Are You Clicked into Your Job?

If the answer is “no," read on!

What is a “click?” Think about the best job you ever had, and you will find a click there, like the audible sound of a seat belt fastening when you were at work. Think about the worst job you ever had, and you will not find a click there – in fact, you may have even been “unclicked.”

A click is made up of three parts – the work, the role, and you, the talent – which, if matched together ideally, create a continuous flow of value creation that benefits both the organization and the individual.

However, when these three parts do not fit together ideally, and there is no click, something very different happens. This mismatch of the work, the role, and you, the talent, causes value to leak from the organization’s perspective and, even more troubling, dignity to leak from the individual’s perspective. Furthermore, the organization places the burden of success on you – the talent – and such a mismatch of the work and the role feels more like being set up to fail. So how do we create a “click?” Let’s look at a practical example to find out.

Creating a Click: A Practical Example

For fun, let’s say you have an assignment to build a Lego Taj Mahal in one hour. You may or may not have ever built a Lego structure before, but it is now part of your job. You get a kit with 3,000 pieces in a box with a picture of the Taj Mahal on it. Inside the box are ten numbered packages of Lego pieces and a set of instructions. In terms of a “click,” we have the work, or the assignment, which is to build a Lego Taj Mahal in one hour. We have the role, or the kit, which is a box of ten numbered Lego bags and a set of instructions. And we have the talent, you with your Lego-building skills, for better or worse.

Now, we know that it will take a talented 12-year-old seven hours to build this Lego structure, and we know none of us are as talented as most 12-year-olds in performing this task. But this is your assignment, so you jump in. You discover that two of the ten Lego packets are missing from the kit. What do you do? You think to yourself that your boss believes that because you have done so much with so little for so long surely you can figure it out and still complete the assignment accurately and on time. You are frustrated with this reality because you feel like, once again, the company is setting you up to fail, but you have no time to ruminate on how you feel because the clock is ticking. You get to work and hope you can figure out how to build the Lego Taj Mahal with only 80% of the resources in what is now likely 52 minutes.

Ensuring a Successful Match

Let’s rewind that example and see what it means in terms of how you function in your job. You have work to do or an assignment, and you are in a role that is like a package of things you get from the company to complete the assignment. In that kit, there is “equipment” such as authority, resources, incentives, and support from others – all designed to help you do your work successfully. Finally, you have yourself, the talent, or a collection of skills, knowledge, and experience that make you ready or not ready to complete the assignment on time. The trouble arises when the work of the assignment is not doable, and the talent gets told to try harder. And if your kit is inadequate, and you are missing pieces, the talent gets told that is their problem and figure it out. Perhaps superhuman talent could complete this undoable assignment with an incomplete kit, but it will take too long for value creation and so the organization suffers.

However, if we want to ensure the match is set up to win, then we begin by carefully examining all three variables—the work, the role, and the talent—to ensure that together, they create that very nice sound—click—boom!