Enjoy work?

  One of the more entertaining (and useful) speeches in years from a senior exec in a bureaucracy above me... asserted that "work is work.  If it was fun, it wouldn't be called work.  Get over it... there are things I require from you," etc.

Which is a useful frame of reference for many of us, who find our day to day toils baths of minutia, which we conquer with very little apparent resulting improvement of our little world (much less a wider world).  There was a time in my life when I was responsible for a few hundred people... and contemplated responsibility for many more.  I have often pondered what activities a business leader/manager can engage to improve organizational effectiveness.

Every organization has its nuances.  People respond in varying fashion to leadership prompting, whether carrot or stick.  So I was intrigued recently to read a Wall Street Journal article suggesting that small acts of kindness among workers improved recipients' affection for the workplace in general and even resulted in improved efficiency.

So it would seem that an analytic mind that understands key drivers to organizational success and methods for measuring said drivers so communication and evaluation systems can be engaged ... may actually be less helpful than nourishing a "pay it forward" attitude.

Go figure!  Of course, an organization that is headed the wrong direction may profit little from efficiency therein.  More next time... be nice!