The Three Levels of Work

That sense is lost almost completely by the time your job because dominated by level three tasks. You're simply never finished.

So where is satisfaction to be found? Once place is, of course, money, status, power. Perhaps the commonest place. But I think two more solid and lasting forms of satisfaction are available. One might be called "grace under pressure." It consists in a sense of confidence that arises from having chosen to take on more difficult tasks, from having cultivated the character necessary to face the attendant risks and uncertainly, from learning new things and building new skills, and from, to be trite, doing your best.

The second part is in contributing to the development of others. See them grow, test themselves, face challenges, increase their capacity to understand and to choose. This is the great reward of the shift from tasks to people.

Take Care of Yourself. You're no good to anybody if you are unhappy, unhealthy, unbalanced. Regardless of the demands, there must be an absolute priority on maintaining yourself. If you can't do the job and protect your own health and well-being, face that, and give up the former.

Stress reduction is a part of taking care of yourself, as is diet and exercise. Spiritual development is a part. Reconnecting with the physical rewards of work and of completing tasks might be a part. Gardening, mowing your lawn, painting your own house, sailing, archery, the list is long. For me, continuing to read and talk about books is vital.

One caution, based on a mistake I've made. Baking for the school bake sale might be helpful for one who enjoys cooking. Running the school bake sale gets you all of sudden into level two. And taking over the PTA, then running for school board -- this doesn't provide balance and relief -- this adds to the problem. Just say no, and work diligently to develop equanimity about the fact that you could do a much better job than the idiots currently doing it.

Think Character, Not Function. I had the great fortune to work in a university department that had an odd attitude. They were arrogant enough to believe that there was no place that one could learn to do the department's work except the department itself. Believing this, they never thought to do what employers normally do, which is to seek people in terms of the function they will perform. Our department, instead, sought persons of a certain character.

Moreover, the department took the task of developing faculty to be the task of developing character. I was expected to learn the substance of my job -- health law (about which I knew nothing) -- on my own. There would be no functional training. The same was true of learning to teach (a mistake, they later came to realize). Instead, the focus in development was on teaching the values and policies of the organization and in incorporating them into day-to-day work. As important as learning health law was learning to "be" an Institute of Government faculty member. Policy became habit and habit became character.

My plea to think character not function applies both to oneself, because the transition to level three never happens if we cling to the narrow rewards of being good at narrow tasks. (This is a definition, I think, of always staying in one's "comfort zone."). But it also applies to subordinates, peers and even bosses.

Of course, business organizations can't dispense entirely with teaching task work, but they commonly give way too much attention to it.

Recognize the Situation. Face Reality. In my view, nobody can manage this for you. Nothing can substitute for a clear-eyed look at your own feelings, your own heart, your own dreams, your own strengths, fears, weaknesses, and doubts. As the philosopher says "Know thyself."

Think seriously about bailing out. Doesn't everybody have a favorite fantasy about a simpler life? This path comes highly recommended. A favorite recommendation of mine comes from Henry David Thoreau, who noted in Walden that the majority of men lead lives of quiet desperation. The remedy, to his mind, was "Simplify, simplify."

Thoreau, long before going to Walden Pond, had decided not to join the family pencil business. He maintained that going to Walden was not a withdrawal from life, but a commitment to seeing himself and life clearly, without the distractions of society. I'm wondering, he having gone to Walden and written about it, whether I might instead go to the pencil factory and still come to see myself and life clearly in the company of society. So I did.

Conclusion, or "easy to say, hard to do." These suggestions may seem helpful, but they are only a start. I think this is the outline of a powerful approach, but I'm not quite sure how to actually do most of these things, let alone instruct others. But, I'm hopeful some folks might be intrigued with this task and help me out. But first I've got some filing to do.

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