MN6098QA Week 4 Teresa Amabile The Progress Principle (4).ppt

PPT

1. MN6098QA
The Practice of Management
(PoM)
Week 4
Teresa Amabile:
- The Progress Principle
- The Power of Small Wins

2. The development of ideas
•In 1954 Carl Rogers published a theory of creativity,
commenting that without creative thought and
interventions, society as we know it, would struggle
•In 1998 Teresa Amabile at Harvard published ‘How to kill
creativity’, outlining ways in which organisations could
suppress (or encourage) creativity in their organisations
Have a look at the next slide and discuss ways in which the
environment might affect the three elements that
contribute to individual or group creativity

3. Teresa Amabile on creativity
https://hbr.org/1998/09/how-to-kill-creativity
Individual creativity, the combination of creative thinking skills, expertise and
motivation are significantly affected by the environment that the individual finds
themselves in

4. Her research in the 1990’s led to
a major research project in the
noughties, published as “The
Progress Principle”…...
This coincided with TED X Talk on YouTube by Teresa Amabile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD6N8bsjOEE

5. Amabile’s research project:
Research Questions (example):
“How do positive and negative work environments arise,
and how do they affect creative problem solving?”
Data collection:
•238 individuals, in 26 project teams, in 7 companies, in 3
industries
•Respondents were individually emailed a diary form daily
that included questions about their day
•12,000 individual diary entries

6. Findings:
‘Small wins can create joy, engagement, and
creativity at work’
In other words, they influence
‘inner work life’
Managers at every level in an
organisation affect inner work lives
and consequently the creativity and
productivity of people throughout
the organisation

7. Inner work life
“…is the confluence of perceptions, emotions, and
motivations that individuals experience as they react
to, and make sense of, their workday.”
(Amabile and Kramer, 2011: 20)
A single (negative) incident
can continue to reverberate
and impact people and their
work long after the triggering
event is over
Have a think about this - have you experienced
a single (negative) event that has reverberated on and on and on and on...?

8. ‘Inner work life’ influences performance
on four dimensions
1. Creativity
2. Productivity
3. Work commitment
4. Collegiality
These four dimensions are
profoundly affected by
everyday events at work

9. The three main components of inner work
life: Perceptions / Emotions / Motivation

10. Inner work life is not static
•It is a dynamic interplay between perceptions,
emotions and motivation
•Making an inner work life system which influences
performance (creativity, productivity, work
commitment and collegiality)
•Conditions for a positive inner work life develops
positive emotions, strong motivation, and favourable
perceptions of work and colleagues, so resulting in
improved performance

11. Amabile and Kramer 2007
https://hbr.org/2007/05/inner-work-life-understanding-the-subtext-of-business-performance

12. Leadership and the Progress Principle (1)
Conventional Rules for leadership and management
•Recruit the best people
•Provide appropriate incentives
•Give ‘stretch’ tasks
•Use emotional intelligence in relationships with staff
•Review performance annually
•Get rid of poor performers

13. Leadership and the Progress Principle (2)
New rules for leadership and management mean encouraging
conditions for a progress loop, with three dimensions:
1. Enable progress in meaningful work
2. Provide catalysts, things that can directly help get the work
done
3. Support nourishers, and interpersonal events that uplift
people at work
Think of your own working life, what examples of these have
you experienced?

14. The Progress Loop
•A secret weapon of high performance
companies
•Involves consistent forward movement
on meaningful work
•Harnesses a POWERFUL TEAM FORCE

15. “Working under the influence”
•The worth of small
wins…the Google
approach
https://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-w
ins

16. But what about...
•Meaningless work?
•Inhibitors?
•Toxins?
•Setbacks?

17. Virtuous circle or vicious circle?

18. Setbacks have a negative
effect on inner work life
that’s 2-3 times stronger
than the positive effect of
progress

19. Seven major catalysts
1.Setting clear goals
2.Allowing autonomy
3.Providing resources
4.Giving the right amount of time
5.Helping with the work
6.Learning from problems and successes
7.Allowing ideas to flow

20. Four Nourishment Factors
1. Respect
2. Encouragement
3. Emotional support
4. Belonging
These are the human factors
involved in the world of work

22. References
Amabile, T. (1998). How to kill creativity. Harvard Business Review.
September 1998.
Amabile, T. and Kramer, S. (2011) The Progress Principle: using small wins to
ignite joy, engagement and creativity at work. Boston, Mass: Harvard
Business Review Press.
Amabile, T. and Kramer, S. (2012) The Progress Principle: optimizing inner
work life to create value. Rotman Magazine. Winter 2012, pp29-33.