The Cranky Middle Manager Show #251 The One Minute Negotiator- George Lucas
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #231 Do More Great Work – Michael Bungay Stanier
Posted on 18. Mar, 2010 by Wayne in General
Today Wayne Turmel talks to Michael Bungay Stanier about his book “Do More Great Work” which is not about doing more work so relax. We also talk about poets, writing emails with goose feathers and Aristotle drags his dusty carcass back to harass us.
Michael Bungay Stanier stops by to talk about doing More Great Work
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Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. We dedicate this show about doing great work to someone who created a Great Work (even if I hated it) John Milton. Creating a magnum opus with a quill requires a lot more work and thought than most of us can even dream of, but there’d be a lot less horrendous email if we had to do with with a goose feather.
3:47 The quote of the week is from Aristotle. Excellence is a habit and it’s not something you have it’s something you do- and do- and do. Wish I could tell you it was easy.
4:26 Welcome Michael Bungay Stanier to the show. He’s going to tell us how to do more great work and stop the busy work. Of course, we’re both Canadians with different accents, living in different countries and still clinging to Canuckness. Work falls into 3 categories: Bad Work, Good Work and Great Work. Where do you spend your time?
6:24 We can’t avoid Bad Work entirely. Sometimes it’s just gotta be done, but how can you tell the difference and how much effort do you want to put into Bad Work? Good Work is never ending and we could spend all our working life here and never get to the end of it. Who has time for Great Work?
8:28 Sometimes it seems like we either have way too much work, or we’re unemployed. How do you find the middle ground? You need 3 things: Focus, Courage and Resilience . Focus isn’t an easy thing to achieve and most of us don’t do it very well and your brain isn’t designed for it. Oh good.
12:37 There’s a really important point to be made here: We’re not just talking about doing our work great, we’re talking about doing Great Work. We are capable of delivering drivel at a very high standard. Great Work may not be done quite as well. Irony, thy name is middle management. Oh, and most of what we do needs to be done well but not perfectly. Deal with it.
16:36 Michael spends a lot of his time helping people be creative, because that’s where Great Work comes from. He gives us a couple of tips including a great question- “and what else?”.
21:14 It takes courage to do Great Work and keep going. Too many of us are too timid in the work that we do. Being beaten about the head and ears psychically will do that to you.
23:54 One of the contributors to Michael’s book is Tim Hurson and he share some great tips.
Michael’s Resources
TED.com a collection of 18 minute talks from brilliant people
Wayne
This was a really fun interview – you’ve got a great, no-suck-up style as an interviewer which is perfect ~
Michael
I certainly agree with the section on interruptions and how that impacts one’s ability to do great work. For as much as I preach this to those I manage (10 years younger than I), I still see OPEN on their computer, Facebook, Gmail, Outlook, Pandora and next to the screen sits their non-company issued cell phone waiting for that next text message.