OTO Episode 67: The Progress Principle

Operators To OWNERS

The Progress Principle: Learn More at https://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins

Today we discuss the characterization of virtuous cycles at work and how to craft them using small wins for yourself and your employees.

We all experience good and bad work days….and there are so many factors that play into each; the type of work, the challenge of the work, our home life, the relationships at work, road blocks we encounter, tools we find…..the list is endless.

So how do we maximize the # of positive days we experience at work? This is the very question HBR researchers Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer asked. And their results were quite eye opening.

#1 thing we can do as employers and self managers to increase the # of positive work days is create progress at work in meaningful tasks.

While following 238 over 26 projects…through 7 companies and 3 industries….researchers asked these people to do daily diary entries about their work day. They were seeking to find the source of the elusive positive work day…..what they got was 12,000 unique entries that they read and analyzed to come to this conclusion.

What they found was that individuals experiencing progress were 5x as likely to have a positive work day than not!

Interestingly, these same researchers found that individuals only experienced a positive work 6% of the time they encountered roadblocks or a lack of clarity in their tasks and perhaps even more troublingly these same individuals experienced an astounding 0% positive work environment when they encountered environments that were toxic, confounded with disrespect, discouragement for their tasks and a lack of emotional intelligence.

This concept of progress, and the subsequent concepts the authors called catalysis and nourishers, is so powerful that it doesn’t just extend to employees….it will impact you as a business or self manager as well!

Think back to the last time your team made progress, landed that new client or created that new service. Did it empower you as a manager? Did you find new energy and passion?

Lacking energy at work? Burning out? Then this episode on The Progress Principle is just what the doctor ordered!