How to get the best from people (and why companies often cannot)

Work is not really that complicated. We make it complicated, often in the interest of serving our own relevance, but it’s not that complicated. We’ve had a zillion and five discussions about “The Great Resignation” over the past six months, and a lot of those are colored by specific ideologies and beliefs about what work should mean to people, but most of the discussions miss the point.

To wit, here’s some end-of-year research on work, and in calling up another article, good points are made:

Similarly, the authors of Research: What Do People Need to Perform at a High Level? leveraged survey data from more than 14,000 U.S. workers to determine the practices and cultural norms that help organizations best support their employees. Their analysis revealed that people perform best when firms provide clear expectations, are open to questions, don’t have too many rules, support creative problem solving, reward strong performance, acknowledge employees’ emotions, and provide a clear sense of purpose.

Let’s unpack this a little bit.

“Provide clear expectations”

What you’re talking about here is transparency not being a buzzword, and managers communicating well about priorities and goals. Neither is that common at most…