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Do More Great Work: Stop the Busywork. Start the Work That Matters. |  | Author: Michael Bungay Stanier
Creators: Seth Godin, Michael Port, Dave Ulrich, Chris Guillebeau, Leo Babauta
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Category: Book
List Price: $11.95
Buy New: $4.59
as of 9/8/2010 18:52 CDT details
You Save: $7.36 (62%)
New (41) Used (13) from $4.00
Seller: BookShop4U
Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 2949
Media: Paperback
Edition: Original
Pages: 200
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 6.7 x 0.6
ISBN: 0761156445
Dewey Decimal Number: 650.1
EAN: 9780761156444
ASIN: 0761156445
Publication Date: February 22, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
You work hard. You put in the hours. Yet you feel like you are constantly treading water with "Good Work" that keeps you going but never quite moves you ahead. Or worse, you are mired in "Bad Work"—endless meetings and energy-draining bureaucratic traps.
Do More Great Work gets to the heart of the problem: Even the best performers are spending less than a fraction of their time doing "Great Work"—the kind of innovative work that pushes us forward, stretches our creativity, and truly satisfies us. Michael Bungay Stanier, Canadian Coach of the Year in 2006, is a business consultant who’s found a way to move us away from bad work (and even good work), and toward more time spent doing great work.
When you’re up to your eyeballs answering e-mail, returning phone calls, attending meetings and scrambling to get that project done, you can turn to this inspirational, motivating, and at times playful book for invaluable guidance. In fifteen exercises, Do More Great Work shows how you can finally do more of the work that engages and challenges you, that has a real impact, that plays to your strengths—and that matters.
The exercises are "maps"—brilliantly simple visual tools that help you find, start and sustain Great Work, revealing how to:
- Find clues to your own Great Work—they’re all around you
- Locate the sweet spot between what you want to do and what your organization wants you to do
- Generate new ideas and possibilities quickly
- Best manage your overwhelming workload
- Double the likelihood that you’ll do what you want to do
All it takes is ten minutes a day, a pencil and a willingness to change. Do More Great Work will not only help you identify what the Great Work of your life is, it will tell you how to do it.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 40
How to do more of the work that both makes a difference and makes you happy September 1, 2010
Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As Michael Bungay Stanier explains, "This book is the sum of my work with thousands of people around the world as a coach and facilitator. It uses just fifteen key tools - conceptual maps to help you identify what really matters to you, what drives the choices and the actions you take, and how you can get onto a path to more creative, motivated, and inspired work that's good for you and for those you work for." Presumably some purpose-driven people can be happy, content, and fulfilled by obtaining great wealth, power, etc.
As I worked my way through Stanier's narrative, I was again reminded of Teresa Amabile's admonition, "Do what you love and love what you do." In her various writings, she also stresses the importance of having a purpose that includes but is not limited to achieving personal goals. For Dave and Ulrich, this means "the why of work." For Simon Sinek, it suggests the imperative to "start with why." Stanier joins the discussion when expressing the first of six "Great Work Paradoxes": You don't need to save the world but you do need to make a difference...a positive, productive, beneficial difference. More about the other paradoxes later.
Stanier invokes the journey as his central metaphor and presents his information, observations, insights, cautions, caveats, and recommendations within the framework of a journey that involves both sustained effort (e.g. reflection, completing separate but interrelated exercises, maintaining commitment and focus) and significant discovery (i.e. revelations of what really is -- and isn't -- most important). The ultimate objective is to Do More Great Work. This is not a destination because the journey of discovery should never end until one's life does.
The reader is asked to complete a series of exercises in a sequence of 15 Maps, each posing a question. The first, logically enough, asks "Where are you now?" because "you need to know your starting point" and the last asks "Lost your Great Work mojo?" if and when "you wander off the oath." The 15 Maps are organized within Seven Parts: Laying the Foundation, Seeds of Your Great Work, Uncovering Your Great Work, Pick a Project, Create New Possibilities, Your Great Work Plan, and finally, Continuing Your Great Work Journey. It is important to note that Stanier immediately establishes and then sustains a direct, personal rapport with his reader and throughout the "journey" serves several different functions: instructor, mentor, travel agent, bodyguard, cheerleader, and for some of the "pilgrims" who read this book, he also serves as a mirror that offers reflections that may be unpleasant to behold.
With regard to the map exercises, Stanier offers four tips: (1) make them yours, (2) find five minutes in your day to work on them, (3) use the maps in the order that makes the most sense to you, and (4) don't worry abut getting everything perfect. As for the "Six Great Work Paradoxes," the first asserts that "you don't need to save the world" but " you do need to make a difference," followed by Great Work Can Be Either Public or Private, Great Work Is Both Needed and Not Wanted, Great Work Is Both Easy Difficult, Great Work Is About Doing What's Meaningful But Not Always About Doing It Well, and finally, Great Work Can Take a Moment or It Can Take a Lifetime. Here's my take:
1. Start now.
2. Do the best you can.
3. Keep doing the best you can.
4. Expect surprises.
5. If you get knocked down, get back up.
6. Keep going.
7. Review 3-6.
This is a visually stimulating book, with the material well-organized and exercises clearly explained. That said, I should also suggest that it really will require a great deal of rigorous thinking and therefore I strongly recommend that key passages be highlighted and reviewed frequently. Actually, this is not a book; it's a WORKbook. Bon voyage!
Start the work that matters today. August 4, 2010
Nicholas Boothman
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Buy a dozen copies of Do More Great Work and put them in a basket in your entrance hall. Let your friends help themselves to a copy. They'll thank you for this small, simple book that can make a big difference.
Michael shows you how to pinpoint what motivates you, and link it to your work so you can succinctly articulate what you do, see clearly where your path lies, and stay merrily on track to inevitable success.
A simple guide for making the shift to Great Work. July 20, 2010
Anne Mueller
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Are you committed to Great Work, but struggling, or just not sure how to get started? Michael Bungay-Stanier is an incredible person with the gift of teaching and coaching simplicity. He offers practical ways to set yourself up for success in Doing More Great Work. Practical guides, simple steps, easy concepts, things that you can apply as soon as you open the book. Its a fun book to read-- use it to build in a 10 minute break when the job you are doing is running away with your time and energy. Just the first exercise of assessing your current mix of Good vs Great Work will start your thinking about how to let go of 'stuff' and make room for the "Great Work" instead. Through this book, Michael makes it easy to get started and make the necessary shift in thinking and doing.
THE SHIFT HELPED ME GET THE SATISFACTION I WAS MISSING IN ALL THE HARDWORK I WAS DOING. I also recommend taking his course with the same name if you can find it near you. Truly valuable networking with like-minded people in addition to exploring your opportunities for Doing More Great Work.
They make a great gift to inspire others and you won't be willing to part with yours. You'll want to give them to family, friends, and colleagues-- so save the shipping and order extras now. Anne.
 Does More than 'Inspire' July 4, 2010
Ken Rider (East Coast)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I heard the author (Stanier) in an interview recently and what he said stuck with me. The gist was that, while many books give readers inspiring advice about improving their lives, it turns out we're not all that good at taking advice. Stanier gets this and he's able to write a book that doesn't fall into this trap. It's a big reason that "Do More Great Work" succeeds where others fall short. The key is good, practical exercises.
As other reviewers have noted, there are a number of exercises (called "maps") to help personalize the book's content and make it work for readers. Some books try and fail at this, but the ones in Great Work are both accessible and useful. You do the ones that make sense for you. I also like the writer's tone, which mixes humor, thoughtfulness and a sense of caring. It's genuine without being preachy - a rarity among self-help books. Finally, I appreciate a book that is under 200 pages but still on target...it's not exhausting to read, so you'll have energy for your work! Just one caveat: if you're not ready for some self-reflection, the book may not be what you need right now, but if you're on the fence, I'd suggest giving it a try.
Must read for everyone June 21, 2010
Catherine J. Eifert (Centreville, VA)
Like other reviewers have said this book is about living a life worth living. A must read for everyone!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 40
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