MAKE WORK GREAT

Supercharge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture, and Gain InfluenceOne Person at a Time
AUTHORS: Ed Muzio PUBLISHER: The McGraw-Hill Companies DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2010 229 pages

FEATURES OF THE BOOK

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

Make Work Great, Ed Muzios second book focused on workplace improvement, is targeted toward anyone, from Clevel executive to individual contributor, who is looking to reinvent corporate culture. Each chapter ends with a series of exercises aimed at improving relationships and finding solutions. Make Work Great offers a blueprint for growing a positive business environment, one person at a time.

THE BIG IDEA

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

In Make Work Great, Ed Muzio outlines a strategy for creating and growing cultural change in the workplace. Muzio compares this growth to that of a crystal, which begins as a seed and spreads outward.

INTRODUCTION
Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

Cultural change must begin with a seed crystal, or one person committed to reinventing how things are done. This culture of one can start a chain reaction, intersecting with positive environments created by others, and impacting the entire workplace. In order to begin this process, a person must practice two core competencies: overtness about tasks, and clarity within relationships. Role-modeling this positive behavior will encourage others to join and grow this new business environment.

PART 1: IT STARTS WITH YOU

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

You...as the Seed While modern technology allows workers to be more connected, there is a growing sense of detachment and isolation in the workplace. Similarly, while technology allows for greater access to information, workers must search harder to find the right data. This new age of information has also changed organizational structures, which in the past were fairly linear with each worker acting as one point in a process. Today, this structure has evolved into a network model, with each worker as a node in a network, interacting with multiple supervisors and other workers.

PART 1: IT STARTS WITH YOU

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

Overtness About Task Being the seed of change is a conscious decision that begins with becoming the solution to problems in the workplace rather than the victim. The first step to improving the workplace is improving output, while reducing the amount of stress it takes to produce the desired output.

PART 1: IT STARTS WITH YOU

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

Clarity Within Relationships Overtness about a task, the first step in building a crystal of cultural change in the workplace, leads to questions. Clarity within relationships, the second step in the process, looks for answers. There are three steps to developing clarity within relationships: 1. Define the question. First, determine which of the six types of overtness generated the question: purpose, impact, incentives, progress, resources, or capability?

PART 1: IT STARTS WITH YOU

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

2. Define the approach. Next, prepare for the interaction. Begin by determining whom to approach with the question. Next, prepare the question by outlining current understanding and asking for edits rather than positing an open-ended question. Finally, set to match the pace and the tenor of the question to the personality of the other person. 3. Define the need for agreement. To make a clear need for agreement at the outset, it is helpful to think ahead about other questions that may arise, and prepare to agree to disagree on these other issues.

PART 2: GROWING YOUR CRYSTAL

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

Beginning Your Crystal Cultural change is a slow-moving, organic process. It begins at the individual level, with the personal node, as described in the first section of the book. Once this seed crystal has been formed, the crystal can be grown by encouraging nearby particles, or people, to attach to the seed. This next step begins by changing the relationship with just one coworker. This process should begin with an easy target, someone who shares a positive relationship, such as a manager, an employee, a customer, or a peer.

PART 2: GROWING YOUR CRYSTAL

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

Organic Growth The next step in making work great is to add more members to the crystal by attracting additional coworkers to the seed of cultural change. This process becomes easier with each new member, due to the multiplicative effect that grows with each addition. Muzio suggests making a network chart of contacts, beginning with oneself, then adding the first new member as well as those people directly and indirectly influenced by the crystal of cultural change.

PART 2: GROWING YOUR CRYSTAL

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

For those individuals who fall in the middle of the desirable-todifficult scale, Muzio offers a strategy designed to improve communication by outlining the five building blocks of reality: 1. Information. This is the most objective building block since it includes both the factual information and the person who presents it. Information is the starting point. 2. Situation. The situation is connected to the information, and is made up of the surrounding context.

PART 2: GROWING YOUR CRYSTAL

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

3. Beliefs. This building block is at the opposite side of the spectrum from information. It is the most personal and the most difficult for another person to perceive. 4. Approach. Approach, which is connected to beliefs, determines how a persons environment is addressed and handled. 5. Interpretation. This is the meeting point between the outside world (information and situation) and the inside world (beliefs and approach).

PART 3: LEADING YOUR CRYSTAL

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

There are three types of advice that may be requested: 1. Information requests 2. Requests for feedback 3. Solicitations for situational advice

PART 3: LEADING YOUR CRYSTAL

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

Mobilizing Groups Once a person has become a successful advisor, the next step in growing the crystal is to begin mobilizing groups of people. As in the previous steps, leading groups of people should begin with overtness of purpose, or determining why the group is meeting. There are two main purposes for group work: to inform and to solve. Meetings designed to inform tend to be one-way transmissions of information. The audience for these meetings can be small or large.

PART 3: LEADING YOUR CRYSTAL

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

You...as the Definer Moving from member to contributor to advisor to definer is a gradual process that leads to increased responsibility. When a person has moved to this final category of definer, it is important to continue to remain true to the original principles that brought them to this role: overtness about tasks and clarity in relationships. However, there are three roles that can undermine this culture-building effort. Muzio cautions against the following three positions: rescuer, persecutor, and victim.

PART 3: LEADING YOUR CRYSTAL

Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

The key to resisting these three roles in the drama triangle is to continue to practice overtness about tasks and clarity in relationships. Staying true to these principles will open the path from member to definer. While there may be setbacks along the way, it is important to keep in mind the adaptable nature of the crystalline network. Unlike a chain, which is only as strong as its weakest link, a network is quickly evolving. A non-functioning node in the network is easily by-passed. The more each individual practices the principles outlined in Make Work Great, the faster and more effective information transfers will be, creating an entire network of high performers.

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Make Work Great by Ed Muzio

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