The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement and Creativity at Work.

• Author: Amabile, Teresa
• Position: Book review

At first glance, a business management book that touts the importance of the inner work life of employees might sound suspiciously touchy-feely. And conclusions such as "happy people do better work" might strike financial executives as more than a trifle obvious.

But the judgments and conclusions found in The Progress Principle are based on 14 years of rigorous research by a pair of Harvard researchers, Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, who surveyed 238 employees (182 men, 56 women) on 2h learns at seven companies.

From senior executives to lowly new hires, the team members and their interactions provided voluminous data that were exhaustively analyzed. Survey participants ranged in age from 22 to 68 years old, had spent anywhere from two weeks to 36 years at the same company, and each maintained a daily work diary.

Among other things, participants in the study--who were granted anonymity--provided candid disclosure about what motivated them, whether they regarded the work that they performed as "creative" and of "high quality," whether the team "made progress" on any particular clay and what their perceptions of the work environment were.

The results are often startling. What really and truly motivates employees, Amabile and Kramer report in this well organized, revealing book, often flies in the face of conventional wisdom.

Most managers, and the bulk of literature in management studies, typically cite "recognition," "tangible incentives (such as pay)," and "clear work goals" as prime motivators. A few perceptive managers do add "interpersonal support."

Yet, while all of those factors have their place, the authors demonstrate that making progress at work is a major, but often unsung, motivator. Nothing substitutes for successfully completing worthwhile tasks; nothing is quite as energizing as the satisfaction derived from a job well done.

Progress at work--"the power of meaningful accomplishment"--also has a contagious effect on the overall organization. Even in small increments, the authors find, making progress both buoys the spirits of the individual and builds esprit de corps.

"Progress motivates people to accept difficult challenges more readily and to persist longer," they write. "If people feel capable, then they see difficult problems as positive challenges and opportunities to succeed."

Consider project manager Kathy, whose "sun-protect team" at a consumer products company had been laboring mightily to develop a facial sun-block...