Are you doing Great Work? Or just Good Work?

Let me introduce you to Milton Glaser

I’m almost certain you haven’t heard the name of Milton Glaser.

But you probably know at least one of his works of art – the famous logo: I love NY

In his book, Art is Work, Glaser says that all the work we do – and by work he’s not just talking about your “9 to 5” job but EVERYTHING you do – falls into just one of three categories

1. Bad Work

Have you ever caught yourself at work thinking:  why on earth am I doing?  This is an hour of my life I’ll never have back…”

That’s Bad Work.

In organizations, it often comes under the label of bureaucracy.

It’s the meetings that go on and on and on with no seeming end.

It’s the paperwork that “they” need you to complete – for no apparent purpose.

It’s the processes that date back to the 1970s and create ten steps when there needs to be only one…

Richer Sounds is an audio and hi-fi store in the UK.  It’s highly successful – in fact, it’s been in the Guinness Book of Work Records for years for its sales success.

And it has something called the “Cut the Crap Committee.”

And for Bad Work, the test is simple.  If you suspect there would be work for a ‘Cut the Crap Committee’ of your own, then you’ve got Bad Work on your hands.

(Remember, the test here is not how well you do the work.  In fact, part of the curse of Bad Work is that most of us can deliver it at an excellent standard!)

2. Good Work

Good Work is what most of us do most of the time.

There is certainly no shame attached with doing Good Work. You're doing work that uses your skills, it gets stuff done, it pays you a wage.

Organizations love people doing Good Work because this is the work that is profitable, efficient and largely error-free.

But Good Work has its limitations.  At an organizational level, it’s work that will sooner or later become commoditized.  And at both an organizational and personal level, it’s work that creates a comfortable rut.  It’s work that doesn’t bring out the very best of the organization, and it doesn’t call forth the full potential of the people doing it.

And the real danger is that in today’s lean, outsourced and tech-savvy firms, there’s so much Good Work that could be done that it eclipses the time and space to do Great Work.

3. Great Work

Great Work is that work that challenges and inspires, which brings with it risk and reward, exhilaration and sometimes terror.

At an organizational level, Great Work is something that everyone CEO proclaims as important  – innovation, “Blue Ocean Strategy”, differentiation – and finds a challenge to implement, as there is an inherent tension between the promise of Great Work and the reliability of Good Work.

At a personal level, Great Work is a place where impact and effect trump efficiency and process.  It is a place of inspiration, where suddenly all your past makes sense ("A-ha! That's why I did that, learned that, screwed that up, experienced that!"). Great Work is a place that honors your skills, your passion and your experience.

Great Work is also a difficult place to be. The temptation to "downgrade" to the comfort of Good Work is constant. Your "inner critic" is rampant, whispering "Who are you to try this? Who do you think you are to be this ambitious? Don't you know you're doomed to failure?"

From Idea to Action:  Something to Practice

Here's a quick exercise. Draw a circle and divide it into three segments that represent the proportion of each of these types of work in your life today.

How much Great Work are you doing?  Good Work?  Bad Work?

Having asked thousands of people this question around the world, the typical answer is something like this:

• Bad Work:  10 – 40%
• Good Work: 50 – 80%
• Great Work:  0 – 25%

And knowing this now, you're faced with the realization that it’s your decisions – what you say Yes to, what you say No to – that has the great impact on what this “pie” looks like.

So, thinking about your work right now…

• What would you have to say "no" to, to double the amount of Great Work in your life?

• What would you have to say "yes" to, to halve the amount of Bad Work in your life?