We know that life is not just about efficiency. So why do we resist the idea that work can be about greatness?
We know we need more than the simple efficiency that our current measures capture. Our view of performance has become limited by overly focusing on those metrics.
Because we can see the outward manifestations of work performance like products shipped, revenues booked, and earnings-per-share, we can discuss them in analyst calls and at management meetings. We can barely see and surely can’t measure the soft aspect of how we make great products, revenues or earnings per share.
That doesn’t mean that greatness can’t be decoded. There are pieces that we can see and understand. It includes groups being creative. It includes people being themselves. It includes all of us having confidence that we’re making a difference.
It’s asking questions that let us reimagine what could be. It’s feeling motivated. It’s about being challenged within our capabilities. It’s all of us having a rich, intense sense of joy at work. It’s trusting ourselves, and our ability to learn.
It’s about being trusted by others. It’s when we can say to each other: I believe in you. It’s about being courageous and not always trying to fit in.
It’s about everyone knowing what matters. It’s about all of us learning, and growing and changing. It’s about creativity and inventiveness, and the ability to go fast because we are adaptable. It’s about getting rewarded for caring about the commons, not just the silos.
We need a measure that captures all of that. Something that captures our purpose, our talent, and the way our culture enables us to create velocity in bringing ideas to market.
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