Give and Take: a revolutionary Approach to Success pdfdrive com

Giving. People often end up working on tasks that aren’t perfectly aligned with

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their interests and skills. A powerful way to give is to help others work on tasks
that are more interesting, meaningful, or developmental. In 2011, a vice
president named Jay at a large multinational retailer sent e-mails to each of his
employees announcing a
top-secret mission
, with details to be shared on a need-
to-know basis in one-on-one meetings. When employees arrived individually for
the meetings, Jay unveiled the confidential project. He asked them what they
would enjoy doing that might also be of interest to other people. He inquired
about their hobbies and personal interests, and what they would love to spend
more time doing at the company. He then sent them out into the company to
pursue their mission with three rules: it has to (1) appeal to at least one other
person, (2) be low or no cost, and (3) be initiated by you.
Throughout the year, Jay checked in to see how the secret missions were
going. About two thirds of his employees had made some effort toward making
their visions a reality, and roughly half of those employees succeeded in
launching them. One of Jay’s favorite missions resulted in a book club where
employees read books and discussed topics that were of personal interest and
relevance to their jobs. “People had permission to do all of that stuff before I
ever asked that question,” Jay reflects. “But somehow, asking that question in
my role gives people permission to pursue their interests in a way they didn’t
have before. It’s planting seeds, with some percentage of them turning into real
initiatives.” These seeds have bloomed for many of his employees, and for Jay
as well: in 2012, he was selected to become the vice president of HR for a major
division of his company, where he’s responsible for more than 45,000
employees.
In the secret missions, Jay encouraged his employees to engage in
job
crafting
, a concept introduced by Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton,
management professors at Yale and the University of Michigan, respectively. Job
crafting involves innovating around a job description, creatively adding and
customizing tasks and responsibilities to match personal interests and values. A
natural concern is that people might craft their jobs in ways that fail to contribute
to their organizations. To address this question, Amy, Justin Berg, and I