Joy in Work

The Timeless Rediscovery of Deming's Key Motivator for Transformation

What is at the heart of the transformation? It is the release of the power of intrinsic motivation. How? By creating joy, pride, happiness in work; joy and pride in learning. Two changes are required:

1. Change the system of reward. Everybody loses under the system that nourishes the WIN, LOSE philosophy and the race to be number one…

2. Create leaders with attributes that work to help their people, who know how the work of the group fits in to the aims of the company, that focus on the internal and external customers, and who understand variation and use statistical calculation to determine if there are people outside the system in need of special help.

Deming, W. Edwards; Deming, W. Edwards. The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality (p. 41). McGraw Hill LLC. Kindle Edition.

THE AIM of this brief post is to share a Harvard Business Review article from 2019 with you that makes the case for Making Joy a Priority at Work. Within, author Alex Liu outlines how, despite making significant investments to connect people in the workplace, we’ve never been further apart — and this is a problem if we’re supposed to be working together as a team.

Liu cites a 2018 study his firm, AT Kearney, conducted of more than 500 employees from companies around the globe, that found there is a substantial gap between what respondents’ expectations and reality when it comes to experiencing “joy at work”:

In a discovery that would be surprising to anyone except a student of Deming’s theory of management, Liu notes that their findings “further suggest that joy stems from believing one’s work is truly meaningful.” He goes on to say that employees who experience the most joy at work do so because they believe their work is meaningful and are connected to the company’s vision and strategy.

No surprises, here…

What Gets in the Way?

In a word, culture: the ways and means we predominantly put-together our organizations that make working together difficult, if not outright impossible. Liu cites a multiplicity of layers and silos, along with colleagues who create comfort zones they’re reluctant to leave or KPIs that incentivize complacency.

Rx? Teamwork: Harmony, Impact, Acknowledgement

Liu makes a very-Deming aligned observation that people intrinsically seek joy, and joy is a connective super-power. He draws an often-made comparison to high-performing sports teams, but not in the hackneyed way we’ve come to expect from a motivational poster or some slogan on the company website:

The connective power of joy is clearly visible in sports. When a team performs at its awe-inspiring best, overcoming its limitations and challenges, every player — indeed, the entire arena — experiences a brimming ecstasy that lifts the team even further. Success sparks joy. Joy fuels further success. Everyone is caught up in the moment.

In other words, a culture that makes great teamwork possible begets joy that begets intrinsic motivation for everyone. According to Liu, this arises from three ingredients: harmony, impact, and acknowledgement.

• Harmony is the integration of different people with different talents in a way that enables them to achieve their goals;

• Impact is the positive feedback loop that teams experience when they know their work matters;

• Acknowledgement of contributions sets up another powerful “joy-success-joy” feedback loop that amplifies an intrinsic desire to do more.

Unfortunately, Liu offers some rather weak advice on how to achieve this through making joy explicit in corporate purpose, creating cross-unit/cross-silo teams, and celebrating corporate social impact efforts. No mention of transforming the system of management which has the most significant impact on intrinsic motivation and joy.

A Deming View

As we have discussed in prior newsletters, a key ingredient to Dr. Deming’s philosophy of management is the unlocking of intrinsic motivation of people by transforming our prevailing ways and means of management, and in so doing: joy in work. For Deming, demotivation and a loss of joy are in-built “features” of our systems of management that are buttressed by notions of common sense, tradition, and competition as a cure-all. Dr. Deming noted, many years ago:

Effects of the present system of management. [Management] squeeze out from an individual, over his life-time, his innate intrinsic motivation, self-esteem, dignity, and build into him fear, self-defense, extrinsic motivation. We have been destroying our people, from toddlers on through the university, and on the job…

The transformation will take us into a new system of reward. We must restore the individual, and do so in the complexities of interaction with the rest of the world. The transformation will release the power of human resource contained in intrinsic motivation. In place of competition for high rating, high grades, to be No. 1, there will be cooperation on problems of common interest between people, divisions, companies, government, countries. The result will in time be greater innovation, applied science, technology, expansion of market, greater service, greater material reward for everyone. There will be joy in work, joy in learning. Anyone that enjoys his work is a pleasure to work with. Everyone will win; no loser.

Deming, W. Edwards; Deming, W. Edwards. The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality (pp. 82-85). McGraw Hill LLC. Kindle Edition.

How? Here we get more targeted advice from the good Doctor, which we can find throughout his writing and speaking, which we have explored here:

• Working on the 14 Points or Obligations of Management

• Eliminating the Nine Faulty Practices of Management

• Removing the 16 Obstacles to Transformation (Part 1, 2, 3, and 4)

• Countering the Forces of Destruction of the Individual

• Understanding the “new” management competency about human behaviours and their contributing causes

• Adopting the System of Profound Knowledge as the primary lens for interpreting and managing daily phenomena in the organization

None of this comes easily, of course, although if undertaken seriously by top-management the benefits will come almost for free. For example, by increasing base pay and eliminating commissions, you can find, as Jim McIngvale did, that your sales team works more cooperatively and your customers happier. By eliminating annual appraisals and “merit increases” that divide and separate people, you can find some of what Liu advises we seek to promote teamwork, again, almost for free.

Reflection Questions

Think back to the occasions in your life where you have experienced joy in your work: where you were so enthusiastic it would take wild horses to drag you away from your desk or computer, and time would seem to pass quickly: why was that? To what do you attribute this condition? Consider what “inputs” came together in just the right way to make this happen. How many were in your direct control? How many were outside? How were you measured and managed? What were the systems of reward? What were the second and third order effects to people around you? What was your home life like?

Now, consider the same questions from the opposite perspective, to a situation where you were totally deflated and demotivated? What were the contributing sources of dissatisfaction for you? What behaviours did it invoke in you? Quiet quitting (work-to-rule)? Quiet constraint (hoarding of knowledge)?

With this knowledge, what would you do differently from a Deming perspective? What change could you initiate from where you are at right now? How would you close the “joy gap” ?

Drop a line in the comments below on your thoughts…