In January 2006, I wrote a posting about the difference between good work and great work.  I found definitions of the two from a coaching colleague, Michael Bungay Stanier, who found it from someplace else. (I suppose that’s the way of the Internet-driven world—we have access to great ideas but the originator sometimes gets lost in the conversation.) Here are the definitions:

1. Work that goes beyond its functional intention and moves us in deep and mysterious ways, we call great work.

2. Work that is conceived and executed with elegance and rigor, we call good work.

Since writing that post, I’ve been intentionally making space for great work. Here’s what I’m learning about great work:

1. Doing great work often means saying no to good work. And that takes courage. My Gremlins emerged from their caves in saying no to good work: “You’re just being too picky! You can’t afford to turn this job down!”  Two things happened consistently in turning down work that I could do well, but didn’t move me in deep and mysterious ways.  First, I felt a sense of relief. And second, new opportunities popped up, ones where I was more excited, where the work felt richer. 
2. Great work starts off as something that can fit into a box—we see its shape and form—and expands into creatures that we could not have imagined. When I started a series of six workshops earlier this year with a colleague, we imagined that each session would be clearly outlined with facilitator guides and handouts. By the time we finished delivering the last workshop, we realized how wrong our imaginations had been!  Our creativity within each session, in the moment, working with the participants, had blown the doors off of anything we could have designed ahead of time.
3. Great work takes on a life of its own. The podcast, “Conscious Living, Conscious Leaving,” to be launched soon (fingers crossed for August 2006), has grown from a series of interviews with my friend, Ilene Kouzel, on dying and living well, to something much larger. To be honest, I can’t even articulate what larger looks like. While it started out with just me and Ilene, there are now ten people working on this project—including a graphic designer, a recording engineer, a podcast guru, an editor, and two experienced web designers. While there are concrete milestones for launching the podcast, where this ends up a year from now is anyone’s guess.
4. Great work attracts great people.  My collaborators this year in great work have been nothing short of spectacular in who they are and what they bring to the table.  They come into the picture without much effort on my part.  There is no need to persuade people to be part of great work. Great work sells itself and often times, compels others to jump in. In working on the “Conscious Living, Conscious Leaving” podcast, I’ve brought in an attorney who specializes in interactive media.  When I met her, she told me she had read my blog posting about great work vs. good work. And then she said, “This is great work.”  This, from an attorney who used to work for Disney.com.
5. Great work touches everyone–creators, consumers and everyone in between.  With a podcast that I launched recently, “Live Action Coaching,” I had the joy of hearing from listeners of the podcast, volunteers who have been coached as part of the podcast, and the technical guy who puts the recordings together for posting on the podcast. From listeners, I hear their relief in knowing they are not the only one who struggles with an issue. Volunteers tell me the additional insights they get from reviewing our recordings and hearing themselves talk about an issue.  They also tell me what a difference the coaching has made in their lives. And the techie, toiling away in the back office, talks about editing one of my podcast programs and being fascinated by the use of the metaphor of blue skies in coaching a volunteer.
6. Great work creates evangelists. Creators, consumers, and everyone in between become evangelists.  They tell others about their great experience. The enthusiasm is genuine and others see it right away.  The graphic designer for the “Conscious Living, Conscious Leaving” podcast was telling me about her weekend away, to a retreat center in New England.  She blurted out, “I told so many people about the podcast. They’ll be waiting for the launch!”
7. Great work can be consuming. And it demands a balanced life. Great work can lead to burn out which then retrenches into good work. Or even mediocre work.  It’s a paradox.  The fact that great work is engaging is a double-edged sword. It moves me in deep and mysterious ways AND diving in and coming up for air every three months is not healthy, for my body or my creative spirit. I recently “hit the wall” with one of my projects.  It was no longer fun and was feeling like work. I realized I was spending too much time on it. It forced me to place boundaries on the role I would play on the project (e.g., I’ll do the project management but I won’t do the content creation.) I gave myself permission to walk away from it for awhile, to get the rest of my life in balance.

I’ve given several reasons and a couple of caveats on including great work in your life.  And yet, the real reason I continue to do great work is this: 

In the process of great work, I will uncover a deeper truth, about who I am and about life.

Start doing more great work today.