“The overall goal of management should be to create a system in which everyone can enjoy their work. “Dr W. Edwards Deming

7 reasons for dissatisfaction:

I wouldn’t be surprised if you were dissatisfied right now.

1. Lack of opportunity – feeling stuck.
2. Too many monkeys – feeling frantic.
3. Low pay – feeling underestimated.
4. Lack of development – feeling of hopelessness.
5. Underperforming individuals or teams – feeling undermined.
6. Pressure from above – feeling misunderstood.
7. Internal dissatisfaction – fear of enjoyment.

The non-virtuous circle:

Nothing is good enough when dissatisfaction leads to success.

You never find satisfaction when you fear that pleasure will lead to apathy. Your inner monster devours every glimmer of joy the moment it appears.

Reaction:

Dissatisfaction is an emotional distraction. You usually react to judgments, not events.

1. Event. You haven’t done the numbers.
2. Judgment. You call yourself a loser. (Some expressions of emotional dissatisfaction.)
3. Reaction. Beat you. Pressure people to work harder.

Remove emotional judgment from the above sequence and respond to realities. You haven’t done the numbers. Now what?

Drama prevents you from reacting to real events. Instead, we respond to emotional judgments.

Three questions that empty the drama:

1. What happened?
2. What do we want to happen?
3. What is the next step ?

Enjoyment:

Dissatisfaction is a painful motivation. Pleasure is painless energy.

1. Take advantage of past progress. Celebrate just a moment.
2. Take advantage of today’s opportunity. This may not be the opportunity you were hoping for, but don’t let it slip through your fingers because it isn’t the perfect opportunity.
3. Love to make a difference for someone. The world is not the way it should be, but you can serve someone. Pleasure includes thinking beyond yourself.

Happiness is energy, not apathy. You work hard at what you love. Dissatisfaction is also energy. But nagging dissatisfaction creates a non-virtuous cycle that ends up draining energy.

Where could you find fun today?

How could you create an environment where fun is more likely?

Job satisfaction: how to make work more rewarding – Mayo Clinic

Dr. Deming’s Work Joy, Happiness, and High Performance Organization | Industry week

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This post was previously posted on Leadership Freak with a Creative Commons License.

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