I love the image of Toni Morrison taking the time and care to give honest feedback to aspiring authors around the country during her years as an editor at Random House. Genuine, thoughtful feedback is a gift we too rarely give each other.
“During her 16 years at Random House, Morrison wrote hundreds of rejection letters…Regardless of destination, Morrison’s rejections tend to be long, generous in their suggestions, and direct in their criticism.”
Boeing’s fall was predictable not because it’s Boeing, but because the decisions that got it here would land any company in the same place. Profit-first decisions invariably destroy profits in the long-run, due to short-sighted leadership. Decisions that last come from lasting values.
I highly recommend this article if you want an engaging overview of all that’s happened at Boeing.
“Thanks to a string of unforced errors and botched responses, Boeing, like other corporate giants from the 20th century, has devolved from the epitome of world-beating quality to a symbol of managerial fecklessness, focused on short-term profits at the expense of the company’s long-term sustainability. Boeing cut corners in production, pushed out experienced workers to save money, and poured money into boosting the stock price instead of investing in its products.”
How Boeing Sold Its Soul to Boost Its Stock Price | New York Magazine
Qualitative studies like this one, and quantitative studies too, show that meaningful work generally includes the idea of self-transcendence. We find work more meaningful if it’s for a purpose greater than ourselves.
This study identifies four other qualities of meaningful work, in addition to “self-transcendent.” Meaningful work is also poignant, episodic, reflective, and personal.
“Our research aimed to uncover how and why people find their work meaningful. For our interviewees, meaningfulness, perhaps unsurprisingly, was often associated with a sense of pride and achievement at a job well done, whether they were professionals or manual workers .. These factors alone were not enough to render work meaningful, however. Our study also revealed five unexpected features of meaningful work; in these, we find clues that might explain the fragile and intangible nature of meaningfulness.”
What Makes Work Meaningful — Or Meaningless | MIT Sloan Management Review
People do better work when they have conditions that help them flourish. Compassion training is starting to be more common for doctors and nurses. Managers stand to benefit from doing it, too.
“Happy employees also make for a more congenial workplace and improved customer service. Employees in positive moods are more willing to help peers and to provide customer service on their own accord. What’s more, compassionate, friendly, and supportive co-workers tend to build higher-quality relationships with others at work. In doing so, they boost coworkers’ productivity levels and increase coworkers’ feeling of social connection, as well as their commitment to the workplace and their levels of engagement with their job.”