hi so there are a lot of jobs out there
that make you feel like a robot there
are jobs that you know they don’t want
you to think for yourself they want you
to just follow instructions I don’t
really want you to bring who you are to
the job that you do and the thing that’s
really terrible about those jobs isn’t
that they stuck to work at all though
they totally do it’s that there’s such a
waste of human potential because when we
bring ourselves to the work that we do
we really start to care about it
we start to take responsibility for it
and when we do that we start to care
about changing the world with our work
so how do we bring ourselves to the work
that we do well it’s actually pretty
simple treat people like humans be a
human but in order to do that there are
three things you have to bring to work
with you every single day judgment
passion and emotion we’re gonna start
with the easy one judgement seems like
something you should be using at work
all the time but when I say judgment I
don’t mean just making decisions what I
do mean is bringing the whole of your
experience the whole of the person that
you are to the job that you do take
responsibility taking responsibility for
what you actually want to happen and
then doing what you think is right so it
still seems like there are a lot of jobs
that should be asking you to do that but
pretty much all the jobs that I’ve
worked in heaven except for the one I’m
in now so when I first started at the
job I’m in now it was actually it was
actually really difficult to function
because I couldn’t figure out that what
they were doing was not telling me what
to do but asking me to do what I felt
was right and when I did figure that out
it was like a revelation I immediately
took responsibility for the work that I
was doing I immediately cared about it I
immediately took pride in the outcome of
it and it completely changed work from a
bunch of instructions that you follow
into something that you really feel can
change the world and that was amazing so
that bringing who you are to work is the
key to that using your real judgment to
make real decisions so how do we get
people to do that well if you’re an
employer which I realize that most
people in this room are not right now
but you one day will be probably you
have to actually extend your trust so
that people who work for you or work
with you you have to say hey I think you
can do this use your best judgment we’ll
see what happens as an employee you have
to ask for the trust that you want it’s
not it’s not actually that difficult and
the worst thing that can happen is that
they can say no well I mean technically
the worst thing that can happen is it
you can get fired but that’s probably
not gonna happen
very unlikely what probably will happen
is that they will say yes give it a try
and even if they don’t they’ll probably
respect you a lot more for asking
so that’s judgment very serious the
second one is passion which is the fun
one so the thing about bringing your
passion to work is that it actually it
is about fun it’s about taking the time
to play with what you love so it’s not
necessarily you know talking about the
movie that you watched all weekend or
whatever in front of the office although
that’s a fine way to actually bring some
excitement into work what it is about is
bringing the inspiration and the passion
the excitement that you have outside of
the office into the work that you do
every day so that can be as simple as
just trying to look at your work through
the lens of something that really
excites you outside of it so for me I
love baking I think it’s really fun and
interesting but it’s not just about the
process itself it’s about the sort of
alchemy of flour and water and salt and
then like wild animals from the air that
come together and then you come somehow
magically there’s bread which is so cool
like and weird and strange and it’s that
kind of thing so I work in marketing and
we do a lot of things like building apps
for companies and it’s shockingly
effective to look at something like that
through a different lens so when we’re
building an app it’s about creating an
end experience for the user that is
cohesive and is exactly what you want
but there’s all these tiny little parts
that go into it and somehow that
interaction with them happens in a way
that becomes greater than the sum of
their parts and so when I view view it
through the lens of something like
baking where I’m like how can I make it
feel as magical and fulfilling and and
warming as baking it completely changes
the outcome of it you know so it’s it
doesn’t necessarily need to be relevant
to the work that you’re doing it just
needs to be something that’s exciting
interesting so again how do we bring it
into work well if you’re an employer
have people talk about their passions
bring it into the workplace and make it
okay to discuss that three words for you
show and tell it does not get less fun
even though you’re not five years old
and it only takes five minutes as an
employee it’s the same thing just think
about something that you like and look
at your work through that lens so that’s
all you have to do you can also make for
the office everybody likes it so all
right so that’s to judgment and passion
that leaves us with the tricky one
emotion it’s a scary subject it’s hard
to deal with at work when you do a
Google search for emotion at work what
you get is stuff like how not to have an
emotional outburst at work how to
recover from having had an emotional
outburst at work how never to have an
emotional outburst at work again so the
problem with that is that it’s kind of
and I’m pretty tired of hearing
about it because ideally the reason you
got into why you’re working in the first
place is because you care about it when
you care about something you have
feelings about it have emotions about it
so you should be able to express those
at work I’m not talking about crying
screaming all the time because that’s
not productive for anybody what I am
talking about is taking a minute to
think about why you feel the way you
feel and discuss it with the people you
work with and say how can we use this to
move the work forward so for me when I’m
emotional at work it’s not because I’m
tired stuff because I’m overloaded it’s
not because I’m hormonal because that’s
not even a discussion we’re gonna have
it’s because I care it’s because I think
the work that I can do can make the
world a little bit better and when it’s
not going the way I want it to I’m
pissed off about it and I’m like what
can we do to fix this so that uses
emotion at work that discussion of
emotion at work can really be engaging
and convincing and motivating for you
and the people that you work with and if
you’re working with a client it can
really show them how much you care
sometimes I feel like I care more about
the work than the clients do but when
you’re like super into and where you’re
super passionate about and something
goes wrong and you’re like oh my gosh we
have to fix this the client knows that
you’re on their side and that you guys
are moving the work forward together so
again what do we do about it well as
employers d stigmatize emotion that’s
the key you have to make it okay to talk
about emotion at work you have to make
it okay for people to have emotions at
work you
even have to make it okay to cry at work
sometimes and you have to like let
people understand that you are all
bought in on that and then as an
employee it’s basically it’s basically
what I’ve talked about before you have
to analyze the emotion that you’re
feeling and then you have to say how can
I use this to move the work forward the
best way to do that is to do it out loud
it’s to stop in the meeting where you’re
feeling frustrated or upset or even like
really excited and say hey I’m feeling
really frustrated because the work isn’t
going well and I think we can achieve
this great thing so what do we do about
it
and and here’s a really important
question to ask how do you feel about it
because then you get to have a
discussion with your whole team with
your employers even sometimes with your
client and say let’s all discuss how
we’re feeling about it and let’s all you
use that collective passion and
excitement and emotion of frustration
and move that work forward so that’s it
all we have to do is be humans at work
we should all get to do that we should
all get to bring the judgement to make
decisions that we think are right we
should all get to bring the passions
that make us excited and inspired and we
should all get to bring those emotions
that are why we got into the work in the
first place and it’s not because it
makes the work more fun or because it
makes us work better or because our
companies do better when we do that
although all those things are true it’s
because when we care about the work that
we do that’s when we start to change the
world with it and that after all is the
whole point thank you
[Applause]
that make you feel like a robot there
are jobs that you know they don’t want
you to think for yourself they want you
to just follow instructions I don’t
really want you to bring who you are to
the job that you do and the thing that’s
really terrible about those jobs isn’t
that they stuck to work at all though
they totally do it’s that there’s such a
waste of human potential because when we
bring ourselves to the work that we do
we really start to care about it
we start to take responsibility for it
and when we do that we start to care
about changing the world with our work
so how do we bring ourselves to the work
that we do well it’s actually pretty
simple treat people like humans be a
human but in order to do that there are
three things you have to bring to work
with you every single day judgment
passion and emotion we’re gonna start
with the easy one judgement seems like
something you should be using at work
all the time but when I say judgment I
don’t mean just making decisions what I
do mean is bringing the whole of your
experience the whole of the person that
you are to the job that you do take
responsibility taking responsibility for
what you actually want to happen and
then doing what you think is right so it
still seems like there are a lot of jobs
that should be asking you to do that but
pretty much all the jobs that I’ve
worked in heaven except for the one I’m
in now so when I first started at the
job I’m in now it was actually it was
actually really difficult to function
because I couldn’t figure out that what
they were doing was not telling me what
to do but asking me to do what I felt
was right and when I did figure that out
it was like a revelation I immediately
took responsibility for the work that I
was doing I immediately cared about it I
immediately took pride in the outcome of
it and it completely changed work from a
bunch of instructions that you follow
into something that you really feel can
change the world and that was amazing so
that bringing who you are to work is the
key to that using your real judgment to
make real decisions so how do we get
people to do that well if you’re an
employer which I realize that most
people in this room are not right now
but you one day will be probably you
have to actually extend your trust so
that people who work for you or work
with you you have to say hey I think you
can do this use your best judgment we’ll
see what happens as an employee you have
to ask for the trust that you want it’s
not it’s not actually that difficult and
the worst thing that can happen is that
they can say no well I mean technically
the worst thing that can happen is it
you can get fired but that’s probably
not gonna happen
very unlikely what probably will happen
is that they will say yes give it a try
and even if they don’t they’ll probably
respect you a lot more for asking
so that’s judgment very serious the
second one is passion which is the fun
one so the thing about bringing your
passion to work is that it actually it
is about fun it’s about taking the time
to play with what you love so it’s not
necessarily you know talking about the
movie that you watched all weekend or
whatever in front of the office although
that’s a fine way to actually bring some
excitement into work what it is about is
bringing the inspiration and the passion
the excitement that you have outside of
the office into the work that you do
every day so that can be as simple as
just trying to look at your work through
the lens of something that really
excites you outside of it so for me I
love baking I think it’s really fun and
interesting but it’s not just about the
process itself it’s about the sort of
alchemy of flour and water and salt and
then like wild animals from the air that
come together and then you come somehow
magically there’s bread which is so cool
like and weird and strange and it’s that
kind of thing so I work in marketing and
we do a lot of things like building apps
for companies and it’s shockingly
effective to look at something like that
through a different lens so when we’re
building an app it’s about creating an
end experience for the user that is
cohesive and is exactly what you want
but there’s all these tiny little parts
that go into it and somehow that
interaction with them happens in a way
that becomes greater than the sum of
their parts and so when I view view it
through the lens of something like
baking where I’m like how can I make it
feel as magical and fulfilling and and
warming as baking it completely changes
the outcome of it you know so it’s it
doesn’t necessarily need to be relevant
to the work that you’re doing it just
needs to be something that’s exciting
interesting so again how do we bring it
into work well if you’re an employer
have people talk about their passions
bring it into the workplace and make it
okay to discuss that three words for you
show and tell it does not get less fun
even though you’re not five years old
and it only takes five minutes as an
employee it’s the same thing just think
about something that you like and look
at your work through that lens so that’s
all you have to do you can also make for
the office everybody likes it so all
right so that’s to judgment and passion
that leaves us with the tricky one
emotion it’s a scary subject it’s hard
to deal with at work when you do a
Google search for emotion at work what
you get is stuff like how not to have an
emotional outburst at work how to
recover from having had an emotional
outburst at work how never to have an
emotional outburst at work again so the
problem with that is that it’s kind of
and I’m pretty tired of hearing
about it because ideally the reason you
got into why you’re working in the first
place is because you care about it when
you care about something you have
feelings about it have emotions about it
so you should be able to express those
at work I’m not talking about crying
screaming all the time because that’s
not productive for anybody what I am
talking about is taking a minute to
think about why you feel the way you
feel and discuss it with the people you
work with and say how can we use this to
move the work forward so for me when I’m
emotional at work it’s not because I’m
tired stuff because I’m overloaded it’s
not because I’m hormonal because that’s
not even a discussion we’re gonna have
it’s because I care it’s because I think
the work that I can do can make the
world a little bit better and when it’s
not going the way I want it to I’m
pissed off about it and I’m like what
can we do to fix this so that uses
emotion at work that discussion of
emotion at work can really be engaging
and convincing and motivating for you
and the people that you work with and if
you’re working with a client it can
really show them how much you care
sometimes I feel like I care more about
the work than the clients do but when
you’re like super into and where you’re
super passionate about and something
goes wrong and you’re like oh my gosh we
have to fix this the client knows that
you’re on their side and that you guys
are moving the work forward together so
again what do we do about it well as
employers d stigmatize emotion that’s
the key you have to make it okay to talk
about emotion at work you have to make
it okay for people to have emotions at
work you
even have to make it okay to cry at work
sometimes and you have to like let
people understand that you are all
bought in on that and then as an
employee it’s basically it’s basically
what I’ve talked about before you have
to analyze the emotion that you’re
feeling and then you have to say how can
I use this to move the work forward the
best way to do that is to do it out loud
it’s to stop in the meeting where you’re
feeling frustrated or upset or even like
really excited and say hey I’m feeling
really frustrated because the work isn’t
going well and I think we can achieve
this great thing so what do we do about
it
and and here’s a really important
question to ask how do you feel about it
because then you get to have a
discussion with your whole team with
your employers even sometimes with your
client and say let’s all discuss how
we’re feeling about it and let’s all you
use that collective passion and
excitement and emotion of frustration
and move that work forward so that’s it
all we have to do is be humans at work
we should all get to do that we should
all get to bring the judgement to make
decisions that we think are right we
should all get to bring the passions
that make us excited and inspired and we
should all get to bring those emotions
that are why we got into the work in the
first place and it’s not because it
makes the work more fun or because it
makes us work better or because our
companies do better when we do that
although all those things are true it’s
because when we care about the work that
we do that’s when we start to change the
world with it and that after all is the
whole point thank you
[Applause]
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