Book of the Week: The Progress Principle
25 Feb 2015
This week I read The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, a husband and wife psychologist team. This book is written for managers. The Progress Principle
This pattern is what we call the progress principle: of all the positive events that influence inner work life, the single most powerful is progress in meaningful work; of all the negative events, the single most powerful is the opposite of progress—setbacks in the work. We consider this to be a fundamental management principle: facilitating progress is the most effective way for managers to influence inner work life.
Clearing the way for progress is the single most important thing a manager can do to improve the inner work life (confluence of perceptions, emotions, and motivations that individuals experience as they react to make make sense of the events of their workday) of their team. The better inner work life, the better the team performs. The problem is that people rarely get to measure the inner work life. Teresa and Kramer collected over 12,000 diary entries from teams across different organizations and tried to make sense of it all. The progress principle is what came out after analyzing all that information. The Seven Major Catalyst
- Setting clear goals.
- Allowing autonomy.
- Providing resources.
- Giving enough time.
- Help with the work.
- Learning from problems and successes.
- Allowing ideas to flow.
Catalyst are events that support the work. The Four Major Nourishers
- Respect
- Encouragement
- Emotional support
- Affiliation
Nourishers are events that support the person. Guidelines for Daily Journaling
- What event stands out in my mind from the workday, and how did it affect my inner work life?
- What progress did I make today and how did it affect my inner work life?
- What nourishers and catalysts supported me and my work today? How can I sustain them tomorrow?
- What one thing can I do to make progress on important work tomorrow?
- What setbacks did I have today, and how did they affect my inner work life? What can I learn from them?
- What toxins and inhibitors impacted me and my work today? How can I weaken or avoid them tomorrow?
- Did I affect my colleague’s inner work lives positively today? How might I do so tomorrow?
Journaling is one way to improve your own inner work life. It gives you time to reflect and see patterns to identify and improve. For an easy to check how you are doing as a manager, you can use the The Progress Princple Checklist