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MAKE WORK GREATSupercharge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture, and Gain
InfluenceOne Person at a Time
AUTHORS: Ed MuzioPUBLISHER: The McGraw-Hill Companies
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2010
229 pages
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FEATURES OF THE BOOK
Make Work Great, Ed Muzios second book focused on
workplace improvement, is targeted toward anyone, from C-
level executive to individual contributor, who is looking to
reinvent corporate culture. Each chapter ends with a series
of exercises aimed at improving relationships and finding
solutions. Make Work Great offers a blueprint for growing a
positive business environment, one person at a time.
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THE BIG IDEA
In Make Work Great, Ed Muzio outlines a strategy for
creating and growing cultural change in the workplace.
Muzio compares this growth to that of a crystal, whichbegins as a seed and spreads outward.
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INTRODUCTION
Cultural change must begin with a seed crystal, or one person
committed to reinventing how things are done. This culture of
one can start a chain reaction, intersecting with positive
environments created by others, and impacting the entire
workplace. In order to begin this process, a person must practice
two core competencies: overtness about tasks, and clarity within
relationships. Role-modeling this positive behavior will
encourage others to join and grow this new business
environment.
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PART 1: IT STARTS WITH YOU
You...as the Seed
While modern technology allows workers to be more connected,
there is a growing sense of detachment and isolation in the
workplace. Similarly, while technology allows for greater accessto information, workers must search harder to find the right data.
This new age of information has also changed organizational
structures, which in the past were fairly linear with each worker
acting as one point in a process. Today, this structure has
evolved into a network model, with each worker as a node in a
network, interacting with multiple supervisors and other workers.
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PART 1: IT STARTS WITH YOU
Overtness About Task
Being the seed of change is a conscious decision that begins
with becoming the solution to problems in the workplace rather
than the victim. The first step to improving the workplace isimproving output, while reducing the amount of stress it takes to
produce the desired output.
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PART 1: IT STARTS WITH YOU
Clarity Within Relationships
Overtness about a task, the first step in building a crystal of
cultural change in the workplace, leads to questions. Clarity
within relationships, the second step in the process, looks foranswers. There are three steps to developing clarity within
relationships:
1. Define the question. First, determine which of the six types
of overtness generated the question: purpose, impact,incentives, progress, resources, or capability?
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PART 1: IT STARTS WITH YOU
2. Define the approach. Next, prepare for the interaction.
Begin by determining whom to approach with the question.
Next, prepare the question by outlining current
understanding and asking for edits rather than positing an
open-ended question. Finally, set to match the pace and thetenor of the question to the personality of the other person.
3. Define the need for agreement. To make a clear need for
agreement at the outset, it is helpful to think ahead about
other questions that may arise, and prepare to agree todisagree on these other issues.
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PART 2: GROWING YOUR CRYSTAL
Beginning Your Crystal
Cultural change is a slow-moving, organic process. It begins at
the individual level, with the personal node, as described in the
first section of the book. Once this seed crystal has been formed,the crystal can be grown by encouraging nearby particles, or
people, to attach to the seed. This next step begins by changing
the relationship with just one coworker. This process should
begin with an easy target, someone who shares a positive
relationship, such as a manager, an employee, a customer, or apeer.
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PART 2: GROWING YOUR CRYSTAL
Organic Growth
The next step in making work great is to add more members to
the crystal by attracting additional coworkers to the seed of
cultural change. This process becomes easier with each newmember, due to the multiplicative effect that grows with each
addition. Muzio suggests making a network chart of contacts,
beginning with oneself, then adding the first new member as well
as those people directly and indirectly influenced by the crystal of
cultural change.
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PART 2: GROWING YOUR CRYSTAL
For those individuals who fall in the middle of the desirable-to-
difficult scale, Muzio offers a strategy designed to improve
communication by outlining the five building blocks of reality:
1. Information. This is the most objective building block since itincludes both the factual information and the person who
presents it. Information is the starting point.
2. Situation. The situation is connected to the information, and
is made up of the surrounding context.
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PART 2: GROWING YOUR CRYSTAL
3. Beliefs. This building block is at the opposite side of the
spectrum from information. It is the most personal and the
most difficult for another person to perceive.
4. Approach. Approach, which is connected to beliefs,determines how a persons environment is addressed and
handled.
5. Interpretation. This is the meeting point between the outside
world (information and situation) and the inside world (beliefsand approach).
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PART 3: LEADING YOUR CRYSTAL
There are three types of advice that may be requested:
1. Information requests
2. Requests for feedback3. Solicitations for situational advice
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PART 3: LEADING YOUR CRYSTAL
Mobilizing Groups
Once a person has become a successful advisor, the next step
in growing the crystal is to begin mobilizing groups of people. As
in the previous steps, leading groups of people should begin withovertness of purpose, or determining why the group is meeting.
There are two main purposes for group work: to inform and to
solve. Meetings designed to inform tend to be one-way
transmissions of information. The audience for these meetings
can be small or large.
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PART 3: LEADING YOUR CRYSTAL
You...as the Definer
Moving from member to contributor to advisor to definer is a
gradual process that leads to increased responsibility. When a
person has moved to this final category of definer, it is importantto continue to remain true to the original principles that brought
them to this role: overtness about tasks and clarity in
relationships. However, there are three roles that can undermine
this culture-building effort. Muzio cautions against the following
three positions: rescuer, persecutor, and victim.
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PART 3: LEADING YOUR CRYSTAL
The key to resisting these three roles in the drama triangle is to
continue to practice overtness about tasks and clarity in
relationships. Staying true to these principles will open the path
from member to definer. While there may be setbacks along the
way, it is important to keep in mind the adaptable nature of thecrystalline network. Unlike a chain, which is only as strong as its
weakest link, a network is quickly evolving. A non-functioning
node in the network is easily by-passed. The more each
individual practices the principles outlined in Make Work Great,
the faster and more effective information transfers will be,creating an entire network of high performers.
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