Make sure you’re doing enough great work.
By Michael Hudson, Ph.D. 
During his keynote presentation at CEO/Executive Team Network last month, Michael Bungay Stanier shared some very important and valuable ideas about work. Specifically, he challenged the audience to think about how much bad work, good work, and great work they were doing. Senior partner of Box of Crayons and author of Do More Great Work, Stanier reminded attendees that 90 percent of what we do is subconscious and that 50 percent is routine, and offered these key definitions:
- Bad Work — best depicted by the acronym WOMBAT—that is Waste Of Money, Bandwidth, And Time.
- Good Work — work within your job description that there is typically more of than you can actually do and that is fueled by false urgency (as if you are trying to beat the ocean while building a sandcastle).
- Great Work — working this category is about staying ahead of the curve. It is strategic, innovative and makes a difference.
Using these definitions, Stanier challenged the audience to complete this very simple exercise: 1. Draw a large circle on a blank piece of paper. 2. Divide the circle into sections representing the percentage of time you are spending doing bad work, good work, and great work. Go ahead, do this now. Chances are that if you're anything like the people I was sitting with (or those I had the privilege of interacting with during the coaching session following Stanier’s presentation), you just surprised yourself. And whether you're surprised because you're doing too little great work, too much bad work, or all of your time doing good work that you now see as (at least slightly) less valuable, the exercise offers useful insights.
No doubt it's clear that one of your goals should be to reduce the amount of bad work you're doing. If you found yourself allocating a significant portion of the circle to this kind of work, it's time to take stock of the way your investing your limited time and to redirect your day-to-day efforts. It's also quite likely that you recognize the value of doing more great work. If you found yourself allocating a relatively small (perhaps insignificant) portion of the circle to this kind of work, then how can you find more time to do this kind of work? What may have surprised you most is the amount of time you indicated you were doing good work, and the way you feel about it when you compare it to the amount of time you're doing great work. The opportunity here is to find ways to reduce the amount of time you are working here to free up more time to do more great work.
Action idea: Share this simple exercise with the other leaders in your organization and with the people they lead. Use it to fuel discussions that support engaging everyone in doing more great work. It won't be easy because it never is easy to give things up, but reducing the amount of bad work and good work everyone is doing will free up time to do more great work. And that will have a tremendous positive impact on your credit union! Are you up for the challenge?
Michael Hudson, Ph.D., founder and principal of CreditUnionStrategy.com, is a speaker, facilitator, consultant and executive coach. He has been a credit union member since he was three months old. Hudson helps individual credit unions discover and implement strategy, build and sustain culture, and identify and develop leaders. Connect with him on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Google Plus. Read a previous CUES Skybox post about Michael Bungay Stanier's presentation, "Why Your Work Should Include Elephant Topiaries." Read more coverage of CEO/Executive Team Network on this blog.
