Warm-ups

Do we want and need to work hard?

Now consider:

What is a fair days work for people in the 'If you were…' groups?
What is a fair reward for them?
What would you consider to be exceptional performance in each scenario?
How would you define exceptional performance?
How would you reward exceptional performance?
The notion of 'hard work'. What does it mean?
Who really wants to work hard?
Who wants us to work hard and why?
Is hard work rewarding, if so how and for whom?
If hard work is a virtue, why don't more people go to work in a South African gold mine? Pick coffee beans in Columbia? Clean toilets for a living?
The notion of 'Arbeit Macht Frei' 'Freedom Through Labor' (the sign above the gate at Auschwitz.)
Define talent.
Define experience.
Define wisdom.
How much talent, experience and wisdom have you in your organization?
Where, internally or externally, does this talent, experience and wisdom focus its attention?
Do qualifications equate with talent, experience and wisdom?
Is your organization blinded by the qualifications of the few, preventing the contributon of the talent, experience and wisdom of the many?
How can talent, experience and wisdom better express itself in the workplace?
Should we look for talent, experience and wisdom in our workplaces and in the people we seek to hire? Where are we likely to find it?
If liberated in the workplace, what are the likely benefits?
Relationships at work. What does any decent person want from a relationship?
How many relationships can you think of that exist in your workplace? One to one, one to many, many to many? Are they open, honest and direct, or not?
Honestly, is the talent, experience and wisdom, plus relationships being exploited, in the negative sense, in your workplace? Or, is the talent and the relationships motivated to express itself / themselves, fully congruent with the goals of your organization, the wider community and beyond?