I once met a stooped, short, old man whose claim to fame is that he was one of the people who worked in construction of the Kenya International Conference Centre (KICC). Now, it may not matter much to you and I who put which brick where, who painted what, or how many people it took to erect the landmark building. But to many of those construction workers, probably most of them, it is a point of pride to have been part of a team that built something great and enduring. To them, and especially to this old friend of mine, the KICC would not be without their contribution.
The thing, however, is that such pride in our work often comes long after the final product is complete and even more after it has gained mass reverence. That’s when we insist on reminding everyone how crucially important our little role was in the product’s creation; and endeavour to imply that, in retrospect, we actually loved that part of our job. But if we earnestly invert this process, if we start taking much pride in things before and during their construction instead of after, then we put ourselves in a position to do better work. See, this shifts your perception such that you are no longer just laying bricks, or mixing concrete, or roofing, or panelling. You are building THE KICC! You are building a LANDMARK!
Building a landmark is more important work than, say, laying bricks; so it raises the importance and significance of the bricklayer’s role; and there is research to show that important work inspires and motivates us. If you are an employee or entrepreneur, try to tap into that future enthusiasm that you will feel when what you are working on now is complete and is helping people. One way to harness that enthusiasm is to constantly keep in mind the end goal, and then figure out one thing you can do right now to take the project closer to completion. In other words, continually dream about tomorrow as you are working today to make that dream a reality.
As an example of how this works, I am a software developer and in my last project I constantly found myself thinking: this system we are developing is going to help all Kenyan youth access business start-up loans much more easily; that is going to change people’s lives and possibly the fate of our nation; and I am so excited to be the one making the app that everyone will use. Then I would pick one thing to do that day which would make the app better and easier to use. And most of the time I would be motivated throughout the day, because I was not merely changing the size of a button or tweaking the background colour of the app, I was making an app that was going to help youths start their dream businesses and change their lives.
The takeaway for managers, business leaders, and entrepreneurs, is that they have a critical job of continuously and repeatedly reiterating the big picture – one that is meaningful and important – to their workforce. Further, if they want their bottom line to be taken more seriously, they should communicate very clearly how it ties into the big picture. If that is not demonstrable but can follow naturally once the big picture is achieved, then I think it is okay to just let the employees focus on the big picture whence they derive importance, meaning, a sense of contribution, and the consequent motivation and inspiration to keep doing their best work.
Letters from the Men's Den 