Designing Our Work: 5 Factors That Drive Job Satisfaction
Tanmay Vora
Consider these aspects of doing the work that matters (to you and then to the world):
a) So many people I know work in roles and organizations where they feel stuck, and they remain stuck because they lack courage, opportunities or skills to open a dialogue about how they want to work. They may either be too busy, too scared or simply lack the self-awareness.
b) Organizations are well-intentioned in their effort to provide structure and processes to enable teams in doing a good job, but same structures and processes often end up inhibiting people’s ability to do a good job. When jobs are simplified (and standardized) for efficient outputs, they become uninteresting, monotonous and devoid of new learning that most people yearn for.
c) We live in a world where it is entirely possible to design the work that fits your unique blend of inherent and acquired skills, provided you have invested enough in identifying and building those skills in first place. With rise in remote work culture and proliferation of gig work, people are realizing that they can design a work profile that taps into their intrinsic motivation as well as creates an impact to the stakeholders they serve.
d) It is possible for organizations to design roles that are highly fulfilling. On the other hand, it is also possible for people to feel stuck in their newly designed work because of their choices, misplaced expectations and uncertainty that comes along with it.
e) Pandemic has resulted in The Great Resignation – a term used for millions of people resigning from their jobs in search of more money, more fulfillment and more happiness as pandemic recedes. The shifts in thinking that pandemic has brought along is irreversible and organizational leaders are heavily challenged to bring, keep and develop their best talent.
The way we design our work has a very significant impact on our well-being. It starts with self-awareness – and then key characteristics that you look for in the work in order to make your biggest contributions.
Self-awareness
We have touched upon the topic of how to build self-awareness and here are a few posts and sketchnotes that can help:
Job Characteristics
In his recent blog post, my hero Seth Godin points us to the Job Characteristics Model by Oldham and Hackman outlining 5 Factors that Drive our Job Satisfaction. It might be a useful reference for people who are considering a transition or the ones who are in transition.
Here is a sketchnote summary of the five characteristics that hopes to serve as a checklist of things you should consider when designing your work/profile – irrespective of whether you are employed or self-employed. This might also be a useful tool for organizational leaders when they design roles to elicit meaningful contributions from their people.
Updated: Visual Leadership Pack of 58+ HD Sketchnotes
If you liked the sketchnote summary above, check out the Visual Leadership Pack of HD Sketchnotes – a compilation of high-resolution sketchnotes with 68+ powerful (and timeless) ideas to elevate your leadership and learning game.
