Do More Great Work

1. Identify Your Great Work: Understand Bad, Good, and Great Work

Great Work is what we all want more of. This is the work that is meaningful to you, that has an impact and makes a difference. It inspires, stretches, and provokes. Great Work is the work that matters.

Bad Work is pointless and draining, often manifesting as bureaucracy or outdated processes. Good Work is familiar, productive, and necessary, forming the bulk of most people's daily tasks. Great Work is meaningful, impactful, and personally fulfilling. It challenges you, aligns with your values, and contributes significantly to your organization and the world.

Understanding these distinctions helps you:

• Identify areas where you're spending too much time on Bad Work
• Recognize the importance of Good Work in maintaining stability
• Seek opportunities to transform Good Work into Great Work
• Actively pursue projects and tasks that qualify as Great Work

2. Tap into Your Peak Moments to Uncover Great Work Opportunities

Clues to what Great Work is for you are preserved—like insects in amber—in the peak moments of your past.

Reflect on past achievements to identify patterns and themes that indicate your Great Work potential. These peak moments are times when you felt most fulfilled, engaged, and impactful.

To uncover your Great Work opportunities:

• Recall 3-4 peak moments from your work life
• Include 1-2 peak moments from your personal life
• Give each moment a title and write a brief description
• Analyze the themes, skills, and circumstances common across these moments
• Use these insights to guide your search for future Great Work projects

3. Define Your Best Self and Role Models to Guide Your Great Work

We're beginning to see the people we admire as a call to me to be my best, encouraging and pulling me forward to the same standard of whatever it is that they embody.

Identify your optimal traits and behaviors when you're at your best. This self-awareness helps you recognize and create situations conducive to Great Work.

Steps to define your best self and find inspiration:

• Create a list of words describing yourself at your best
• Pair each positive trait with its less-than-ideal counterpart
• Choose 5-8 role models who embody qualities you admire
• List 4-5 characteristics of each role model that inspire you
• Look for patterns in these traits to guide your Great Work journey

4. Scan Your Environment for Great Work Possibilities

To get a sense of where there might be opportunities for Great Work, you need to find a place where you can stop, scan the landscape, and see what might be worth pursuing. You need to get to the lookout.

Broaden your perspective to identify potential Great Work opportunities in various aspects of your life and work. This holistic approach helps you spot possibilities you might otherwise miss.

Areas to explore for Great Work opportunities:

• Personal life: hobbies, relationships, community involvement
• Professional development: skills, knowledge, networking
• Organizational challenges: inefficiencies, unmet needs, innovation gaps
• Industry trends: emerging technologies, market shifts, societal changes
• Global issues: sustainability, social justice, education

5. Address What's Broken to Find Great Work Projects

What's broken and needs to be fixed?

Identify pain points in your work and life to uncover potential Great Work projects. Solving problems that frustrate you or others can lead to meaningful and impactful work.

Strategies for finding Great Work through problem-solving:

• List irritations and inefficiencies in your daily work
• Identify broader issues in your team, department, or organization
• Consider societal problems that align with your skills and passions
• Evaluate which issues, if resolved, would have the most significant impact
• Assess which problems you're most motivated to tackle

6. Balance Organizational Requirements with Personal Aspirations

The challenge is to find the best possible balance between these competing forces, so you are doing not only what is required and desired by your organization but also as much Great Work as you want.

Align your goals with your organization's needs to create opportunities for Great Work within your current role. This balance ensures you contribute meaningfully while fulfilling your professional obligations.

Strategies for balancing personal and organizational goals:

• Map out your current work responsibilities and projects
• Identify areas where your interests overlap with organizational priorities
• Look for ways to infuse Great Work elements into existing tasks
• Propose new projects that serve both personal and organizational objectives
• Negotiate for more time and resources to pursue Great Work initiatives

7. Generate Creative Ideas to Expand Your Great Work Options

Expanding your range of options is the first part of the creativity rhythm, and your goal here is to go big and go wide. There will be a time when you narrow your choices—but not now.

Unleash your creativity to generate a wide range of possibilities for your Great Work project. This divergent thinking phase helps you explore unconventional ideas and innovative approaches.

Techniques for creative idea generation:

• Use provocative questions to stimulate new thoughts
• Set a time limit and idea quota to push beyond obvious solutions
• Embrace wild, improbable, or even "impossible" ideas
• Build on existing ideas to create new variations
• Seek inspiration from unrelated fields or industries
• Use visual tools like mind maps or sketches to explore connections

8. Choose Your Great Work Project with Confidence

The purpose of slowing down there is to speed up here.

Make an informed decision about which Great Work project to pursue by evaluating your options against key criteria. This structured approach helps you choose a project that aligns with your goals and has the potential for significant impact.

Steps to select your Great Work project:

1. List 3-5 potential Great Work projects
2. Develop 3-5 criteria for evaluating these options (e.g., impact, ease of implementation, personal passion)
3. Rate each option against your criteria
4. Consider the highest-scoring options and your gut feeling
5. Commit to a project that balances potential impact with feasibility

9. Commit to Action and Define Your Next Steps

You can't do a project. You can only do the next step.

Break down your Great Work project into manageable steps to overcome inertia and make steady progress. This approach helps you maintain momentum and avoid feeling overwhelmed by the project's scope.

Key elements of an effective action plan:

• Clearly define your next action (be specific and use action verbs)
• Set a deadline for completing this action
• Identify the very first step you need to take
• Establish accountability by sharing your plan with a supportive person
• Schedule regular check-ins to review progress and adjust your plan

10. Build a Support Network to Sustain Your Great Work Journey

Great Work inspires you, enthralls you, pulls you forward—it's deeply personal. And yet almost certainly, you can't do it by yourself.

Cultivate relationships that provide emotional, technical, and strategic support for your Great Work endeavors. A strong support network can help you overcome obstacles, stay motivated, and expand your capabilities.

Types of support to seek:

• Emotional support: Friends and family who offer encouragement and belief in your potential
• Technical support: Colleagues or experts who can provide specific skills or knowledge
• Strategic support: Mentors or influencers who can offer guidance and open doors

Strategies for building your support network:

• Identify gaps in your current network
• Attend industry events or join professional associations
• Offer help to others before asking for support
• Be clear about the specific type of support you need
• Express gratitude and reciprocate when others assist you

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Last updated: August 9, 2024