By Tony Deblauwe
I am very excited to get more into the topic of Ed Muzio’s latest book: Make
Work Great: Super Charge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture, and Gain Influence
One Person at a Time. Ed previously wrote: Four Secrets to Liking Your Work.
Both titles available on Amazon.
Ed is no stranger to the dynamics of the work environment and what it takes to
succeed. Ahead of my review of his latest book, Ed was kind enough to answer
some questions for me about his background and inspiration for the book.
1. Can you tell us
more about your professional background?
I graduated from Cornell with an engineering degree, and I began
my technical career at Intel. As an
engineer I was always a little “different” though. While everyone else was analyzing data, I
always seemed to have my attention on things like group interaction or
appropriate levels of authority. Still, I loved working at Intel; I was
constantly learning new things and gaining responsibility, and that taught me
where I wanted to go. From very early
on, I realized that I wanted to help other people be productive, and also have
some fun and balance in their lives. Within my first 18 months, for example, I
had written an e-mail to Tom Peters asking about how to get into his line of
work.
By the time I left Intel, I had run a worldwide and industry wide
technology advancement initiative, helped with the redevelopment of the
company’s front line manager training, and run a group whose sole purpose was
to develop future technology leaders. Of course, the launch of my own firm
pushed me even further into investigating the pieces of social psychology and
human systems. I think it’s the
application of analytical, engineering thinking to the problem of human system
output that makes me uniquely qualified to do what I do. That’s why the tagline of my firm is
“Analytical Solutions Maximizing Human Potential™”
2. What is the main
premise of the book and what motivated you to write it?
A frequent side effect of my work – helping organizations and
their leaders to achieve more output with less stress – is that all kinds of
people tell me what they don’t like about their jobs. I’ve learned to welcome
these conversations, as they provide windows into important, often fixable
issues in the workplace. Using problems
to drive improvements is good practice.
But there is a difference between identifying needs and idle
complaining, or what I call “THEY syndrome.”
When someone tells me that nothing can be improved until someone else
does something first, I get concerned.
Usually “THEY” means management or leadership. For a long time, my standard response was,
“there is no ‘they,’ only you. You can
either quit, suffer, or make a change.”
Dr. Deb Fisher, my friend and coauthor of my previous book, finally
convinced me of the inadequacy of that response. “Your solutions can fix the biggest problems
in today’s workplace,” she told me, “but only if people implement them. You can’t just tell people to do it
anyway. You have to explain how.”
Make Work Great explains how: How anyone, at any level, can take
actions that will improve their workplace experience and have a positive
influence on the culture around them. Certainly, if the reader is a manager,
it’s easy to see why system-wide changes may happen a little faster. But the
main premise is that anyone can start an improvement. Nothing in the book requires anyone else but
the reader to do anything.
3. What is the unique
value proposition of your book (i.e. how is it different)?
For one thing, it works for every level, from executives to new
employees. I was thrilled when one
reviewer called it a must read for CEO’s, and another called it a first-day
guide for new employees. Whoever you
are, you can pick up this book and find something you can do at work tomorrow
that will help. You can give it to your
boss, to your employees, to your CEO, or just read it and do it yourself,
without having to spend time on anything other than the work you’re already
doing. In that way, it’s very practical.
The other unique thing is that within the book are sidebar
references to my whiteboard videos, produced by CBS/BNET and posted on the
book’s website, www.makeworkgreat.com. The videos provide depth and refreshers for
readers, as well as an easy way to share the book with colleagues. If I tell you to buy a book, you may never
get around to it. But if I send you a
link to a 4 minute video, you’ll probably take a look and see what you
think. I’m hoping that the videos will
provide other avenues to spread out new patterns of behavior. That’s the whole
goal. (See one of the videos at the end of this post).
4. Did you have to do
any special research for the book?
There were a few areas in which I had to dig a little deeper to
make sure I had things right. In many
cases, my biggest challenge was to go back and find the references for things
I’d read, heard about, cited previously, and/or incorporated into my thinking. It was one of the more tedious aspects of the
writing process, but the compilation of the bibliography was worth doing even
as a standalone project.
5. What is the impact
of your book to individuals and/or organizations?
Every worker must constantly walk a balance beam between task, or getting
the work done, and relationship, or interacting positively with colleagues and
customers. Lean too far in either
direction and you fall! My book encourages individuals to begin to think
extremely specifically regarding that balance, overtly defining what they are
trying to accomplish, and clearly determining the approach they will use with
the people around them when they need answers or support.
At the individual level, this puts the employee or manager back in
the driver’s seat at work, and increases engagement, accountability, and even
enjoyment. At the organizational level, as members of the group become more
overt and clear about what they are doing, everyone’s attention gets focused on
having the right conversations, and ignoring distractions. That’s good for overall output.
One of my earliest reviewers read the book, began to follow it,
and within a few weeks told me he was seeing improvements in his own activity,
and in the workplace around him. That’s
the kind of impact I love to see.
6. What is the one key
message you want readers to take away?
As the band
7. What else would you
like to share with our readers?
My vision is a world in which professionals at all levels are
productive, engaged, and (I daresay) happy at work. One of my strategies for
achieving that vision is to give away a lot of useful tools! Please invite your readers to visit the video
page on the book’s website. The videos
are self contained, free, and (I’m told) extremely applicable and helpful. It’s an easy way to get a feel for the
purpose of the book, and at the same time to get some tools you can use in the
workplace immediately.
8. Where can people
get more information about you and the book?
The book’s website, http://www.makeworkgreat.com is the place to
start. From there you can also find
links to me and my company at www.groupharmonics.com, and to my Facebook and
Twitter pages (http://www.facebook.com/edmuzio and www.twitter.com/edmuzio).
Thank you Ed. Wow what a fantastic broad view you have. Your
passion comes through as well where you challenge both organizations and
individuals to achieve the best results possible. I can’t wait to read the
book!
As a workplace guy myself, I strongly encourage people to check out Ed’s work. He
understands how the work environment has changed over the years and his insight
is right on target. Check his company, Group Harmonics, for more information on organization
level solutions.
