Joy at Work

1. Work Can Be Joyful (It's Human Nature)

Somehow she made work so attractive that even an abused 2-year-old wanted desperately to pitch in for the sheer joy and excitement of it.

Innate desire to contribute. From a young age, people possess a natural inclination to work, contribute, and feel useful. The story of Kenny, a two-year-old chanting "I want jobs," illustrates this fundamental human desire to be part of a team and make a difference. This impulse is often stifled by conventional work environments.

Work as worship. Drawing from the Creation story, work was originally intended to be a beautiful, exciting, and satisfying act of worship. It was a major reason for our creation, meant to be fulfilling and an important way to honor the Creator. This perspective challenges the common view of work as mere drudgery or a necessary evil.

Opus vs. Labor. The Latin word "opus" better captures the desired nature of work – a voluntary act imbued with creativity and meaning. This contrasts with "labor," which connotes difficulty and lacks the joy inherent in purposeful activity. Creating a fun workplace is based on this "opus" concept.

2. The Industrial Revolution Created Miserable Workplaces

We have made the workplace a frustrating and joyless place where people do what they’re told and have few ways to participate in decisions or fully use their talents.

Outdated assumptions persist. The Industrial Revolution introduced assumptions about workers that still shape modern organizations: workers are lazy, motivated primarily by money, selfish, incapable of complex decisions, and need constant supervision and control. These beliefs led to rigid hierarchies, specialization, and demeaning practices.

Dehumanizing structures. Workplaces became mechanistic, treating people as interchangeable parts or "human resources" to be managed and controlled. This structure limits individual freedom, stifles creativity, and prevents employees from using their full talents, leading to widespread dissatisfaction and a desire to escape work.

Staff vs. Line. The proliferation of central staff offices (HR, finance, legal, etc.) further removes power and control from those doing the core work. These "serving" groups often become bureaucratic obstacles, making work less rewarding for line employees and reinforcing a top-down mentality.

3. Joy Comes From Freedom & Decision-Making

The key to joy at work is the personal freedom to take actions and make decisions using individual skills and talents.

Control fuels enjoyment. Just as athletes find joy in making crucial plays in a game, individuals in the workplace experience joy when they have control over their tasks and the ability to make important decisions. This sense of agency is far more motivating than high pay or good benefits alone.

Stress and challenge. Stress is not inherently bad; debilitating stress comes from a lack of control. Challenging work, like a championship game, is exciting and rewarding when individuals are empowered to influence the outcome. Hard work itself is not the problem; meaningless, controlled work is.

Feeling needed and important. The opportunity to use one's abilities when it really counts makes people feel valued and essential to the organization's success. This feeling of being needed and important is a primary source of joy and satisfaction in the workplace.

4. Empower Individuals Through Decentralized Teams

Every person, a business person.

Self-managed, multi-skilled teams. Organizing work around small, multidisciplinary teams empowers individuals by giving them collective responsibility for all aspects of their area, from operations and maintenance to budgeting and hiring. This eliminates reliance on central specialists and broadens individual skills.

Flat organizational structure. Minimizing layers of supervision is crucial for fostering communication and preventing leaders from stifling individual initiative. Larger teams reporting to a single leader can lead to a flatter structure and more opportunities for individuals to step up.

Banana split teams. Effective teams allow individuals to maintain their unique identities and skills while working together for a common goal. This is like a banana split, where distinct flavors combine for a better experience, rather than a milkshake where everything is blended into one.

5. The "Advice Process" Enables Smart Decisions

Before any decision can be made on any company matter, the decision maker must seek advice.

Empowering individuals, not groups. While teams are important, the ultimate decision-making power should often rest with an individual, typically the one closest to the issue or who initiated the idea. This fosters individual responsibility and speeds up the process.

Mandatory consultation. To prevent "lone rangers," the decision maker is required to seek advice from relevant colleagues, leaders, and even external experts. The scope of consultation depends on the decision's importance, ensuring diverse perspectives are considered.

Benefits of advice. The advice process:

• Engages others, making them knowledgeable stakeholders.
• Fosters humility in the decision maker ("I need you").
• Provides real-time, on-the-job education for both the decision maker and advisers.
• Often leads to better decisions than top-down approaches.
• Makes the process fun and rewarding for the decision maker.

6. Accountability & Feedback Drive Growth

Keeping score is important to the success and enjoyment of games. The same is true in workplaces.

Feedback is essential. People need to know how they are performing to grow and find satisfaction in their work. Scorekeeping, whether through quantifiable metrics or qualitative feedback, provides the necessary information for individuals and teams to assess their progress.

Accountability for outcomes. Taking responsibility for the results of decisions and actions is crucial for personal and organizational growth. This includes acknowledging failures and celebrating successes, fostering a culture where individuals feel ownership over their work.

Beyond traditional reviews. Annual reviews led by supervisors can be demeaning. A better approach involves self-reviews and peer feedback within teams, where colleagues offer comments and questions. This fosters mutual respect and provides a more holistic view of performance.

7. Eliminate Class Barriers: Everyone's a Business Person

By the time I left in 2002, over 90 percent of 40,000 people in 31 countries were paid a salary, just like the company’s leaders.

Dismantle the labor/management divide. The historical separation of workers into "labor" (hourly wage, controlled) and "management" (salary, empowered) is demeaning and creates an artificial class system. Treating everyone as a "business person" with salary, bonuses, and ownership opportunities breaks down these barriers.

Compensation for skill, not time. Shifting from hourly wages to salaries emphasizes that compensation is based on contribution, skills, and accomplishments, not just hours worked. This encourages efficiency and initiative, as employees are motivated to complete tasks effectively rather than just put in time.

Empowerment through pay. Making all employees eligible for bonuses and stock options, traditionally reserved for management, fosters a sense of ownership and aligns individual interests with the company's overall success. This financial inclusion reinforces the idea that everyone is a valued contributor.

8. Purpose Beyond Profit: Serve Society & Live Values

Three purposes or goals—service to society, economic health, and ethical values—should drive a company in equal measure.

Beyond the bottom line. A company's primary purpose should be to serve society by providing useful products or services, not solely to maximize profits for shareholders. Economic sustainability is essential for survival, but it is a means to continue serving, not the ultimate end.

Stakeholders matter. Companies create value through the contributions of multiple stakeholders: employees, customers, suppliers, lenders, governments, communities, and shareholders. A just organization balances the interests of all these groups, allocating a fair share of the value created to each.

Values as bedrock. A defined set of ethical principles and shared values (like integrity, fairness, social responsibility, and fun) must be central to the company's purpose and guide all decisions. These values are not just tools for economic success; they are ends in themselves, providing a moral dimension to the enterprise.

9. Leaders Are Servants Who Empower, Not Control

Leadership is about humility and serving others.

Restraint in decision-making. The most important quality of a leader in a joyful workplace is the willingness to refrain from making decisions that others can make. Leaders serve the organization by creating an environment where individuals are empowered to use their talents and take responsibility.

Character over skills. While skills are useful, a leader's character traits are paramount: humility, courage, integrity, and love for people and the mission. These qualities build trust and inspire others to flourish, unlike the self-aggrandizing style that stifles initiative.

Defining reality and accountability. Servant leaders define the organization's reality by assessing performance against its multi-faceted purpose (service, economics, values). They encourage accountability by celebrating successes and addressing failures, often taking responsibility themselves even for mistakes made by others.

10. Mistakes Happen: Don't Blame Decentralization

I know of no credible evidence that an organization that chooses to allow important decisions... to be made 'low' in the organization experiences more mistakes than those who use traditional central management and financial controls.

Mistakes are inevitable. All organizations, regardless of structure, make mistakes. Attributing errors in decentralized systems solely to the delegation of authority is a misdiagnosis, often used to justify a return to stifling top-down control.

Hubris is the real danger. Arrogance and the belief that top executives are infallible are far more likely to lead to catastrophic errors than empowering people lower in the organization. Overconfidence, not decentralization, was a common thread in major corporate failures.

Decentralization can prevent mistakes. By distributing decision-making and information, decentralized structures can sometimes prevent the kinds of large-scale errors made by centralized planning or trading groups. It also fosters a culture of transparency that makes unethical behavior harder to hide.

11. Values Must Be Lived Consistently

Values statements, especially those imposed from the top, are seen by most as mere wallpaper that, at best, are ignored; at worst, create cynicism.

Integrity in action. Corporate values are meaningless unless they are consistently lived by leaders and integrated into every aspect of the business, from hiring and compensation to strategy and daily operations. Hypocrisy between stated values and actual behavior destroys trust.

Shared understanding is key. Values must be clearly defined and understood by everyone in the organization. This requires ongoing teaching, discussion, and a willingness to address inconsistencies. While personal interpretations may vary, the shared understanding must prevail for the values to be effective glue.

Values over economics. True adherence to values means being willing to prioritize them even when doing so might negatively impact short-term financial results. If values are merely a means to economic success, they will be abandoned during downturns.

12. Love is the Foundation of a Joyful Workplace

I continue to believe that love is the final and crucial ingredient in a joy-filled workplace.

Unselfish concern for others. Love in the workplace means having a benevolent concern for the well-being and growth of colleagues. It is an act of humility that recognizes the worth and importance of every individual, fostering respect and dignity.

Giving up control. Love enables leaders to surrender their power and control, trusting others to make decisions and take responsibility. This act of delegation is rooted in a genuine care for the development and fulfillment of those being led.

Passion and purpose. Love for the people and the mission fuels passion for the work. When individuals feel loved and valued, and see their work as serving a worthy purpose, they are more engaged, creative, and dedicated, transforming work from a task into a calling.

Last updated: May 3, 2025