who had just one of the two
scored lower on performance. The key therefore is to infuse your work with both passion
and purpose to aim for P-Squared.
What’s the real magic of P-Squared? It provides people with more energy that they channel
into their work. Not more hours as in the “work harder” Paradigm, but more energy per hour
of work. That’s working smart.

If you love what you do, you’ll show up with a certain amount of vigor. And if you also feel
that you’re helping other people—that they need you and depend on your contributions—
your motivation to excel becomes that much greater, and you're targeting your efforts
toward marking contributions to your purpose.

Passion at work is an expanding circle that encompasses six areas: joy of doing the tasks,
excitement at succeeding, the thrill from unleashing one’s creative energy, enthusiasm from
being with people at work, delight from learning and growing, and elation from doing one’s
job well. A work activity can tap into one or more of these sources of passion.

The Purpose Pyramid:

The base is Crate Value (and Do Not Harm), Next level up is Personal Meaning and the top
is Seek Social Mission. The higher you go up the pyramid the stronger sense of purpose.
A way to maximize passion-purpose is to infuse the present job with more purposeful
activities. So how can you increase your contributions to others?
Contribute Value (While Doing No Harm):
Value creation forms the foundation of the Purpose Pyramid. Designing work is about
creating value in your job by making contributions to others, such as your company,
colleagues, suppliers and customers. If you produce little or no value, you’re not doing
purposeful work. Period.

Many people conceive of purpose as social contributions alone and not as “value added,”
but they should reconsider. When you create value for your organization, you contribute and
your work has purpose.

Create Personal Meaning:

Many people stop at the first step in the purpose pyramid. That’s too bad. If you’re already
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 Many people stop at the first step in the purpose pyramid. That’s too bad. If you’re already
adding significant value, and you’re not causing harm to the wider world, then you can
continue ascending up to higher levels of purpose. Enhance your purpose-passion match
by taking the next step—crafting personal meaning. The meaning we attach to our jobs
varies considerably.
What matters, as far as purpose on the job is concerned, is how each individual feels about
his or her own work. As long as people are contributing value in their job, it’s up to each
individual to determine whether they see their work as purposeful.

Seek A Strong Social Mission:

To assess whether you have climbed to the highest level of the purpose pyramid, consider
how strongly you agree with this statement: My work makes a strong contribution to society
beyond making money. Whenever possible, seek out assignments and tasks that
contribute socially, even just a little.
Achieving a match between passion and purpose—P-Squared---is a smart way to work.
Feeling passionate about what you do and making valuable contributions boosts your
motivation. It charges you up to make the most of every hour you work. That extra energy
translates into better performance.
P-Squared is the fuel—the energy—that makes all this intense effort and concentration
possible. It’s how you can inspire yourself to become great at work. And once you have
inspired yourself, you can inspire other people so that they will support your plans and goals
MASTERING WORKING WITH OTHERS:

FORCEFUL CHAMPIONS:
Convincing Other People: Getting our work done hinges on our ability to gain support from
others, including bosses, subordinates, peers, colleagues in other departments, and
partners. These individuals control resources we need---information, money, staff, and
political cover. Yet they may not wish to lend a hand, and they may even block our efforts.
The ability to advocate for one’s goals and gain the required support is only one of a
broader set of people interaction skills required in modern workplaces. Top performers
mastered working with others in three areas: advocacy, teamwork, and collaboration.

Champion Forcefully:
Many of us believe that we need to appeal to people’s rational minds to gain their support
for our projects and goals. The author stated. “When we analyzed our case studies, I was
struck by how the best performers went beyond rational arguments and adopted various
tactics to advocate for their projects. I discovered that the best advocates—What I call
forceful champions—effectively pursued their goals at work by mastering two skills to gain
the support of other people. They inspired others by evoking emotions, and they
circumvented resistance by deploying ‘smart grit’.”
Rather than simply plodding forward, forceful champions muster endless amounts of energy
and verbiage to overcome obstacles. They also deploy smart tactics to address their
colleagues' specific concerns. They identified and read their opponents’ intentions and took
steps, such as compromising or co-opting, to convince them to support their cause.
Applying smart grit is a highly effective way to advocate for one’s goals.

Make Them Upset…and Excited:

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 Make Them Upset…and Excited:
A great way to inspire others is to foster both negative and positive emotions—getting
people upset about the present and excited about the future. When your goal is to convince,
not all emotions are equal, specifically the importance of “high arousal” emotions.
Excitement and joy are high arousal emotions, as are anxiety and anger. Contentment and
sadness aren’t.
To inspire people and gain their support, line up high-arousal emotions on your side—make
them mad and fearful about the present, and joyful and excited about your proposed future
goals.
Lining Up Emotions in the Right Ways
Arouse Negative Emotions Evoke Positive Emotions About the
About the Status Quo Future State
Fear Excitement
Anger Joy
Frustration Passion
Disgust Ecstasy
Resentment Thrill
Anxiety Delight

Make Them Feel Purpose:

A third technique forceful champions use to inspire people: connecting daily work to a
broader purpose. Many companies have “purpose” or “mission” statements.
Smart Grit:
To vanquish opposition in the workplace, you must do more than persevere. You also need
to tailor your tactics to neutralize opposition from people.
Grit at work is not about putting your head down and bulldozing through successive walls of
resistance. Smart Grit involves not only persevering but also taking into account the
perspective of people you’re trying to influence and devising tactics that will win them over.
Putting yourself in the other’s place is one of the best ways to advance your own agenda.
Our obsession with our own concerns and objectives prevents us from doing so. We
assume that opponents just don’t get it, and thus we pummel them with more facts and
arguments in an effort to make them get it. That’s working hard, not smart!
Often people’s objections are reasonable, if you only take the time to see the issue from
their point of view. Figure out what their considerations are, and you can take steps to
surmount them.

Fight and Unite:

Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings:
What do you do if your team has a poor meeting where you didn’t resolve the issues? Meet
Again? One perverse consequence of all those ineffective team meetings is that they lead
to even more meetings. We end up with a volume of activity---a work harder approach—
because we didn’t have a rigorous discussion in the first place.
We need smarter team meetings where people debate rigorously and commit to decisions.
Have One Heck of a Fight:
When teams have a good fight in their meetings, team members debate the issues,
consider alternatives, challenge one another, listen to minority views, scrutinize
assumptions, and enable every participant to speak up without fear of retribution.
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 assumptions, and enable every participant to speak up without fear of retribution.
What makes a good meeting?
● Show up to every meeting 100% prepared.
● Craft an opinion and deliver it with conviction (and data).
● Stay open to others’ ideas, not just your own
● Paraphrase what someone else said and check it for accuracy. (Did I get it
right).
● Make eye contact with whoever is speaking.
● Ask non-leading questions.
● Let the best argument win, even if it isn’t yours.
● Feel free to stand up and shout, but never make the argument personal.
● Always listen—really listen—to minority views.
● Never pursue consensus for its own sake.
Unite:
A second principle, fostering unity, the company expected managers in a meeting to decide
quickly and commit to a decision. Everyone also committed to implementing the decision.
No second-guessing or political maneuvering can transpire in the hallways to undermine a
path already chosen.
At Amazon, the company expects managers and employees to “challenge decisions when
they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting” and once a decision is
determined, they commit wholly.
The more you can improve the quality of the debate, the better the quality of the
outcomes!

After you fight, you must unite. That means people on a team have to commit to a decision
—to agree to it and exert effort to implement it. Employees view a process as unfair if they
could not voice their opinions before a decision is made. That perception leads people to
harbor negative attitudes and engage in counterproductive behaviors. The first requirement
is to get people to commit, then to make sure everyone on the team has a chance to
express their opinions and that people consider and discuss them. Then people will be
more likely to commit to a decision even if they disagree with it.
THE TWO SINS OF COLLABORATION:
The first Sin is Under collaboration, and the second is Over collaboration.

Collaborating means connecting with people in other groups, obtaining information, and
participating in joint projects. These groups include other teams, divisions, sales offices,
departments, etc.

Should you Collaborate?

Calculate the Premium:
Collaboration Premium=Benefit of initiative – opportunity cost - collaboration costs

The First Rule of Disciplined Collaboration---Establish a compelling “why do it case for

every proposed collaboration. If it’s not compelling, don’t do it and say no.
Collaboration means working with people over whom you have no formal authority. You
must motivate and excite them.

The Second Rule of Disciplined Collaboration—Craft a unifying goal that excites people so
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 The Second Rule of Disciplined Collaboration—Craft a unifying goal that excites people so
much they subordinate their own selfish agendas.
The Third Rule of Disciplined Collaboration—Reward people for collaboration results, not
activities.

The Fourth Rule of Disciplined Collaboration—Devote full resources (time, skills, money) to
collaboration. If you can’t, scale it back or scrap it.
THE FOUR RULES TO MASTER YOUR OWN WORK

1. DO LESS, THEN OBSESS

2. REDESIGN YOUR WORK
3. DON’T JUST LEARN, LOOP
4. P-SQUARED (PASSION AND PURPOSE)

THE THREE RULES TO MASTER WORKING WITH OTHERS

1. FORCEFUL CHAMPIONS
2. FIGHT AND UNITE
3. THE TWO SINS OF COLLABORATION
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