Wednesday, January 21, 2009

My Ideal Company

My ideal company would have...

(1) a media department to help employees focus on the euphoric purpose of the company and to maintain transparency in the company
(2) the option of employee ownership
(3) one optional, paid hour per day allocated to employee fitness
(4) twenty optional, paid hours per year allocated to service projects of the employee's choice
(5) a one-year term for managers
(6) weekly personal-progress interviews
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2009 at 11:40 AM

    David,

    Your dream isn't high enough! How about no managers whatsoever, free work schedule and friendly personal progress chats with the fellow employee you chose as your mentor? And - the most important thing - it is possible not just in Brazil but everywhere, in a fraction of time you might think is needed to transform conventional workplaces into a nirvana like that! I kid you not.

    Best,

    Andy

    anvoro@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete

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How Will You Measure Your Life?

I recently read this article by Clayton Christiansen out of Harvard entitled, “How will you measure your life?” It is what he tells his students on the final day of his class.

One of the items that he mentions sticks out to me. It reads as follows:

“One of the theories, . . . . . how to be sure we find happiness in our careers—is from Frederick Herzberg, who asserts that the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. I tell the students about a vision of sorts I had while I was running the company I founded before becoming an academic. In my mind’s eye I saw one of my managers leave for work one morning with a relatively strong level of self-esteem. Then I pictured her driving home to her family 10 hours later, feeling unappreciated, frustrated, underutilized, and demeaned. I imagined how profoundly her lowered self-esteem affected the way she interacted with her children. The vision in my mind then fast-forwarded to another day, when she drove home with greater self-esteem—feeling that she had learned a lot, been recognized for achieving valuable things, and played a significant role in the success of some important initiatives. I then imagined how positively that affected her as a spouse and a parent. My conclusion: Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team. More and more [people think] that a career in business means buying, selling, and investing in companies. That’s unfortunate. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people."

I’m sure you can see why it sticks out.