So for most people, why work hard? Only by truly understanding the essence of this problem can we make our work more attractive and have a sense of accomplishment.
Gallup is the largest survey and consulting company in the world, and has been investigating the working conditions of professionals all over the world since 1990s. It took them more than 20 years to visit 25 million employees in 189 countries. The overall result is that only 65,438+03% employees actively work and continue to promote the company's development with enthusiasm; 63% people are not devoted to their work and are lazy; The remaining 24% are even more horrible, completely slack and hate work. Among these 13% employees, they regard their work as their own career, constantly challenge, hone and improve themselves, and gain an extraordinary sense of accomplishment. However, more of us hate work because we don't have that kind of job! Most of our work is rigid and mechanical, and there is no room for development. Sometimes it is accompanied by breaking through the psychological defense line and moral bottom line, so we should say that most of the 87% people who hate work are wrong? Obviously unreasonable, perhaps it is the work itself that should be reflected.
Professor Schwartz thoroughly traced the meaning of work in Why Do You Work: An Advanced Guide for Value Employees. He started with the wealth of nations by Adam Smith, the originator of economics. "If a person does heavy work and gets the same reward as he does nothing, then he will deal with it casually, because laziness and love for ease are everyone's nature." According to this so-called human nature, Adam Smith advocated that the workflow should be refined into simple, repetitive and meaningless links. He described the production process of a needle factory: one person pulls the wire, one person straightens it, one person cuts it, one person grinds the needle, and one person grinds the needle tail. 10 workers can produce 48,000 needles a day; If it is not the division of labor and cooperation, one person can't finish the whole journey, and everyone can't even finish 20 yuan. Everyone repeats it over and over again, just like modern Chaplin. Of course it's boring, but it's more efficient. Who wants to do simple and repetitive work day after day in this factory? It sounds as incredible as Sisyphus's curse. But today, more than 200 years later, we see that Adam Smith's design of "human nature is lazy and reward is supreme" has spread all over the industries under the market economy system. Both industrial production and education and culture industries have begun to divide processes, quantify work and calculate input and output regularly. People talk about it, but more and more people go out to work with heavy steps for no other reason than material rewards.
Did Adam Smith discover human nature and finally predict people's attitude towards work in 200 years? I'm afraid not.
Let's look at two common examples in work.
Story 1: One day, a patient's father lost his temper with Luke, the cleaner, saying that he had not cleaned his son's ward, but in fact Luke had cleaned it, but his father was not there at that time. Luke began to argue with his father, but suddenly, as if he realized something, he immediately said, sorry, I'll clean the room. Why didn't Luke argue? He told the interviewer afterwards that he understood his father's meaning at once. His son has been in hospital for six months. He is overwhelmed and nervous. Thinking of this, Luke stopped being angry and cleaned the room again in front of his father.
Story 2: Luke's colleague, another cleaner, is mopping the floor in the hospital lobby. When he saw a patient who had just finished major surgery and was going up and down the stairs to exercise, he immediately stopped his work because he was afraid that the floor he had just mopped was too slippery. Another of their colleagues will change a picture of the ward every week, dance for the patients and show them talk shows to make them happy.
You can cite many such examples. Anyone will always have some moments full of enthusiasm and mission in his work, and he will also have a sense of accomplishment in his work, but will you take this as the driving force? What will management think of this behavior? In fact, the hospital has clear assessment criteria for the job requirements of cleaners, which is also known as KPI (key performance indicator), such as: first, cleaning the room and cleaning the indoor equipment; Second, clean urinals and sewers; Third, clean dirty clothes, make beds and quilts, and change light bulbs; Fourth, drag the hall and stairs ... and so on. None of them care about and comfort patients and their families and make them happy. But Luke and his colleagues will be happy for the improvement of patients, that is, they will encourage patients and their families to find ways to dispel their pain and fear. When patients and their families want to talk, they will listen and comfort. These cleaners did not rigidly complete their duties, but spontaneously redefined their work schedules and internalized the hospital's purpose of "saving lives and relieving pain" into their own understanding of work. However, their work is usually considered lazy. If the hospital leader is a disciple of Adam Smith, he will definitely think that Luke's work efficiency is not high, because if he only performs his post duties, he can obviously clean more rooms at the same time. And people like Luke can't control it, because they will do work beyond their responsibilities, and managers can't control him.
So, is it that people themselves lack enthusiasm and initiative in their work? Are most people unwilling to do creative work with a more sense of mission? Not so, researchers have investigated a large number of industries, especially those that are generally considered to be repetitive, have little room to play, and rarely realize personal value, such as factory workers, office workers, hairdressers, nurses and so on. And found that some of them can find meaning from their work, rather than simply working for money.
The beginning of all this actually comes from Adam Smith's assumptions about human nature and human motivation. In other words, it is Adam Smith's hypothesis and its constant evolution that finally makes this work meaningless. Why do you say that? This is the characteristic of social theory. The laws of natural science can be discovered and summarized by human beings, and the universe itself will not change its operation mode; Social theory is different. When an idea is invented, whether it is right or wrong, it will have a far-reaching impact on people's behavior, and people's behavior will evolve according to the logic of this idea, making this theory more and more solid. Sociological theory calls this phenomenon "self-fulfilling prophecy".
There is a classic experiment in the field of education: researchers randomly designate some students in the classroom of primary schools and tell teachers that they are "super smart", which is very likely to achieve good academic results in the future. Of course it's all nonsense. However, because of the experts' speeches, their teachers have intentionally or unintentionally changed the way they treat these students. Those children who are called super smart have higher expectations of themselves, and they are more self-disciplined and eager to become strong. At the end of the term, these pupils really performed well, which even directly affected their later life process.
For another example, some people feel that they are a little introverted and not very good at speaking in public, so every time they have the opportunity to speak in public, they will hint to themselves in their hearts that I am not suitable for this job, and I will definitely screw up, so I always take the initiative to retreat. It is also because of this retreat that he lost the most important exercise opportunity of public speaking. As we know, almost all excellent speakers' abilities need thousands of deliberate exercises, and he naturally has not practiced them.
This has well explained the role of ideas in behavior. As long as people are willing to believe, right or wrong can become true. Many cattle people like to quote this sociological theory and give it a new definition. For example, Ma Yun said that because you believe, you see it; For example, Li Xiaolai's self-proving prophecy. In fact, Adam Smith has long known this truth. His original words are as follows: people who spend their whole lives on simple operations have no chance to give full play to their intelligence. At the same time, because the work they do is extremely simple and there is no difficulty at all, it is impossible to invent anything to solve the difficulty. So they naturally lost the habit of developing their own intelligence and wisdom, and over time they became stupid and arrogant.
Back to the theme, can we say that human nature is to covet ease and comfort, and only seek economic returns but not spiritual returns? Wrong, the lazy and comfortable nature of human beings was invented, not discovered. It was Adam Smith who invented human nature and finally applied it to the whole world 200 years later.
Therefore, if you want to break this spell and completely solve the problem that you are unwilling to work hard, you need to redefine human nature. From the story of hospital cleaners, we know that everyone tends to give meaning to their work. When people regard their work as meaningful or even a mission, what they do will go beyond the requirements of "work" and "occupation", and work will no longer be a rice bowl, but a source of sense of accomplishment, honor and mission. But the premise of all this is how much free space the work itself can give them to develop such "noble quality".
If material resources were scarce in the past and people had to sacrifice their spiritual world to gain material richness in order to survive, today, people's material life has been greatly improved. It is more meaningful and necessary to redefine human nature and strive to create a human nature worthy of our pursuit. Fortunately, many managers have realized this. For example, many organizations and units have introduced a new OKR (Objectives and Key Results) evaluation mechanism instead of KPI evaluation, which is a way of objective and performance management and an internal communication mechanism.
John doerr, a silicon valley legend investor, gave several principles that distinguish OKR from traditional index evaluation in This is OKR, including: Don't set DoERR to be brave in failure from top to bottom, and don't link it with personal performance; Always have patience and determination.
Do not set OKR from top to bottom. In other words, you can't apportion goals from top to bottom. Suppose there is such a football team, and the general manager's goal is to make money for the team owner, so he sets himself two key results. One is to win the "Super Bowl", that is, the championship of major football league; Second, the team's home attendance rate should reach 90%, so as to create more income. The general manager's OKR is decomposed into the team coach. His goal is to win the Super Bowl. The key results will include how many points the offense wins and how many points the defense wins. Then it is divided into attack coach and defense coach until it is divided into each player. At the same time, the person in charge of marketing will break down another key achievement of the general manager-90% attendance at home to the team one by one. This top-down method, we may be familiar with when setting KPI, because the establishment of KPI indicators is first to clarify the KPI at the organizational level. Next, the heads of various departments decompose and establish departmental KPI. Finally, it is further subdivided into personal KPI. Although it seems clear, it can easily become apportionment. Setting OKR should be from bottom to top, provided that everyone is given full freedom. For this football team, we should start with each player and make our own OKR. For example, if I am an offensive player, my OKR should not be told by the offensive coach, but should be set by myself. Of course, there are many factors to consider in the process of setting, including how many goals I scored last year, the tacit understanding between me and my teammates, and the team's tactical choice. When I set my own OKR, the team will communicate with me according to the overall needs and determine my final OKR. Because I set this goal myself, I will be more willing to accomplish it. In addition, as we said earlier, OKR needs to be made public in order to promote more cooperation and form as many horizontal and vertical contacts as possible within the organization. This is a process of forming a collective consensus.
Dare to fail, OKR should not be linked to personal performance. OKR must be challenging and used to taking people out of their comfort zone, so it must be clear that failure is inevitable. For example, in Google, there are two OKR baskets, one is the goal to be achieved and must be completed within a given time; One is the goal of scalability, and the failure rate is around 40%. The OKR set by Google has nothing to do with job promotion and year-end bonus. This is another key difference between OKR and KPI. It is not used to reward everyone, but to determine the pace of everyone's progress. Only in this way can everyone pursue the key results without worries. However, although OKR is only a guide, it is not an achievement. However, because some people are too strict with themselves, others are too lenient with themselves, team leaders need to intervene and adjust after formulation.
Always have patience and determination. Using OKR is a process, and there are always mistakes. Therefore, OKR is not static, but can be flexibly adjusted. In the process of promoting OKR for first-time entrepreneurs, it is found that most enterprises have to complete the process of setting OKR three or four times before they can really get started. After that, with the increase of usage times, employees' understanding of OKR will gradually deepen. This is a kind of cultural identity, not a tool that can be used casually.
To sum up, the goal is what you want to achieve, that is, to solve the "what" problem. It is very important here that the goals are set for themselves, announced to the public, not forced by the leaders. This goal must be difficult, but it can be achieved in one jump. The key result is how to achieve your goal and solve the problem of "how to do it" Goals are enlightening, just like the distant horizon. The key result is grounding gas, just like there is a mountain to climb ahead. However, before setting goals and key results, we must think clearly about "why", that is, the question of meaning. When you give yourself the meaning of action, then efforts are no longer boring.
Attach 20 17 teacher Wu Jun's OKR management experience.
Google Wu Jun's letter is my goal of 20 17. By the way, introduce Google's goal management method.
A while ago, I summarized what I did on 20 16. On the first working day after the festival, I would like to share with you what I wanted to do on 20 17. Before introducing the specific ideas, let me introduce Google's target management method to you.
Every employee of Google needs to set one or several goals for himself every quarter, and the key results to measure whether the goals are achieved. Together, these words are called "OKR".
Everyone's OKR will be put on their own website, about half a page long, and everyone can see it. If someone doesn't do OKR, it will be clear at a glance. Even if no one urges you, people will be embarrassed to see that your web page is blank. By the end of this quarter, everyone will have achieved his goal. Yes, the score is 1. Partially completed, the score is a number between 0 and 1.
Google emphasizes that everyone's goal should be challenging, so if a person always gets a score of 1, it doesn't mean that he is doing well, but that his goal is set too low. In most cases, everyone's score for achieving the goal is around 0.7-0.8. Of course, the idea at the beginning of a quarter may be different from the task completed later, and the things that were unexpected in the early days may be done later.
Therefore, when summing up the quarterly work, you can add the goals you didn't set at the beginning, and you can't delete the goals you didn't intend to complete, or the goals that are outdated and no longer meaningful, but you can explain why you didn't do them. Today, I will introduce my goal in 20 17 according to Google's habit of making OKR.
Target 1. Finish the English and Korean versions of "Beauty of Mathematics" and the second edition of "Road to University"?
Key result 1. 1 Find the publisher of English version;
Key Result 1.2 Find a suitable English collaborator and modify the English version of the manuscript;
The key achievement is 1.3 to complete the writing of English version;
Key achievements 1.4 strive to be published before the end of the year;
The key result 1.5 will be published in cooperation with Korean publishers before the end of the year.
The key achievement 1.6 completed the second edition of Road to University, supplemented the contents of public education, added a Berkeley chapter, and added the contents of university application. Change some photos. Complete the revision at the end of April, and strive for the world before September.
Goal 2. The perfect part of Letter from Silicon Valley was published as a book.
Key result 2.1(starting from June) Choose three topics (directions), each with 20 letters;
Key Result 2.2 For the selected 60 letters and supplementary materials, each article is expanded into a complete content of about 5,000 words;
Key achievement 2.3 Complete the first draft by the end of August, and strive for publication before the end of the year.
Goal 3. Update the teaching content of business school and complete 60 hours of teaching.
The key result is 3. 1. The new contents taught on some occasions last year were compiled into courseware, which was tried out in Shanghai Jiaotong University in the spring semester.
Key Result 3.2 Divide these contents into three classes of about 1.5-2 hours according to the theme, so as to be used in lectures in the future.
Goal 4. Complete the letter from Silicon Valley according to the agreement.
Goal 5. Complete the third financing of Fengyuan Capital (details cannot be disclosed).
Goal 6. Complete the travel plan and arrange the photos.
Key result 6. 1 Go to Europe;
Key result 6.2 driving around the western United States;
Key achievement 6.3 Learn LightRoom and practice photography skills;
Key Result 6.4 Make five photo albums (two this year and three last year's debts) [Description: previous trips]
Goal 7. The goal of family, children and courtyard renovation (details are not allowed).
Goal 8. Financial objectives (details cannot be disclosed)
Goal 9. learning plan
Key achievement 9. 1 take two Coursera courses, one law and one biology;
Key Result 9.2 Read 10 carefully, and then read another 10 quickly.
Target 10. Complete the first draft of Top Ten Cases in America and a popular science book.
Key achievements10.11010 Submit the first drafts of two books to the publishing house in October;
Key Result 10.2 Learn from the previous lessons and greet the friends who wrote the recommendation sheet in advance.
Target 1 1. Perennial exercise and running 1000 km.
These are the goals I can think of at present. Of course, there may be constant adjustments in the middle. It is estimated that a small number of targets will be adjusted by the end of the year. If I finally finished 70%, I would be satisfied.
As for how to achieve the goal, I will share with you a simple project (or task) management method called "consumption tracking curve".
Consumption tracking curve
What do you mean? Suppose that at the beginning of something, the total amount of tasks is 100%, and at the end it is 0. If it takes 100 days to complete, and it takes 1% on average every day, you can draw a straight line (only the special curve of the straight line is shown in this figure, and if the relationship between progress and time is not linear, it may be a curve), from 100% to 0 (the blue line in the figure).
If after a period of time, such as one month, you still have 85% workload, you draw a straight line from the starting point (100%) to the position of 85% one month later, which is the first section of your consumption tracking curve.
Of course, because your task was not completed as expected, your actual consumption tracking curve is above the planned straight line. If the actual curve you have drawn is always above the planned straight line, it means that you have not finished the task on time, so you should step up. If the curve you draw is lower than the planned straight line, congratulations, you are ahead of schedule.
The principle of this curve is very simple, which is nothing more than comparing the gap between your work progress and your expectations. For people with high self-awareness, you don't need to spend time drawing this curve, but for those who always start thinking about completing the task at the last minute, drawing this curve regularly is actually reminding themselves to finish the task on time.
After a long time, habit becomes nature, and people who always rush to the last minute may change their working methods. This method is very effective when I urge my subordinates to manage the project progress. Of course, whether it applies to you or not depends on your own experiments.
Wu Jun Silicon Valley wrote my self-evaluation 20 17 Q 1OKR.
On the first working day of the Year of the Rooster, I shared with you my 20 17 goals and key achievements (signal 1 14, my 20 17 goals, by the way, introduce Google's goal management method), also called OKR (goals and key achievements). Now that the first quarter is over, I am interested in myself.
Target 1. Complete the English and Korean versions of "Beauty of Mathematics" and the second edition of "Road to University".
Key result 1. 1 Find the publisher of English version; (1.0, the contract has been signed)
Key Result 1.2 Find a suitable English collaborator and modify the English version of the manuscript; (0.3, I tried two translations, but they were not satisfied. I contacted the third translator and asked her to try to translate a chapter. )
The key achievement is 1.3 to complete the writing of English version; (0. 1, because the translator hasn't found it yet, so I translated a chapter, preface and table of contents myself, and the translator will do it later)
Key achievements 1.4 strive to be published before the end of the year; (Adjusted to complete the translation work before the end of the year, published in the middle of next year)
The key result 1.5 will be published in cooperation with Korean publishers before the end of the year. (0.7, negotiate a contract with the publisher)
The key achievement 1.6 completed the second edition of Road to University, supplemented the contents of public education, added a Berkeley chapter, and added the contents of university application. Change some photos. Complete the revision at the end of April, and strive for the world before September. (0.3, Berkeley chapter completed, can be completed on time)
Goal 2. The perfect part of Letter from Silicon Valley was published as a book.
Key result 2.1(starting from June) Choose three topics (directions), each with 20 letters; (0.5, the first batch of content has been selected)
Key Result 2.2 For the selected 60 letters and supplementary materials, each article is expanded into a complete content of about 5,000 words; (0.3, completed the first draft of 30% of the content of the first book, and 50% of the content is different from the letter. Of course, the title is not "Letter from Silicon Valley", but similar to "Diligent Wisdom". The final title of the book is under discussion and it is expected to meet readers in mid-September. )
Key achievement 2.3 Complete the first draft by the end of August and strive to publish it before the end of the year; (It is estimated that the first book can complete the task)
Key Result 2.4 (New Content) Strive to publish a second book by the end of the year.
Goal 3. Update the teaching content of business school and complete 60 hours of teaching.
The key result is 3. 1. The new contents taught on some occasions last year were compiled into courseware, which was tried out in Shanghai Jiaotong University in the spring semester. (0.3, new content is tried in Chaos Research Society)
Key Result 3.2 Divide these contents into three classes of about 1.5-2 hours according to the theme, so as to be used in lectures in the future. (1.0, courseware completed)
Goal 4. Complete the letter from Silicon Valley as agreed (1.0, the content is provided on time, and the number of users is satisfied).
Goal 5. Completed the third financing of Fengyuan Capital (1.0, the financing situation is very good).
(I can't give details)
Goal 6. Complete the travel plan and arrange the photos.
Key result 6. 1 Go to Europe; (3.0, booked three trips to Europe, in June, August and September respectively)
Key result 6.2 driving around the western United States; (0, there is no plan for the time being, and it may be cancelled)
Key achievement 6.3 Learn LightRoom and practice photography skills; (0, I haven't had time to study)
Key Result 6.4 Make five photo albums, including two this year and three to pay off last year's debts. (0, not started)
Goal 7. The goal of family, children and courtyard restoration (1.0, overfulfilled)
(I can't give details)
Goal 8. Financial goal (0.3, finish the task on time)
(I can't give details)
Goal 9. learning plan
Key achievement 9. 1 take two Coursera courses, one law and one biology; (0. 1, listening to a law course taught by the University of Pennsylvania)
Key Result 9.2 Read 10 carefully, and then read another 10 quickly. (0.25, read five books-a brief history of the future, Jerusalem in 3000, and three sports history books. If they are not well written, they can only be regarded as one book, Capital of Knowledge and the looming tower).
Target 10. Complete the first draft of "Top Ten Cases in America" and a popular science book (0.2, three chapters have been written, but it is unlikely to complete two books, so change it to one).
Key achievements10.11010 Submit the first drafts of two books to the publishing house in October; (postponed to the end of the year)
Key Result 10.2 Learn from the previous lessons and greet the friends who wrote the recommendation sheet in advance.
Target 1 1. Exercise, running 1000 km (0.25, running less, but playing more than before, ensuring weekly 10 hours of exercise).
Target 12. Promote the cooperation between a company and a university (as my charity action, a newly added goal).
For the overall completion level of these goals, my evaluation is: "Meet expectations, partially exceed expectations." In OKR system, it usually reaches 70%-80%. In addition, I adjusted some goals and added a new one.
As for how to further improve efficiency, I personally decided to make the following three adjustments:
1. From the second half of the year, all lectures and interviews will be rejected as much as possible, unless they are from partners.
2. Try to unify the writing content of Letter from Silicon Valley and this book.
If possible, quit a part-time job.
A few weeks ago, when I was in a class at the Chaos Research Association, someone asked me how to improve my work efficiency. I gave them three suggestions, so I might as well share them with you:
1. Don't use your cell phone at work one day a week. Put your mobile phone at the front desk before entering the office and bring it back after work. In the future, we should strive not to read WeChat for two hours every day, and gradually increase it to three hours.
2. Reduce workload 10% and improve work quality. Find some jobs that seem to be necessary but can't be done.
First thing every Monday morning, summarize last week's work, make this week's plan, write it down in 200 words and send it to the boss. As a manager, you need to give your subordinates a two-sentence written reply before leaving work on Monday.