Gideon Strauss on 'How work gets done' No surprise that Gideon would be writing about work -- he's involved with the Work Research Foundation, after all -- nor is it any surprise that he would write about it so thoughtfully. His "hunches" on how work gets done are right on. The first two hunches strike me as particularly appropriate to organizational work:
(1) The person getting the work done must have an authentic passion for the work they are doing – the work has to be whole-hearted in the sense of somehow growing out of the worker’s deepest commitments; (2) The person getting the work done must be willing and able to do the politics necessary for the work to succeed – networking to put the work on the agenda of potential stakeholders, negotiating with stakeholders to corner the necessary material and organizational resources and people hours, persisting in keeping the work high enough on the stakeholder or institutional agenda to get done within a sustainable timeframe, leveraging the kudos derived from the successful completion of the work to extend the network of potential stakeholders for future work.
From what I've seen and experienced, achieving that balance of passion and political acumen is a tough act. A disdain for the politics of work can stifle, and eventually kill, passion.