No More Shakespeare!

In an attempt to bond with a Grade 11 math class, the substitute teacher provoked a discussion about how Shakespeare was too hard to understand, obsolete, and should be replaced with better modern authors in the schools. Expecting the students to join in with stereotypical complaints, she was surprised to be challenged by the whole class, who passionately defended the importance and value of Shakespeare.

It turns out this was an Honours math class, and most of the students were also in Honours English where an enthusiastic and passionate teacher had inspired a love of English literature and Shakespeare in particular. Students counted off the benefits of Shakespeare on their fingers, loudly protested her critical comments, and laughingly dismissed her anti-Shakespeare arguments.

This kind of passion happens when people are challenged by work that is hard enough to stimulate them, by a leader that makes them believe they are capable enough to handle it. As described by the work on flow experiences by Dr. Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, the work needs to be challenging enough so people can just handle it. Too much challenge produces anxiety, too little produces boredom and apathy.

These students were engaged and interested in their work, and surprised their substitute teacher who was fishing for complaints and cynicism. In your workplace, think about the challenge of the work compared to the skills and abilities of those doing the work. Too much challenge, and you have anxiety and worry, too little challenge and you have boredom and apathy.

If your workplace seems filled with cynicism, complaints, anxiety, worry or apathy and boredom, does it arise simply because people have bad attitudes? Or does it emerge from systemic issues, from a mis-match between the challenge of the work compared to the skills and capacity of the people? One you can control, to make things better, the other you just have to live with.