Joy at Work is Rooted in the Why

Finding ground, motivation, and inspiration at work. While also cutting through the deceptively tempting but unnecessary, inappropriate, or unjustified work.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

My Quest for Joy at Work

A while back I made a decision. To optimize for joy. At work. In life. Joy for myself. Joy for those around me. Joy for those affected by my state of being. Joy for those experiencing the outcomes of what I do. Everyday.

I am still on this quest for joy at work. I have not figured it all out yet. But some insights presented themselves along the way. And I wish to share these with those of you who share in this journey with the sincere hope it will resonate, be of use, or spark an expedition of your own. I would love to hear from you as to what this brings out in you.

Prerequisite to joy at work is being grounded, motivated, and inspired. A deep connection to a sense of purpose. A crystal clarity into why the work needs to take place. And an attitude of openness, welcoming, curiosity, and fierce bias for action.

Put simply, for me, joy at work is deeply rooted in the why behind the work.

Ask These Questions to Center on What Matters

Whenever I have the gift of remembering to pause and reflect on why I am doing something at work, I am grateful for the opportunity to ask the following questions. I may not be able to answer all of them with precision and clarity. They may not all yield favorable or feel-good answers. But the effort helps me focus on what matters and the why.

1. Value and Delight
   How much value and delight will this work create for others: customers, partners, investors, and the people I work with?
2. Time and Energy
   How much time and energy spent toward getting value and delight will this save others (customers, partners, investors, and the people that I work with), and is that enough to be meaningful?
3. Mission
   How will the outcome of this work fulfill the meaningful and relevant mission of the group or community or company that I serve?
4. Beliefs and Values
   How grounded is the work in the beliefs and values that I share with the people I work with and the community I serve?
5. Rationale
   How well can my rational mind, informed by data, explain the motivation and desired outcomes of the work?
6. Instinct
   What does my instinct, informed by experience, tell me about the worth and feasibility of the work?
7. Nonattachment and Agility
   How attached am I to the specific outcomes, and am I ready to continually measure, fail, learn, and adjust course based on what I observe during the work?

Ask these Questions to Avoid the Gratuitous

Most of us have to work for a living. We often do not have the luxury of questioning why we do what we do. Some of us are indifferent or live in fear of what they may find out if they venture into that mode of thinking. Some of us pursue the seductively shiny work that serves little beyond the ego. Others pursue the dreaded work that puts to rest the wishes of an authority figure.

But if I can afford to avoid the unnecessary, unjustified, or unwarranted work, I believe I have the responsibility to do so. Not just for my benefit. But for the benefit of those around me.

Here are some questions that I pose to cut through it.

1. Myopic Gains
   What are the consequences of the short term gains I am seeking for others (customers, partners, investors, people I work with)? Are these gains coming at the expense of greater gains or strategic objectives down the road? Will the work accrue technical debt? Will it limit our agility? Will it constrain how we want to do business in the future?
2. Authority Figures
   To what extent am I motivated by managing and responding well to requests by authority figures such as executives, my managers, product owners, or the like even if I trust them?
3. Competition
   To what extent is fear of competition motivating the work and how much of that wasted energy is better directed at serving others, especially customers.
4. Wants not Needs
   How deeply do I understand the nuance between what others want versus what they need, and, knowing that many do not know what they need, am I addressing their needs ahead of their wants?
5. Inconsequential Growth
   How much are the empty drives for recognition, career advancement or promotions, the number of people I manage, titles, and personal material gains motivating my work, and am I optimizing for the long term and for joy or am I seeking something that will soon be forgotten in favor of the next thing in a never ending rat race?
6. Technical Achievement
   How much is the degree of the difficulty, the challenge, the technical achievement, the polish, or the quality of my work as opposed to the impact of the work motivating the work?
7. Keeping Busy
   How much are the sense of progress, the sense of doing something, anything, whether it is for the sake of appearances or for the sake of my own sanity, motivating my work?

Tell me what you think or feel about this. I’d love to hear and learn from you.

I wrote this after a friend asked me the simple question of why I am doing what I am doing at work. I could not come up with an answer. It kind of took me off guard and caused to me to reflect. This piece was an outcome.