Sweat the Small Stuff

  ProjectsAtWork  

Small events have a major impact on work life. Here are three tips for motivating your team members and igniting greater creativity, trust and productivity.

"All good managers understand the importance of making sure that every member of a team feels personally motivated and necessary though the workday, lest their work should stagnate and suffer," wrote Carmen Nobel in a recent issue of Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge newsletter. "But what's the key to igniting creativity, joy, trust, and productivity among your employees? According to recent research, the single most important factor is simply a sense of making progress on meaningful work. But creating an environment that fosters progress takes some careful effort."

Nobel cites a new book by Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer: The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work.

The authors collected stories from 238 white-collar employees from seven different companies within a variety of industries. They had each worker fill out a diary during the day to answer the open-ended question: "Briefly describe one event from today that stands out in your mind."

The authors found that working like crazy but feeling like you didn’t get anything done is a real motivation killer. "We found that of all the events…

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