In the book, Do More Great Work.: Stop the Busywork, and Start the Work that Matters, Michael Bungay Stanier shares his inspiration and techniques to help us do more work that matters.
These are some of my favorite takeaways from reading the book.
Map 5 What’s Calling You
In this chapter, Michael provided two maps that can be used to spot opportunities for Great Work. One map is a more general one of opportunities for Great Work in the whole landscape of our life. The other is more specific to potential opportunities at work.
Next, scan the chosen map and identify areas where there might be opportunities to do more Great Work.
Next, we add more details to the map, or we can customize the map by changing labels or replacing something that works better for us.
After the map is customized to reflect our life, we circle five areas where we think there might be opportunities to do more Great Work. Consider the following:
- Is there a major project we have wanted to do for some time?
- What part of the map do we naturally gravitate to?
- Where could we enhance our work, upgrade our effort, and change it from Good to Great?
- Where might we begin something new or spark something different?
Also, consider the following:
- What did we learn by focusing on the big picture? What surprised us?
- What obvious opportunities for Great Work would we have been almost too blind to see?
- What might be possible in the less obvious places?
- What do we know about ourselves that we had not fully realized before?
Finally, Seth Godin offers this secret to doing Great Work.
“My advice for creating Great Work is disarmingly simple: Don’t settle.”
“If you honestly believe that Great Work matters, then the issue is settled. You can and should start today. Identify where you’re settling, and stop.”
Analytics Journal by David Lowe 