Are you lacking resources, resourcefulness, or just imagination – and why it’s so important to love your job!

Hello again mates, happy Tuesday.

In addition to needing to love your job, here’s another stunning peace of information: You most likely do not want to die… There, I said it, you can now go on with your day. :-)

Why are these two bits of information important and intrinsically linked? Because both of these desires, or emotions, are powerful players on the road to resourcefulness. You cannot expect the best of yourself when your emotions are not at play. Both our personal and professional routines typically lend themselves to creating the most dull, boring, unfulfilling sense of existence possible: And it sucks!

This hum-drum existence is why movies, books, or any other medium containing heroic exploits have become such money makers for production companies.  Have a look at this article on Psychology Today’s website.

The girl from Pixar did not have this problem. Over half of her day was fantasy… At least from the outside looking in, that is.

Of course the reality was, it was also a “job”. The difference lay in the fact that she loved her job. Aside from the prospect of dying, which other emotion is more likely to illicit such a high degree of motivation? We will move mountains for love. We will conversely climb, hack, build, improvise, fight or destroy ”mountains” in order to live: Nothing would deter us from achieving that goal, as long as there wasn’t an easy alternative just a phone call away….

I read about a group of fit, healthy, supposedly smart male friends who set out onto a hike into one of the National Parks. After a few hours of hiking they became disoriented, and then lost. Apparently hopelessly so. So lost in fact, that as dark descended they made an emergency call to Park Rangers, pleading for rescue. Which of course the Rangers responded to. Upon finding the men huddled together the Rangers took inventory of what the men carried in their back-packs. Everything they would need to survive was in there, including a GPS gizmo they hadn’t even attempted to turn on and utilize….

When the Rangers got a little irritated with the men for their lack of responsibility, the men simply replied, “But, it’s your job to rescue us!”

I will admit, I would have been hard pressed not to just leave the group there, after, of course, I’d taken away all of their equipment. I would just title my actions, “promoting Darwins Natural selection theory” or something like it, and left them to fend for themselves.

Of course most of us are not so cavalier about our safety and would take responsibility for it; right? Yeah, just like we take responsibility for our happiness??

One of the reasons we have become so quick not to explore all the variables to any given situation is technology. Nearly everything we could possible need is but a mouse-click away. We have the capacity to exploit more information, more tools, more everything, than any generation before us, and it’s making us complacent. Just like the “lost” hikers with the ability to make a cell phone call and, at much trouble to others, get themselves out of a perceived predicament. 

What would they have done without the cell phone? Would they have gone to the trouble of turning on their GPS… Now there’s some irony! If the technology wasn’t there for a cell phone call, it’s sure as heck not going to allow for GPS triangulation on their position. Oops. So now you have to ask, would they have ventured out at all? Probably not. That would of called for more planning and self sufficiency.

When we go to work and get hit with a problem with no apparent answer, what do we do? Well, some of it depends on your profession. But in most cases  it will play out something like this: I’m not sure how to do what I’ve been asked to do – let me go Google the hell out of the subject and see if someone else has discovered the answer.

Now I’m not critical of this process; I do more than my fair share of searches looking for answers to problems. But if I couldn’t find what I was looking for there, would that be the end of my search? NO! I’d get off my ass and go to the library and start my search again there. Let’s imagine for a second there was no answer there either… Just like our Pixar friend – no one has done what you need to do. Now what? There’s no rule book, no self help guides, no way to solve your professional problems with A Dummies Guide to ______________ .

No, there’s just you and the team of folks around you to work it out!

Too often we say that can’t be done and if there isn’t anything to help us figure it out quickly and easily, we move one. Everyone accepts that it “can’t be done” and we seek other means. This is not much more than a lack of resourcefulness, or in military jargon, GPA (good positive attitude).

My Pixar friend told me that some of the issues they had to resolve might take them weeks, probably months, and that was before they started actually putting the “creative” elements down on paper, so-to-speak. Answer this: Would you spend weeks resolving issues that your boss ordered you to? Nah, probably not… What’s that? You already do… 

It’s not the same thing. When ordered to do anything, we bristle. You can’t help it, it’s human nature. What you need is a bristle free environment. No orders are needed because your love for your job creates it’s own sense of urgency and pride. And how do we achieve this heavenly state?

Fantastic Leadership of course!! Not top down leadership, or bottom up leadership, nor middle out leadership, how about this:

Human Nature Based Leadership! Oh come-on, we can do it…

What does this mean? Partly it means killing the old adage that work must suck. (this link is to an interesting book by Cali Ressler & Jody Thompson all about how to change this situation)

No, work must not suck. A work place thatstill follows the, “this is work and thus it must be aweful” philosophy is a recipe for disaster, especially right now. 

What are the top three rules at yourcompany (and I want you to consider this whether you are an emplyee or the “boss” that has to enforce it). Just give me the first three that pop to mind. Here are my best guesses for the top three:

1  Get there on time, punch in, and certainly never leave early!

2  Dress Code – a huge deal for a lot of reasons, I know.

3  Having fun and really enjoying that plush corner office you have…

What’s that? You have a problem with number three… Why?Isn’t this of paramount importance in your work place? Probably not, but it should be.

In fact imagine this, your first day on the job you are handed the Employee workbook and told to review it, paying special attention to the first ten Rules, as these are none negotiable and conformity is mandatory. The tone of delivery is a littel scary because you’d hard this was a great place to work, and even during the interview your boss seemed so relaxed and happy.

What the hell happened?

Now you’re getting scared! You knew deep down it was too good to be true, and here’s the proof… You fell for it. Codswallop!!! (I’m sure this one’s in your current vocabulary of swear words). LOL.

Your boss grants you 15 mins in the staff room alone in order for you to review these hard and fast rules. Your stomach sinks as the door closes behind you and there’s nothing but the sound of that wall clock ticking to keep you company. You slump into a chair and begin wishing you could turn back the clock….what was the name of that other company hiring..? The one your other friend said you’d better check them out first…. Too late now.

You open the handout, and begin to read…

Rule # 1: You are now personally responsible for the happiness of your team and you will strive to make their lives as much fun as possible – this you swear (initial here_____)

Rule # 2: Teambuilding isn’t a one day event, it’s a culture developed by the employees and management that must be tendered and nursed to maximum health everyday – with this you completely agree and will support wholeheartedly (initial here______)

Rule # 3: All complaints must go through your team before being brought to management, then the whole team must present these issues. In conjunction with this the team will need to support their complaints with a way to remedy them, and list three things they love about the company, too (initial here_________)

…and on and on it goes for the ten rules that must be adhered to. Now you have no idea what to think. Is this for real? Is this a joke?

You hear your name called from outside the employee room door and exit quickly not sure what’s going on! SURPRISE!!!!!!

The whole staff is waiting to greet you, balloons, twizzlers, streamers, handshakes, welcome aboard, can you believe the Ten Rules for working here, you’re gonna love it here, this place rocks, we’ve set the company record for performance, sales, employee retention, no one leaves, if you need time for stuff just take it – as long as you get your work done, no worries….. And on it goes. You’ve never been so warmly greeted, anywhere, EVER. Did I mention, you’re not a manager, you’re the mail girl/guy.

It’s not a joke – It’s a culture!

Take Pixar woman for example, one of things she mentioned more than a couple of times was the culture. No one really gave a crap about what you looked like (dress code) or what time they got to work (as long as progress was being made).

She didn’t mention it, but I know she would have if she’d read my Blog, she said nothing about bristling… No employee bristling can only mean one thing – happy employees! (as another example I implore you to take a look at the rest of the Zappos.com  ”about us” website and try to discover the underlying culture within that company too)

Which is where the common thread that links all of this together starts to come into play. I mentioned yesterday that life, hobbies, work, even disaster survival is all linked by a common theme – that theme is Desire.

When you are in a life or death situation, you desire to live. If you have no equipment, no experience and it seems like no hope, your desire to stay alive will make you a freaking genius in the moment. You will improvise, adapt, and ultimately overcome; or you will die. You will not just sit on a rock and curl up in the fetal position waiting for someone to help you out, because if you do, you will die. You will see past the fact that you can’t just Google your way out of the situation, or make a phone call to be “rescued”. You’ll figure it out – all by yourself, because circumstances dictate that you must.

Your desire to live will do the rest!

If you love your job and where you work, because the culture is “we don’t care what you look like, what time you get to work, or why you’re leaving early today” then the goal becomes developing the best product or service possible. You spend less time Bristling, and more time pumped up about what you do, unrestricted by petty rules. You know if you get the job done and the results are mind-blowing, you’ll experience a sense of accomplishment not felt since grade school.

Just like survival is the point of figuring out the best way to deal with your disaster situation, your desire to improve the product or service at work will grow exponentially.

This is a culture thing, not necessarily an employee thing. And it’s most definately a leadership thing – so if you aren’t the boss, start thinking about ways to steer your boss in this direction. Or at least send them the link to this Blog and I’ll try starting to steer them. In the end, we should all want the same thing, the best of ourselves so that we can enjoy what it is we do and feel happy about doing it.

P.S. “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.” – Horace

Cheers, Terry