FOUR COMPONENTS REAL WORK (2)

Jessica is very angry with her boss. She believes that she is very hardworking, but her boss, Jennifer, doesn’t appreciate her work. According to her, Jennifer doesn’t like her as she always finds fault with her work. She is very frustrated. She is thinking of resigning and has come to you for advice. How would you use the definition of work in this chapter to help and counsel her?

Last week, we started a series on the Four Components of Real Work based on the above case study. We explored the meaning of the first concept: output. I wrote, “Work is always defined by output. It requires you to create or produce something. Without the product, work is not complete.”

Today, we will look at the second component of work: standard.

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2. Standard

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Have you ever sent an email to your boss who informed you that your email did not meet her expectations?

Have you ever ordered a meal that did not meet your expectations?

Have you paid for a product online that you were disappointed in when you received the order?

Many years ago, as part of my wedding plans, I ordered an expensive suit that I saw online. It looked so beautiful based on the picture I saw. When the suit arrived, I was so disappointed that I had to quickly run to a local suit shop to buy another one for my wedding. I could not wear the suit and had to give it out.

Why? The suit did not meet my expectations, the price notwithstanding. It was an expensive flop!

This brings us to the second component of work—work must meet a standard to qualify as work. Output alone is not sufficient to define work as every output is an input for someone else, and it cannot be called work if it does not meet the customer or end user’s standard or specifications.

Perhaps this is one significant difference between work and play. Play doesn’t really need to meet any standard. But work does.

Standard is the unit of measurement for work. Therefore, a poorly written report will not qualify as work because it will not meet the required standard.

In the total quality movement, defective products are destroyed because they do not meet the required standard, despite the cost incurred in producing them. Similarly, it doesn’t matter how long and how much you spent to produce the output; if it doesn’t meet the required standard, you have not worked!

In physics, work is defined by force multiplied by distance. So, if the distance covered is zero, irrespective of the force applied, work is zero. Look at it this way: If I try to push a broken-down truck alone, I will exert tremendous force, but the distance covered would be zero. Have I worked? No. I have simply expended energy. Expending energy is not work if the object does not move. Similarly, expending energy in producing a result is not work if that output doesn’t meet the customer’s standards.

Based on the concept of standard, people’s output can be classified into three:

·????????Failure: when output falls below the required standard.

·????????Success: when output meets the required standard.

·????????Outstanding: when output far exceeds the required standard.

This definition means that you must look beyond your output and all the things involved in producing it and ask yourself: who would use my output, and how would they judge it? Or what is the standard of measurement for my output? Asking this question means you must know the end user of your product and their basis of measurement.

Applying this concept to our introductory case study, Jessica must look beyond her output and look at her work from the lens of her boss. If her boss is not satisfied, then it doesn’t matter how hardworking she claims to be. There is something wrong with her output from the boss’s perspective. This lesson is important. You do not define work just as Jessica discovered. The end user defines what work is. And the end user only defines work from the concept of standard and not just output. Their standards become the filter through which every output is judged.

Successful workers start by clarifying expectations. They know that work doesn’t begin and end with them. Be like them. Ask yourself, “Who would use my output and what standards must my output meet?”

Therefore, what should Jessica do? First, she should ask her boss what her standards are. And standards have three components:

·????????What: the expected results

·????????When: timing and deadlines

·????????How: preferences and specific expectations.

Then she should go about meeting the standards. And so should you. Never begin a task without clarifying expectations. In today’s world of work, it is not enough to say, “I did my best.” The key question to ask is: “Is your best good enough?”

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Next week, we will look at the third and fourth components of work.

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This excerpt is from Chapter 1 of my latest book, Success At Work: A Practical Guide for Succeeding at Work.

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