The meaning thesis has a corporate strategy implication that most organisations invest heavily in avoiding. Companies spend on wellness programs, mental health days, meditation apps, flexible hours, all treating the symptom while simultaneously stripping meaning from work through bureaucratic process layers and role fragmentation that disconnect people from the outcome of what they do. The companies with the lowest burnout tend to be the ones where the average employee can draw a straight line from their daily work to something they actually care about. That correlation has almost nothing to do with wellness budgets.
Thats an org design problem and it explains why the startup founders you mention thrive at intensities that would break most corporate executives. The founder sees the full chain from action to outcome every single day. The executive in a 500-person organisation is three layers of coordination removed from the thing that originally gave the work meaning. The exhaustion comes from the distance between effort and visible impact. Your bridge analogy is perfect for this reason, four hours of total concentration works because the feedback loop is immediate and that proximity to outcome is what recharges the capacity for sustained performance.
Mr Ghosn is trying to say in simple words do not burn yourself for work or to please others, but otherwise pay attention to your mind, body, and beloved ones. The company you work for, your boss/board, etc nobody deserves burning yourself out for. You and your family come first.
Offshore, I have watched the same engineer thrive at 90 hours one rotation, then break at 50 the very next. Same platform, same crew, same scope of work. The hours never changed him. What shifted was quieter, something he stopped being able to name out there...
I wish you made a course or a podcast for people just starting to lead so they can start the right way especially startups because this is where we see most of the trouble and where we need the most the adaptability and crisis management
Totally aligned !
The meaning thesis has a corporate strategy implication that most organisations invest heavily in avoiding. Companies spend on wellness programs, mental health days, meditation apps, flexible hours, all treating the symptom while simultaneously stripping meaning from work through bureaucratic process layers and role fragmentation that disconnect people from the outcome of what they do. The companies with the lowest burnout tend to be the ones where the average employee can draw a straight line from their daily work to something they actually care about. That correlation has almost nothing to do with wellness budgets.
Thats an org design problem and it explains why the startup founders you mention thrive at intensities that would break most corporate executives. The founder sees the full chain from action to outcome every single day. The executive in a 500-person organisation is three layers of coordination removed from the thing that originally gave the work meaning. The exhaustion comes from the distance between effort and visible impact. Your bridge analogy is perfect for this reason, four hours of total concentration works because the feedback loop is immediate and that proximity to outcome is what recharges the capacity for sustained performance.
Mr Ghosn is trying to say in simple words do not burn yourself for work or to please others, but otherwise pay attention to your mind, body, and beloved ones. The company you work for, your boss/board, etc nobody deserves burning yourself out for. You and your family come first.
Brilliant!
Perfect
I can totally agree with these comments, having said that I have been guilty so many times of working without clear meaning!
Professional wisdom explained by The Master Expert ...
I wish we can commit ourselves to this "sound practice" ... after all those years , but as they say:
you can't teach an old dog new tricks (:) . Perhaps in the next life .
Offshore, I have watched the same engineer thrive at 90 hours one rotation, then break at 50 the very next. Same platform, same crew, same scope of work. The hours never changed him. What shifted was quieter, something he stopped being able to name out there...
This resonates deeply with me and I’m grateful you shared such a grounded reframe of high performance.
I wish you made a course or a podcast for people just starting to lead so they can start the right way especially startups because this is where we see most of the trouble and where we need the most the adaptability and crisis management
One of the best things to come out of Japan was Carlos and his wisdom he now freely shares with the world. Thank you.