White Collar Craftsmen

There’s a cool Post over at Thinking Faster by Jeffrey Phillips describing the differences in motivating White Collar workers as opposed to craftsmen. He finds it is easier to motivate craftsmen because they tend to love their work and want to see the finished product. Where white collar workers may feel like they work at the post office – where there’s a never ending stream of projects.

“I was thinking recently about the issue of motivating the people who work with you and for you, especially “knowledge workers”. The challenges to motivating people who work in an office and with or for a business process are many. I was also thinking about people I know who are craftmen – people who make objects with their hands or artists, and what motivates them, and what we could learn from them.

It seems to me there’s a few challenges to motivating knowledge workers. First, you have a periodic problem. That is, most knowledge workers work on projects with specific start and end dates. Other than the emphasis of finishing a project on time, it’s difficult to motivate people to do a great job consistently when they know there’s another project at the end of this one. Second, if your team is very project intensive, you have the issue of consistent learning curves. Unless all the people on the team fill the same role each time, and all the work is the same each time, everyone has a learning curve at the beginning of every project. Starting at the bottom of that learning curve at the beginning of every project is mentally exhausting. Third, there’s the identification of the end result. Usually a project results in a document or a recommendation. Sometimes it may result in a new product or service. This is very unlike most craft work or blue collar work, which can point at a product or service delivered. That’s one reason I still cut my own grass. I like to see the results of my work. Fourth, as you work within a business process, there’s almost steady stream of work flowing your way. You don’t control what happens “up stream” so the work arrives at its pace, not your pace. Contrast this situation with a craftsman.”

I agree for the most part motivating people to complete new and exciting things is much easier than filing one report this week and a brand new report next. But the key is the word “new”. If a craftsman can make a sculpture of a dog one week and a sculpture of a woman the next, then there’d be alot of enjoyment to be gained from the new projects. But most of the craftsmen (and women) I know end up doing the same things a lot.

For instance, my sister owns a stained glass shop in Vermont. She makes some of the most beautiful glass in the business. But the majority of the jobs she seems to get involve making the same series pieces over and over. Customers tend to gravitate to a certain style. It’s the same with paintings – which is why you can usually get series prints. The joy comes from embarking on a new journey, the work comes in repeating the journey every day.

That’s my opinion…what’s yours?