Goal Directed work is a basic feature of all life. -Elliott Jaques
All life. Not just humans, all life.
What is work?
Work is an organism’s judgment in making decisions to reach a goal? -Elliott Jaques
Work is not pushing the red button. Pushing the red button is not the goal. In the orientation, we made it a point to tell the technician that his job was to push the red button. Maybe that is the job, but that is not the work.
The goal is to produce a specific quantity of material at a specific quality standard by the end of the day. The work is not to push the red button. The work is using judgment to make decisions to produce the goal.
There are staging decisions, decisions of speed and pace, decisions about work station organization and cleanliness, decisions about scrap, decisions about machine noise, machine funny noise, maintenance engineering. Do I lubricate now, or make three more cuts, then lubricate? Am I behind in my task assignment or ahead in my task assignment? Did this last piece meet the quality standard? Pace and quality, pace and quality?
Arlene’s desk was clear. Her arms were folded. “Yesterday, I had a discussion with a recent hire, two months, asking about her experience with us so far. Her response was, two weeks vacation wasn’t enough, would like to take lunch at no set time, and doesn’t understand why no Christmas bonus.”
“What has been missing in this young recruit’s career?” I replied.
The missing link is the clarity to the new recruit of how the his job fits into the overall gameplan of the organization. Clarity of how the job done by the new recruit creates value for the next activity in the process.
Each one of us who have gone through the experience of starting our career with a big organization should understand this and ensure a better begining for the youngsters who followed us.