Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Work Consists of Mainly Uninteresting Tasks

As a leader, do you manage people who are doing mainly uninteresting tasks?  If so, what might you do about it?

If you manage other people, take a quick glance over your shoulder.  There's a ghost hovering there.  His name is Frederick Winslow Taylor...and he's whispering in your ear.  "Work," Taylor is murmuring, "consists of mainly simple, not particularly interesting tasks.  The only way to get people to do them is to incentivize them properly and monitor them carefully."  In the early 1900s, Taylor had a point.  Today, in much of the world, that's less true.  Yes, for some people work remains routine, unchallenging, and directed by others.  But for a surprisingly large number of people, jobs have become more complex, more interesting, and more self-directed. 

From: Drive by Daniel H. Pink
Published by: Riverhead Books

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