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Everyone wants to experience success at work. Thus, organizations begin by laying out visions, missions, and goals. But when it comes time to translate the intentions, slides, and words into reality, confusion begins. One reason for this is the lack of clarity on the meaning of “work.” This is important for two reasons: organizations that “work” in the right manner will meet their strategic outcomes and “work” takes up time and money, two very key resources for any organization.

Things get done when you “work.” But “work” has many forms. Here are some:

• Discovery (D). This is the bootstrapping phase where you define a value case for a problem you wish to solve or an opportunity you wish to take advantage of. A success metric is the number of initiatives, programs, or projects launched from a discovery. It is okay if the discovery does not result in further effort, in fact, another success metric is the number of initiatives, programs, or projects stopped or prevented from starting..
• Initiative (I). This is a convenient way to describe a set of programs which work towards a strategic objective. Once an initiative is prioritized, it is easier to gain funding for specific programs and projects that align to it. It takes time and effort to launch and sustain an initiative, thus it is “work.” For example, an initiative to improve the quality of customer service or reduce defects in manufacturing. Initiatives are sponsored by an executive.
• Programs (Pgm). This is a set of projects that are similar in nature, requiring a program manager to coordinate them. For example, to improve qualify of customer service, you might have a program to make your web site easier to use and a program to train call centers to be more personable.
• Projects (Prj). These have a start and end dates and a budget. This is where outputs and deliverables are produced. For example, to make your web site easier to use, you could have a project to redesign the navigation and a project to implement a chat functionality.
• Operations (O). These are ongoing tasks or “lights on” activities that have to be done to sustain the business.

You have to decide in your context whether the “work” you have on your plate is an initiative, program, project, or operations. Just remember: unless you have projects, nothing will get done. Initiatives and programs are overhead if they are not supported by projects.

The following are are “work” but not very productive:

• Desire or wish (W). This is where you curse under your breath and hope someone does something about the problems in your workplace.
• Intention. This is where spend time brainstorming about a problem, but don’t follow thru.

List all the tasks you have to do and tag them using the taxonomy described above. Then prioritize the list. You’ll see organizing your work into one of these categories is “work” as well, but it is worth it. With some effort, you can predict outputs and thus, outcomes, by simply counting the number of projects in flight.

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We all work for someone. If you are self employed, well, you work for yourself. That is not really true, because you do not pay your bills, your customer does. So, in a broader sense, we all work for our customers. CEOs, executives, bosses, supervisors, and managers are for administrative convenience and adult supervision only.

Would you like to work for the following employer?

• One who is very, very careful about who they hire. They have such rigorous hiring practices that mere selection is like a badge of honor. The Indian Administrative Service has that reputation for hiring only the best.
• One who trains and develops their employees, so much that the employees are coveted by others. In other words, a company whose alumni can write their own checks when they become a free agent. General Electric has that reputation thanks to its leadership development center.
• One that will hold their employees accountable and fire them ruthlessly, but with compassion. I cannot think of any good example for this criteria. Most companies will fire low performers, but I don’t know anyone who combines accountability with ruthlessness and compassion.

If your organization does not fit all three criteria above, do not despair. Ask what will take for your organization to satisfy all the above criteria? What will it take for you to be a leader who can create such an organization? Use the answers to become better, for you may get your chance one day. When you get that chance, you need to be ready. Complaining about your organization will not get you anywhere, in fact you will regress in your leadership development.