You and your work


You’re unique, one of a kind. Live, work or play, you’ll have your own variations on everything you do. Whether you are aware of it or not, your version of work and working is different to everyone else’s version. For most of us, the different ways we work have to fit in well, or at least well enough, with the expectations and patterns of work of our bosses, customers and colleagues.

Working together. Really?

So you expect total harmony between all of those unique people in your changing work environment? When reality hits and you can’t plan a neat fit, perhaps you'll end up having to figure out how to make the most of the situation. The good thing is we're not alone here, after all:

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men
— George Elliot, Novelist (1819 to 1880)

Experiences tell, stories count

Another famous novelist, Oscar Wilde would agree that imperfect has value. Wilde once claimed that ‘Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes’.

What are these 'mistakes', let's call them missed opportunities, costing you in business?

employee engagement - only 13% of employees worldwide (24% in Australia) in a 2013 Gallup survey are actively engaged, the rest are actively disengaged or disengaged.

Job strain - Up to 25% of people in the OECD experience job strain,  approximately 35% of people with job strain have long term health consequences

 

I expect you'll hope to win sometimes as well, so it'll be important to find some shortcuts to succeed much more and fail even less. Experience helps you and your people to make sense of the working world. Let's start using our collective experience of work in the workplace to learn fast together.

How can we do that? Everyone talking at once doesn't work. Some people are less likely than others to speak up. Wendy has developed an online journal called Work Journal for collecting the experiences of your people at work. The system gives you a dashboard showing you the patterns in these stories to build your understanding of the barriers and opportunities to build productivity through a well, well-supported and engaged workforce. I also shows you the building blocks for effective work design. By contributing experiences anonymously real-time, even long term, you'll be confident that pick up the pieces of the puzzle you need to design great work.