The Progress Principle
Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work
Teresa Amabile is the Director of Research at Harvard Business School. It’s pretty much impossible to read a book on business, creativity, or happiness at work and not run into her research. She wrote this book with her husband, leading developmental psychologist Steven Kramer. In it, we learn the secret of joy, engagement and creativity at work. Hint: Small wins! On (important distinction) meaningful stuff. Big Ideas we explore include the power of our “inner work life,” the 3 key influences to optimizing it (progress, catalysts, nourishers) and how to get on the progress loop and stay on it!
Big Ideas
- Inner Work LifeIs super important.
- The Key 3 Influences on Inner Work LifeProgress. Catalysts. Nourishers.
- The Progress LoopGet on it. Stay in it.
- The 7 Major CatalystsHere they are.
- The 4 Major NourishersHere they are.
- Your Daily Progress ChecklistAll about the fundamentals.
“How could other companies possibly aspire to this [Google’s] double nirvana of business success and employee delight?
Our research shows how. And the secret is not free food or athletic facilities. The secret is creating the conditions for great inner work life—the conditions that foster positive emotions, strong internal motivation, and favorable perceptions of colleagues and the work itself. Great inner work life is about the work, not the accoutrements. It starts with giving people something meaningful to accomplish, like Google’s mission ‘to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.’ It requires giving clear goals, autonomy, help, and resources—what people need to make real progress in their daily work. And it depends on showing respect for ideas and the people who create them. …
This book reveals just what that means—for any enterprise. We have written the book for leaders and aspiring leaders curious about inner work life and what they can do, day by day, to support the kind of inner work life that leads to extraordinary performance—an inner work life marked by joy, deep engagement in the work, and a drive for creativity.”
~ Teresa Amabile & Steven Kramer from The Progress Principle
Teresa Amabile is the Director of Research at Harvard Business School.
It’s pretty much impossible to read a book on business, creativity, or happiness at work and not run into her research. (Check out the Notes on these great books for a few references: Little Bets, Smartcuts, The Rhythm of Life, and Fail Fast, Fail Often.)
Amabile has been conducting research for over 30 years. She wrote this book with her husband, Steven Kramer, a leading developmental psychologist who has authored a number of articles for the Harvard Business Review.
The data on which this book is based was collected from hundreds of employees from a number of different companies in the form of 12,000 diary entries in which the individuals reflected on their experiences at work that day—shining light on what Amabile calls their “inner work life.”
What did she find?
Well, here’s The Progress Principle in a nutshell: “Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.”
Want to feel great and perform at a high level? Create and celebrate small wins on a daily basis. Let’s take a quick look at how to go about doing that, shall we?!
Quick note: The book (get a copy here) is based on a Harvard Business Review article called The Power of Small Wins that you might also enjoy!
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Listen to the PodcastInner Work Life
“As inner work life goes, so goes the company. We discovered that people are more creative and productive when they are deeply engaged in the work, when they feel happy, and when they think highly of their projects, coworkers, managers, and organizations. But there’s more. When people enjoy consistently positive inner work lives, they are also more committed to their work and more likely to work well with colleagues. In other words, work-related psychological benefits for employees translate into performance benefits for the company.
Conventional management wisdom is way off track about employee psychology. When we surveyed hundreds of managers around the world, ranging from CEOs to project leaders, about what motivates employees, we found startling results: 95 percent of these leaders fundamentally misunderstood the most important source of motivation. Our research inside companies revealed that the best way to motivate people, day in and day out, is by facilitating progress—even small wins. But the managers in our survey ranked ‘supporting progress’ dead last as a work motivator.”
That’s from the introduction. In short: It’s all about the inner work life.
And, research shows that helping people make progress/create small wins is THE #1 way to optimize our inner work lives.
Yet, when surveyed, managers pegged this as the last thing to worry about. D’oh.
Small wins. They may not seem like a big deal. But they are.
So… How do we help create progress so we can tap into the progress principle? That, of course, is what they book is all about. It’s time to explore a few Ideas on how to rock it.
Overall, the more positive a person’s mood on a given day, the more creative thinking he did that day. Across all study participants, there was a 50 percent increase in the odds of having a creative idea on days when people reported positive moods, compared with days when they reported negative moods.
The Key 3 Influences on Inner Work Life
“Progress and setbacks are the most important triggers, but they aren’t the only events that make a difference between sweet and sour inner work life. Other everyday events at work play important roles. Besides progress and setbacks, we discovered two additional categories of events that also turned out to be differentiators. We refer to them as factors, rather than principles, because they are not as prominent as progress and setbacks; nonetheless, all three exert important influences on inner work life.
The progress principle describes the first of these key three categories of events influencing inner work life. The second is what we call the catalyst factor. Catalysts are actions that directly support the work on the project, including any type of work-related help from another person or group. … Other catalysts have to do with goals, resources, time, autonomy, idea flow, and dealing with problems in the work.
The third of the three key influences on inner work life is what we call the nourishment factor. Where catalysts are triggers directed at the project, nourishers are interpersonal triggers, directed at the person. They include respect, encouragement, comfort, and other forms of social or emotional support. …
Just as setbacks are the opposite of progress, inhibitors are the opposites of catalysts, and toxins are the opposite of nourishers. These negative actions include failing to support the project or the person, as well as actively hindering the project or disrespecting the person in some way.”
So, our inner work life is determined by the progress principle and then a couple other factors.
Quick recap: Our primary principle is progress. Small wins on things that matter. (Note: Just checking boxes on stuff that doesn’t inspire you WILL NOT lead to the bump in well-being we’re looking for.) Breakthroughs, forward movement. Goal completion. Its opposite? Setbacks.
We have two primary factors: catalysts and nourishers.
Catalysts help an individual do work on the project—things like setting clear goals, having enough resources, autonomy, and that sort of thing. Its opposite? Inhibitors. When we *don’t* have the proper resources, goals, etc.
Then we have nourishers. These are interpersonal factors that include respect, encouragement and other types of emotional support. The opposite of nourishers? Toxins. The negative interpersonal stuff that gets in the way.
How about a quick inventory of how you’re setting up your personal life (and, if you manage others, how you’re helping them architect their lives).
Are you deliberately finding ways to create small wins? And celebrating them when you knock them over?
I’ve mentioned it a number of times, but one of my super simple ways to do this is via my 1 + 10 + 100 + 1,000 + 10,000 goals on my calendar. Every single time (!) I cross off my 1 sun salutation and then my 10 pull ups and then my 100 burpees (10 at a time!) and then my 1,000 meters rowing and then my 10,000 steps I put a little smiley face next to my “X” and I give myself a high five. It’s ridiculous. And it works. Each time I do it I’m celebrating a micro win in pursuit of keeping my energy optimized so I can actualize my potential. It’s hard to have a bad day with so many little wins. In fact, research says that those tiny wins are actually, unequivocally (!) boosting my mood and creativity. (And energy!)
I get the same little boost when I check the box on finishing another book or PDF or MP3. Spending time with my kids. Digital sunset. Small win. Small win. Small win. All day, every day.
The catalysts of clear goals and proper resources help us create that progress. How’re yours? (And, any inhibitors you need to Optimize?)
Then we have the nourishers. In this case, that’s our self-talk. You giving YOURSELF encouragement? (And do you have a handle on the toxic rumination, negative self-talk?)
Every time I bang out another set of burpees I say to myself, “That’s like me to do what I say I will do!” (And, it’s funny because right in the middle of typing that sentence my 1,000 second countdown timer went off triggering me to get up and bang out 10 burpees so I, literally, just gave myself that pep talk. Hah!)
That’s like you to set and achieve clear micro goals on a meaningful project!
You might think it is obvious that managers should focus on supporting employees’ work progress. It is not.
Simply ‘making progress’—getting tasks done—in these jobs doesn’t guarantee good inner work life, either. You may have experienced the rude fact in your own job, on days (or projects) when you ended up feeling demotivated, devalued, and frustrated, even though you worked hard getting things done. That’s because, in order for the progress principle to operate, work must be meaningful to the person doing it.
The Progress Loop
“Progress and inner work life feed each other. Mathematician Norbert Wiener called this sort of interaction a positive feedback loop or ‘cumulative causation.’ Progress enhances inner work life (the progress principle) and positive inner work life leads to further progress (the inner work life effect), creating a virtuous cycle. The loop can operate as a vicious cycle, as well. Just as inner work life and progress improve in tandem, when one goes downhill, so does the other. …
To harness this powerful force, you must ensure that consistent forward movement in meaningful work is a regular occurrence in your employees’ daily work lives, despite the inevitable setbacks that all nontrivial work entails.”
A positive feedback loop. Cumulative causation. Virtuous cycles. The progress loop.
Whatever we want to call that upward spiraling goodness, we want to make sure we’re creating the conditions that make it more likely to take hold.
AND…
We want to be aware of when we start to spiral down into the vicious rather than virtuous loop.
Reminds me of an Idea from a recent Note on Josh Waitzkin’s The Art of Learning where he tells us about his time coaching kids in chess. One of the first lessons he taught them was to not let a mistake spiral into a ton of mistakes.
He calls it the “downward spiral” and says: “One idea I taught was the importance of regaining presence and clarity of mind after making a serious error. This is a hard lesson for all competitors and performers. The first mistake rarely proves disastrous, but the downward spiral of the second, third, and fourth error creates a devastating chain reaction. Any sports fan has seen professional football, basketball, and baseball games won and lost because of a shift in psychological advantage.”
And, when I read this line: “To harness this powerful force, you must ensure that consistent forward movement in meaningful work is a regular occurrence” I’m reminded of one of the most powerful concepts I’ve picked up in my 1-on-1 work with Phil Stutz (author of The Tools and Coming Alive).
He’s ALL about “relentless forward motion.” As in: Relentless. Forward. Motion.
Emphasis on RELENTLESS. And FORWARD. And MOTION.
When we have that attitude toward life, chanting “Bring it on!” to any and all inevitable setbacks, we’re kinda invincible and it’s kinda fun to ride that virtuous cycle and experience the “cumulative causation” the mathematicians talk about as we aggregate and compound all our little micro wins.
Let’s do that. Here’s to our relentless forward motion in pursuit of meaningful goals.
Nothing boosts inner work life like progress.
The 7 Major Catalysts
“Catalysts can take many forms. Our analyses of the 12,000 ‘event of the day’ narratives we received, along with participants’ self-rated inner work life on those days, revealed seven major catalysts that galvanize work on projects and inner work life—along with their mirror opposites, seven major inhibitors. Although these aren’t the only kinds of triggers that catalyzed or inhibited the work our participants were doing, these seven stood out for their impact on inner work life and the work itself.”
We talked a bit about catalysts before. Let’s take a little deeper dive into the 7 major catalysts Amabile discovered in her research.
Setting clear goals.
Want to make progress? You HAVE to know where you’re headed! This is rule #1 of flow as well. We need to have a target. And, that target needs to be clear. So… What’s your target? What, specifically, will you do? By when? Have your big, wildly important goal but then chunk it WAY down and focus on the next micro domino. (ESPECIALLY when you’re feeling stressed!)
Allowing autonomy.
Autonomy is one of the key facets to self-determination theory which is one of the most robust theories of human motivation and well-being. We NEED to feel a sense of control over our lives—and we need to help people who may work with or for us experience the same high levels of control. (Note: The other two facets of self-determination theory? Connection and Mastery. Put the three together and you’re on fire.)
Providing resources.
It’s hard to feel good about what you’re doing if you don’t have the resources, eh? It’s funny because we’re in the process of upgrading our studio now and we just got a crazy cool sauna and a house-wide water filtration system to optimize the ol’ energy.) Simply making these investments in the resources necessary to step up our game feels GREAT. How are you doing with your resources? Anything you need to invest in for yourself/family/team?!
Giving enough time—but not too much.
This is a fun one that Amabile explores in some depth. We need enough time to complete our work BUT not
too
much time. Think: Challenging but doable. Stretch don’t snap. We LOVE this idea at Optimize. Inspired by a great story from
about Eisenhower in WWII, we call it “Pulling the string.” We like to set goals that pull the string nice and taut—challenging ourselves to get to work and ship. It feels *really* good. How about you? Got enough time— but not too much? Get that string nice and taut!
Help with the work.
It’s an inhibitor when you need some help to finish a project and you don’t get it. So… Give support to your team to help them create small wins!
Learning from problems and successes.
When we’re doing what Amabile calls “nontrivial” work we will, of course, run into problems and setbacks. That’s INEVITABLE. We need to discipline ourselves to have a “Win or learn” attitude—creating the “psychological safety” for ourselves and our team to deal with these problems productively. Drop a “Needs work!” on the problem and remember that mistakes are just mis-takes. Try again a little more wisely.
Allowing ideas to flow.
We need to let the ideas flow. Knowing that most of them won’t be very good. We like to preface our ideas with, “This might be a terrible idea but what do you think about…?” or “Zero attachment but this might be cool…” Again, we want to create psychological safety to explore ideas—remembering that the creative process is inherently messy and that the Hall of Fame baseball player only gets a hit 30% of the time.
The 7 key catalysts. Where are you strong? What can use a little work? How will you +1 today?
The action plan for the next day is the most important part of your daily review: what is the one thing you can do to best facilitate progress?
The 4 Major Nourishers
“Across all the teams we studied, when people found someone reaching out to offer them nourishers, their inner work lives blossomed—which increased the odds that they would make progress in their work. The primary way in which nourishers fuel inner work life and progress is by infusing the work with greater meaning. When we care about the people we work with, we want to succeed for them. When our colleagues become a kind of family to us, work can take on new meaning in our lives. Human connections really can inspire people to ‘go the extra mile for the team.’ Creativity and productivity result.
We found that the nourishment factor can be divided into four broad categories of events, each directly impacting inner work life.”
We have 7 key catalyst factors and 4 major nourishers. Let’s take a quick look.
Respect.
Not surprisingly, people want to feel respected. They want to feel that they and their work matter. And, they don’t like to be disrespected—whether that’s via failing to recognize their contribution or simply violating basic civility.
Encouragement.
The word
encouragement
literally means to give courage to someone else. You can’t give something you don’t have, so it always starts with our own enthusiasm and confidence in our ability to face any and all challenges. Let’s build our courage and have an overflow to give to others! :)
Emotional support.
Connecting with others via empathy and recognition of whatever emotions they may be experiencing is important. We’re not robots. Let’s embrace our own humanity and that of those with whom we’re blessed to work.
Affiliation.
Affiliation is a semi-fancy way to capture the idea that we actually like the people with whom we work (and serve). If we want to go really crazy, we can lean into love and see our team as more like a family. But only if we want to be super engaged and productive and fulfilled and happy. :)
The lesson? To boost your own inner work life as a manager, be sure to provide your people with the catalysts and the nourishers they need to make progress every day, and buffer them from inhibitors and toxins as much as possible. That way, you’ll make progress in your own managerial work, setting up your own positive progress loop.
Your Daily Progress Checklist
“Sometimes the smallest things can make the biggest difference. In his 2009 book, The Checklist Manifesto, Harvard surgeon and author Atul Gawande showed that even experienced surgeons can improve the performance of their teams dramatically by using a simple checklist to guide every single operation. The items on the safe surgery checklist seem terribly mundane. They include procedures like self-introductions by everyone on the surgical team, confirming that everyone knows which side of the body is being operated on, and counting the surgical sponges to see that all are removed from the patient before closing the incision.
The results are astonishing. In a three-month experiment in eight different hospitals around the world, the rate of serious complications for surgical patients fell by 36 percent after introduction of the checklist, and deaths fell by 47 percent. Even Gawande himself, a highly trained surgeon with years of operating experience, found that his own performance improved notably after he started using the checklist. His point is that surgery, like any complex task, requires a regular check of all the fundamentals—to liberate the team to focus on the work and any unexpected circumstances that may arise.”
That’s from the end of the book when we look at how to end our days. Amabile and Kramer recommend that we have a little checklist that we can review—celebrating wins and learning from any setbacks. I, of course, LOVE the idea of the simple checklist of the “terribly mundane.”
Surgery is a “complex task” that “requires a regular check of all the fundamentals.” But you know what’s infinitely more complex? Optimizing your life so you can actualize your potential. So… Let’s create a check list so we can reduce mortality on our Masterpiece Days by at least 47%! :)
If you want them to perform at peak levels, you need to support their inner work lives. And you need to do it every day; that’s why a daily checklist can be a valuable tool.
About the authors
