Teresa Amabile

Teresa Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School and co-author of The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. Originally educated as a chemist, Teresa received her doctorate in psychology from Stanford University. She studies how everyday life inside organizations can influence people and their performance. Teresa’s research encompasses creativity, productivity, innovation, and inner work life – the confluence of emotions, perceptions, and motivation that people experience as they react to events at work.

Steven Kramer

Steven Kramer is an independent researcher and writer in Wayland, Massachusetts. He is also co- author of The Progress Principle. He received his undergraduate degree in psychology from UCLA, and his doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Virginia. Steve’s current research interests include adult development, the meaning of work in human life, and the subjective experience of everyday events inside organizations (inner work life). Previously, he researched the perceptual and cognitive development of infants and young children.

Morris: Before discussing The Progress Principle, a few general questions. First, other than a family member, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth?

Amabile: My undergraduate mentors at Canisius College were extremely important in my personal growth. Let me describe one of several. Professor Frank Dinan, a chemist and my research supervisor for several years, helped me think through my love of science, my growing interest in psychology, and implications for my career choices. More than that, he was a model of a principled, intrinsically motivated professional – someone who obviously loved his work, cared about his profession, and nurtured the people around him.

Kramer: It is hard to choose one person. I would have to say that it was a group of women who did volunteer work at a school for children with behavior problems where I worked when I was in my twenties. From them I learned the value of doing meaningful work and the joy and satisfaction that it can bring. And I also learned much about myself and my own value through the contribution that I helped to make in the lives of those children.

Morris: The greatest impact on your professional development?

Kramer: Another tough one. There are so many, but I will limit it to two people – Studs Terkel and Peter Drucker. Although I wasn’t able to meet either one of them, their work has had a profound effect on my thinking and my feelings about work. Both of them viewed work as something that could and should help to fulfill people’s lives. And they saw the nobility in work of all kinds. My hope is that our work, in its own small way, can build onto the foundation that they built.

Amabile: I think that would be my graduate mentors at Stanford University – psychology professors Mark Lepper (who got me interested in studying motivation, and supported my early explorations of creativity), Lee Ross (who introduced me to the excitement of experimental research on causal attribution), Phil Zimbardo (who helped me learn to teach), and Daryl and Sandy Bem (who modeled passion for their work, superb writing, and balancing family life with professional work).

Morris: Here are two questions for Teresa. First, When and why did you first become so interested in the creative process?

Amabile: As a child, I overheard my kindergarten teacher tell my mother that I showed great potential for artistic creativity. When I failed to show any achievement in art by the end of elementary school, I wondered why. Years later, when I began studying intrinsic motivation at Stanford, it occurred to me that motivational state could be terribly important for creativity – and might depend on the social environment as much as on natural talent. I began to read the creativity literature… and the rest is (my) history.

Morris: What are the most common misconceptions about creativity?

Amabile: A few myths crop up frequently: creativity is only possible in certain professions (like art or science); creativity depends primarily on talent; creativity thrives under pressure or unhappiness.

Morris: Now three questions for for Steve: In 1924, 3M’s then chairman and CEO, William L. McKnight observed: “If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need.” Here’s the first part of the question: What must supervisors do to accommodate both an organization’s need for structure and constraints and its workers’ need for “the room they need”?

Kramer: Supervisors must provide the overall direction for the organization and clearly communicate it their people. But they should do so with input from below. The workers in the trenches are much closer to the customers than management and they have more intimate knowledge of the practical constraints in meeting those goals. The direction of the organization must also be accompanied by a purpose or meaning, since it is meaningful work that engages people in the work. By meaningful work, we simply mean that the work has some meaning or value to the person doing it. It can be a lofty goal like curing cancer, but it can also be as mundane is providing a quality product or a useful service to your customer.

Once supervisors have provided workers with clear goals, they must do two things. First, support them in meeting those goals. Give them the resources and help that they need to succeed for the organization and for themselves. Second, give them the autonomy to use their talents, skills and knowledge in meeting those goals. In other words, check in with your people and find out what they need and, to the extent possible, give it to them. But do not look over their shoulders and tell them how to do their job. This is the difference between “checking-in” and “checking-up.”

Morris: If the results of recent research studies are to be believed, on average, less than 30% of a workforce in the U.S. are positively and productively engaged; the other employees are either passively engaged (“mailing it in”) or actively engaged in undermining the company. How do you explain this?

Kramer: There are obviously many reasons for this. But we think that a critical reason is that people are not making steady progress on work that they find meaningful. We found that of all the things that make people happily engaged in their work, the single most important one is simply making progress in meaningful work. We call this discovery the progress principle. Unfortunately, when we surveyed nearly 700 managers from around the world, we found that few understood how important meaningful work is to motivation.

And this problem has been exacerbated by the economic turn down. Companies are cutting back on people and resources, and this is making it much more difficult for people to move forward. Of course, management often has real concerns about costs. But people simply cannot be expected to succeed if they are not given what they need, and this will inevitably hurt both the organization and the people doing the work.

Morris: Opinions are divided – sometimes sharply divided – about 360º feedback. Some favor anonymity, others transparency, and still others want absolutely nothing to do with it. What are your own thoughts about 360º feedback?

Kramer: I think opinions are sharply divided on this because there are both positive and negative aspects to 360º feedback. In organizations where there is a high level of trust and respect, and where 360º feedback is used primarily as a learning tool, it can have a very positive effect. However, when that trust is not there, and where it is used solely to judge people, it will be very negative.

But even when it is used well, it is most often too infrequent. Annual reviews are of little help in fostering the kind of daily progress that fuels engagement in the work. Rather, there needs to be a constant flow of communication moving up and down the organization, where all ideas are listened to and respected – and where people get the support they need.

Morris: Now please shift your attention to The Progress Principle. When and why did you decide to write it, and write it together?

Amabile: The Progress Principle arose out of a multi-year research program that looked at what really goes on inside the hearts and minds of people at work, and how this affects performance. To study that, we asked 238 professionals working on creative teams to email us a diary form each work day for the length of a project. The form included a number of scale-rated questions about participants’ progress, creativity, moods and perceptions on the day. But the most important data was an open-ended question asking them to describe one event that happened that day that was related in some way to the work. When we were done, we had almost 12,000 of these diaries.

When we analyzed this data, two related findings rose to the top. First, was the inner work life effect. Inner work life is our term for the constant flow of emotions, perceptions and motivations that people experience as they react to and try to make sense of the events that occur throughout the work day. The inner work life effect is the strong influence that inner work life has on performance: creativity, productivity, commitment to the work, and collegiality. The second was the progress principle. These are reciprocal – positive inner work life leads to higher performance, and progress leads to better inner work life.

Kramer: I became involved in the research organically. Teresa and I would talk about her research over dinner and during walks. Soon, I found myself helping with the design and the data analysis, and then coauthoring articles. As we began to see what we had in the data, it became clear to us that we needed to write a book. First, the data were so rich and complex, that the only way we could truly understand the whole picture ourselves was to write a book. And second, it became clear that we had discovered something that could not only make the lives of people within organizations better, it could help to improve the performance of those organizations.

Morris: Who brought what to the collaboration?

Kramer: I think we were complementary, both intellectually and temperamentally. Teresa is more careful and detail oriented, while I am more spontaneous and tend focus on the big picture. I am more technologically inclined and more sophisticated regarding statistics and data analyses. Teresa certainly has a better grasp of business and management theory than I do, and is a more talented writer. As a developmental psychologist, I probably help out most when we need to understand some of the more childish behavior described in our diaries!

Amabile: Steve’s description is quite accurate. Our skills our quite complementary, and so are our styles – when they aren’t clashing! Overall, I feel that our appreciation for each other has deepened through this experience. Our marriage is still strong and highly enjoyable!

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To read the complete interview, please click here.

Amabile and Kramer cordially invite you to check out the resources at these websites:

For more about The Progress Principle, please click here.

There is also a video (about four minutes in length) offering a portion of an interview during which Teresa Amabile discusses The Progress Principle.  To watch the video, please click here.

Seth chose to honor his long-time hero, Zig Ziglar, by creating a unique book offer, a four-pack of his timeless goal setting planner called The Performance Planner. By the way I get no compensation by clicking on the link I just shared. Unfortunately as I live in Illinois I can’t receive any Amazon Advantage Member benefits. Oh well. This is just something that should be shared.

Seth was sharing with our team on Tuesday of this week that Zig had suffered a fall a couple of years ago and, as a result, can no longer write. So Seth got together with Zig’s son to update and re-release this invaluable set of tools for success.

I have met thousands of people in my life, usually a thousand new people a year through the work I do. But, I pause to recognize the gift that we are given to have someone like Seth out there leading the way for many others. If you don’t take this time to really listen and learn what he has to share with you and those who matter to you then you are truly missing out on an opportunity of a lifetime.

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1. Look on Amazon. Look at the current best sellers in non-fiction. What does the trend in top books tell you about what people are searching for . . . what your customers or clients could be searching for in the way of assistance? If you went down the list you see that, beside books by customer service wizards (aka Zappo’s president Tony Hsieh) there are the “oldies but goodies” like “Good to Great” and “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and “The 4-Hour Work Week.” To me this says that people currently want to revisit the basics of good business, perhaps that there is a need to re-visit the basics of good business. That would help me decide how I would be blogging or speaking to my clients.
   
   Extra Tip: Go take a further look at these bestsellers. Don’t just look at what people had said positively but also what they did not like. Look for GAPS. That’s where it’s at! FILL THE GAPS. That’s where the money lies.
2. Find the most creative people you possibly can. How do you do this? Start asking your others, “Who is the most creative person you know?”  Again you will see patterns. The same people or person will keep coming up.
   
   Extra Tip: Go to LinkedIn on the Advanced People Search Page. Choose a search for people in your area who have the qualities of creativity. To do this click on “Connections” under the pull-down called “Sort By.” Also put in the keyword search area “creative” or “innovative” or “innovation.” This search will help you find the most connective, creative and/or innovative people in your area.
3. Go to your local book store and spend thirty minutes looking at the titles of magazines. You can also go online and look at sites with magazines like:

• Fast Company Magazine - How TED Became the New Harvard, The Adman Wants a Soul, Next New Networks, Tools of My Trade: Peace Maker
• Success Magazine: Steve Jobs: Master of Innovation, Suzie Orman: Finding Your Road to Riches

Bonus: Keep looking for patterns. You will see them everywhere. It will give you the path you should take to serve your market. Pretty soon you will find yourself creating new ideas regularly. I used to have a good friend who was an art teacher. When I asked her how she developed her artistic talent she shared that when she started she used to “color in the lines” as she put it. One day, though, she said she colored “outside of the lines” but that by coloring within the lines, first, it helped her grow her abilities to the point where she could color outside the lines. What do think? How have you leveraged your ability to create new ideas for your business? How are other people involved? How are other tools like online sites, magazines or books involved?

CEO Myron E. Ullman III from JC Penney – Holding back about 60% of inventory . . . far more than just the 20% held back last year.

CEO Kip Tindell from Container Store – Cut prices in his store across the board by 16% this year.

CEO Steve Sadove from Saks – Hesitant to cut prices but has done so by using different fabrics to lower costs.

CMO Barry Judge from Best Buy – extending their offerings to include things like “electric cars.”

CEO Gary Friedman from Restoration Hardware – Actually raising prices on some great new designs in furniture.

So with everything and anything going out there what do you think? What do you think retailers should do?

Tell us about your book.

The Inclusion Paradox: The Obama Era and the Transformation of Global Diversity has to do with the fact that rather than putting all our energy into finding similarities in order to get inclusion, we’d be better off in constructively knowing how to call out our differences. Paradoxically, it is by focusing on those differences that we find true inclusion. In looking at and only focusing on similarities, we paper over differences that are real and therefore don’t enter into relationships, conversations, products and services that take into account our differences.

We need to put into effect how we want to be communicated to, what motivates us, what inspires us. So if corporations want to find true inclusion, they must be more effective in constructively identifying what those differences are and then designing programs, etc that not only appeal to the consumers, but also enable those employees to give their best back to the company.

In the book, I suggest a topical application of these inclusion principles that span a broad range of categories. I also discuss how corporations can design their benefits, health, retirement savings, and work-life flexibility to best suit their employees’ needs.  [n addition, I’ve included a chapter that talks about how the arts – dance, music, etc. – are on the cutting edge of the diversity inclusion discussion.

What do I mean by Obama Era? We are living in the era that made Obama possible, meaning that if we did not have the demographic shifts we’ve had in this country, (minority migration, etc.), not had rise of a Millennial generation, digital generation, X’er harnessing of the internet for purposes of social networking, if we were not in a time of great tumult politically and economically, we would not have an African American or mixed-race president in White House.

This is a time of great upheaval where the world is not flat but upside-down. This opened up an electorate to alternatives they might not have had before or been willing to consider. We witnessed the coming of voting age of a new generation, an era where technology evolves from information to social networking, and people of color now are powerful voting blocs. The Obama Era has to do with the era that made him possible…and also about the man himself. His unique perspective, whtehr one agrees with it or not, will further define this era. In the book, I focus on the cultural implications of the Obama Era on the work of diversity and inclusion.

How did you get started as a writer?

I always loved to write, even as a little kid. I’d get in trouble for not paying attention in math class because I was writing a story instead of paying attention to the teacher. One time, I watched a clip on TV of the Indy 500 in Peru, and wrote a story about an intergalactic race called the Pluto 500. In the fifth grade, I wrote a guide for French rats and visitors called “How to Survive the Sewer Pipes of Paris” with friend who was an illustrator. A teacher saw this and thought the story and illustrations and thought it was pretty cool. So she sent us down to the principal’s office to show the principal my story. Unfortunately, the context for this was not explained to the principal who thought I was “being sent down to the principal’s office” for having done something wrong and he castigated me out of the misunderstanding. This was my first true experience with writing and I discovered for the first time that writing can inspire and be controversial. I’ve been writing ever since. I later went to the Medill School of Journalism. I wanted to be a global correspondent and ended up with a History degree with an emphasis in political science and journalism.

Why do I write? For the purpose to enact change. That’s what drives me. I’m not interested in just reporting. I want to understand the whys for things, what do they mean for us, and how can what we learn give us insight and direction for new positive change for society.

So how does this tie into my role as Chief Diversity Officer? I hadn’t intended to be a CDO. It was not a clearly established role when I started my career. A series of circumstances led me to this role. Social change journalism surfaces things that are hidden and bring them to light and makes connections about what they mean and implications for the reader. As CDO, the role is the same. It is about surfacing hidden issues and bringing them to the light, and looking to see how we can make things better?. I do this as a leader, and writing is part of enabling change.

Favorite books (especially for writers)
My favorite books? On Writing Well by William Zinsser – a classic but I refer to it often. It is an inspirational and practical bible for writers that want to write in a memorable way.
Strunk and White’s Elements of Style and Bird by Bird by Annie Lamott are also favorites of mine.

I am also a big fan of Latin American literature — Mario Llosa Vargas, Gabriel Garcia Marquez in particular. I also enjoy Southern American writers like Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and the contemporary author Pat Conroy. Interestingly, all of these authors are Catholic. I didn’t realize this for the longest time…what is it about this?

These writers all write about the naturalness of the supernatural that’s just a part of life….that’s how life is. These writers share larger-than-life characters, pathos and ecstasy, and the celebration of the full spectrum of emotion that makes up our lives. I also enjoy African American writers: Alice Walker, in particular. Another of my favorites is Toni Morrison. Her novel “Beloved”  is truly haunting and still gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

The Best and Worst Part of Being a Writer?

I once heard this question asked of another writer. He was asked if he loved writing. He paused and finally said, “I hate writing, but I love having written.”

Advice for other writers?

Be disciplined. It’s fun to talk about great ideas, but in the end if you don’t write, you have nothing. It’s about writing and making it a discipline. What helps me write is to make sure almost every day I sit down and write something, whether a sentence, 150 words, or maybe I’ll have a burst of inspiration and end up with 2000 words. Make it a habit to show up during your best, most alert writing time. My best writing times are 8 to 10 am and 8 to 10 pm.

My greatest fear? Losing what I’ve written….a computer system crash, for example. Save often, save frequently, back up your data, email to yourself…in short, be obsessive compulsive about saving your writing.

For more information on Andres and his book, visit www.inclusionparadox.com, his blog.

What does it look like to build trust online? Maybe showing rather than telling will be more helpful. Let me start with an actual campaign I am currently implementing.

Event: A live event in Chicago teaching social media

Target market: Lawyers

Date scheduled: Last two weeks in October

1.  I started by going through my network on LinkedIn
2. I limited my search to those in my network
3.  I discovered I had 318 lawyers in my network
4. I created what I call a two-step email–first a query to find out if there was interest, and
second, if interested, an email to present the workshop offering.

I have used this approach, again and again, to connect with people that I know as well as those I don’t. My approach is to ALWAYS be as authentic as I can be and to create a connection.

What else? I also really work on my emails to these new connections making sure I make my request simple and short. So a script might look like this:

Dear X,

I am currently in your network and wanted to reach out and ask if you might be interested in a social media workshop I will be hosting in Chicago at the end of October? I have over seven years of experience helping thousands learn to leverage social media tools like LinkedIn. Please let me know if you would like me to send more information.

Best,

Melissa Giovagnoli

—————————————————————

But, of course, each campaign you create is unique and should be as tailored as possible to create the best “first impression.” That takes some time and thoughtfulness, but, if you build a network of connections, one good first connection conversation, at a time, you will go a long way toward starting a “trust continuum” that will have a long-term payback.

There is no question that selling today bears no resemblance to selling a year ago. At the same time there has been one area in business that has realized a decided growth–the development of social networking. Social networking most simply defined as online networking has grown and will certainly continue to grow perhaps even more so during these fearful times. So what can you be doing as a business owner to capitalize on these low-cost, no-cost marketing and sales tools that are like super express trains helping accelerate top line sales success? Following are three key strategies you can implement immediately to capitalize on a real “Network Effect” for your sales initiatives.

First, choose just one social networking platform to master. Why? Over the last twenty years I have worked with some of the best companies–Motorola, CNA, American Express, Hewitt, UBS and so on with leaders who were constantly searching for the best and most successful tools to grow their markets.  When they asked me to offer my suggestions, the successful results I have seen kept leading me back to social networks and social networking strategies, but more specifically, the strategy I have found even more successful is to master just one platform rather than try to learn and then leverage mutiliple platforms.

My number one prediction since its inception has been that LinkedIn would become a leader in social networks for business.  Now with more than 35 million users, the average age being 41, with all Fortune 500 companies represented with literally hundreds of employees going up to the C-Level, LinkedIn is a platform that can help cut sales cycles by 30% or more. For the last six years my organization has used LinkedIn to help more than 3000 professionals use  how to use LinkedIn to grow their sales and recruit top talent.

Second, because networking at its core is based on building trust, I have seen that social networking strategies can help with not only generate new leads, prospects and customers but also upsell new account opportunities. The real question to ask when growing your network today would be, “Who are the super connectors who my company’s sales professionals can build trust with to create continuous introductions into new and existing accounts?”

With the many leaders I have met over the last two decades it was not until the development of online social networking sites that any of us discovered there would be millions of people who have top-level networking skills and be  “ready, willing and able” to make introductions to key decision makers, or at the very least, are people who are Two Degrees or just one person away from the key decision makers at almost any company. Semi-conductor companies, insurance , high tech–you name it, all industries have top-level networkers who are accessible. Why are these people so willing to help others? They see the networking as “opportunity expansive” instead of “opportunity limiting.” Another name for these people is “Open Networker.” ,The good news is that anyone can build a base of connections to these professionals who will make valuable introductions. And now an introduction has become the new referral. And the cost? Nothing. And the time? Well if a cold call would be considered a Six-Degree Connection what would be the time savings to realize, instead, a Two-Degree Connection?

Third , perhaps the most interesting reality is that social networks are just hitting their stride. As business professionals move from becoming aware of social networks for top line sales to a recognition that they are relevant to building trust faster to acquiring and taking ownership of new accounts to leveraging even more new sales as your customers begin to see you as a leader in your market and then choose to leverage your brand out to even more new potential customers, you will be well on your way to realizing your top line sales vision through your relationships.

Social Networks are here to stay. The only real question is will you be one of the early adopters who leverages their usefulness or will you be one of the Laggards (a company who progresses slowly and falls behind the others)? It’s really as simple as that.

Top Learning Point: Know the Four Stages of Branding to Take Optimum Advantage of Top Line Sales

1. Brand Awareness – Your market needs to first be aware you are out there before they can begin to recogize that you have something that might be of value to their business.
2. Brand Recognition – Once your market is aware you are out there they need to recognize that you offer products and services can help their business become more successful.
3. Brand Ownership - Once your market recognizes your value they are willing to engage you as a vendor partner. Youare first, more of a vendor than a partner perhaps, but, if you know how to continuously listen to your customers’ needs and respond sometimes even create new products and services to serve them, you will quickly turn into a partner.
4. Brand Leverage - And when your customers become real partners with you, you will then find even more opportunities such as co-creating with them through joint ventures and, most certainly, realizing the very real benefit of them naturally spreading word-of-mouth endorsements for you fine work. In other words you will realize the best top line sales opportunities.

I do call a lot of us in this country “consumptionholics.” I also found myself playing this role at times. But not today. Not this month. Not in the near future.

What would you do? If you don’t have an answer I’ll give you some of my own.  For those executive at AIG and, in fact anyone who gets a bonus this year, think of giving some to those in need. There are so many food pantries that need extra food. There are so many children who need clothing. There are so many places to volunteer.

And if for some reason the bonus monies have not left the corporate coffers yet . . . stop. Don’t give out bonuses for “retaining top talent.” As one of my colleagues said, “Why would these companies be afraid that these people will go elsewhere? Where is there to go? Who is hiring?”

So, Tom Peters. I’ve watched you over the years. I always said I would like to be more like you. I appreciate your thoughtfulness in this time and there is no question you have a great heart. Now, even though this economic bust has already occurred, please continue to use your influence next year to help people wake up and walk out on the craziness that this year has seen. Keep promoting the idea of giving and social responsibility–especially to companies that don’t seem to get that consumers CARE what goes on inside the corporate walls–between cubicles and departments and inside and outside of boardrooms. Keep promoting strategies that show companies how to “do well by doing good.”

In the end, the more people who speak out against greed like you have done the better off we will all be. Thanks Tom.

To this end his focus is on such things as "developing cheaper renewable energy, commercializing plug-in vehicles, increasing capital to small business in the developing world and predicting and preventing emerging threats such as environmental conditions and climate change" as Brilliant offered in Carter’s article. This is a wonderful set of goals.

However, the question I have is how can we achieve these goals faster with better results? I offer the concept of Networlding as an approach. First, let me preface my thoughts by saying that the Networlding methodology which we sell to the for-profit world is free to the non-profit world. Any non-profit professional wants to have our e-guidebook and e-booklet can email us (www.networlding.com) to get a copy. We also have consultants who are willing to help with initiatives that want to use the methodology.

To this end some of the key pieces would look like this:

• the creation of an action plan that is grounded in values; we recommend the four values that have been used with great success by my friend and colleague, Susan Davis which are: "making a difference, integrity, collaboration and innovation." We have found these values accelerate the success of any group initiative.
• the development of a leadership team that mentors in small, manageable groups other small groups of "leaders-in-waiting."
• constant, incremental support and facilitation of small groups working together for a common goal while also getting support from one another to achieve individual goals.
• sharing the best practices back to all the participants.
• and finally, "doing well by doing good." As Carter commented, "Many corporations have learned that investing in philanthropy attracts concerned investors and talented employees, builds brand loyalty, burnishes reputations and helps create a healthier and more prosperous economy for all of us." Why is it so simple for some to get and others its a foreign language?

Of course there is much more detail in the methodology and non-profits such as Brilliant is running would benefit from the many learnings we have had throughout the last couple of decades by the growing members of The Networlding Partner Alliance. So, if I only could work with Larry Brilliant . . . .