What makes me feel good about work?

I know exactly why I am motivated at work – my work means something.

I took a contracting job with Boeing Portland Fabrication in 2010 as an instructional designer.  In early 2011, I was assigned to a project that, in one form or another, I have worked continuously since that time.  (In fact, it even led to my hiring as a permanent Boeing employee in 2014.)  This project is about transforming our manufacturing plant from the traditional production environment to a people-centered, improvement-focused culture.  This new system will capitalize on the passion and skills of our people to make their own work safer, better, and easier which generates profits for our business.  These profits, in turn, ensure long-term security for our people.  There’s not much more you can hope for from your work, right?

My role is primarily training and communications of the system.  It is my job to create vehicles for driving commitment to and knowledge of the new system.  How do I help people understand what is it for them, why the company would invest so much resource into this type of change, what the changes are and how to make them?  These are questions I must answer every day.  It’s exciting and challenging and important.  It helps that I love these “Legos” (meaning training and communication), of course.

In the end, I hope that we transition into and sustain this new culture, and that I can be a part of sustaining it.  We are at about 35% saturation.  So far, we have been able to create enough capacity to increase the work that we do here, and that means more security for employees.

What’s even more exciting?  This little project we started in a dark room at Boeing Portland is starting to impact all of Boeing Enterprise.  My training lab held classes for more than 700 Boeing employees last year.

Motivation is easy for me, even for the most Sisyphean of tasks relating to the work I do.  I know that in the end, I will have truly helped change the company for the better of the people.