Working in Thailand

Milton Glaser

You may not know the name of Milton Glaser, but you probably knowat least one of his works of art ? the ?I 'Heart' NY? logo. Inhis book, Art is Work, Glaser provides these provocativedefinitions of work

1. Work that goes beyond its functional intention and moves us indeep and mysterious ways we call great work.

2. Work that is conceived and executed with elegance and rigourwe call good work.

3. Work that meets its intended need honestly and withoutpretence we call simply work.

4. Everything else, the sad and shoddy stuff of daily life, cancome under the heading of bad work.

I combine Glaser?s second and third distinctions to have justthree categories: Great Work, Good Work and Bad Work. (And by?Work?, I?m talking all of ?the stuff you do?. It?s not onlyabout what you do in the office, but what you do 24/7. Workincludes looking after your children, watching TV, preparingmeals, exercise, being with friends, being by yourself, and soon).

How do you know what?s what? Here?s my litmus test.

Great Work

Great Work brings with it both exhilaration and terror. You?redelighted when someone asks you what you do, and they havetrouble getting you to stop talking about it. You tap intoreserves of courage and chutzpah to get done what needs to bedone. You often have no idea how to do what needs to be done ?and are only a little fazed by that, because you are certain thatthis is truly what needs to be done.

Great work is a place where impact and effect trumps overefficiency and process. It is often a place of waste, becausecreativity needs waste to thrive. It is a place of inspiration,where suddenly all your past makes sense (?A-ha! That?s why Idid that, learned that, experienced that?). It is a place thathonors your skills, your passion and your experience.

Great Work is also a difficult place to be. The temptation to?downgrade? to the comfort of Good Work is constant. Your ?innercritic? is rampant, whispering ?Who are you to try this? Who doyou think you are to be this ambitious? Don?t you know you?redoomed to failure?? Great Work can also be elusive, because itcan degrade in a moment to be simply Good Work. To do Great Work,you must be ever vigilant.

Good Work

With Good Work, there is no shame attached. You?re doing workthat uses your skills, it gets stuff done, it may well pay you awage. It?s comfortable, because you know what you?re doing. Itis probably something of a routine or a habit.

So it?s not that you?re having a bad time. It?s just that whenyou?re asked by strangers what you do, sometimes it feels likeyou?re trying to convince yourself more than them that this isgreat. Good Work is often about ?being efficient?, without everasking the difficult question ?is this the right work to beefficient with?? (Peter Drucker says this: ?Efficiency is doingthings right effectiveness is doing the right things?). In ayear?s time, you won?t remember the Good Work you were doing ayear ago.

And as for Bad Work, the test is simple. It?s when you have thatsudden flash of realization and you ask yourself: Why exactly amI wasting my life with this?

Take action

Here?s a quick exercise. Draw a biggish circle on a piece ofpaper. Now, divide it into three segments that represent theproportion of each of these types of work in your life today.

How much Great Work are you doing? More than 80%? Less than20%?

In my experience, many of us are doing a fair amount of Good Work? but very little Great Work. The goal is to remove Bad Work fromour lives, and continually increase the amount of Great Work.

What would you have to say ?no? to, to double the amount of GreatWork in your life? What would you have to say ?yes? to, to halvethe amount of Bad Work in your life?

Resources for Great Work