The Case for Good Jobs by Zeynep Ton

Author:Zeynep Ton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2023-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

7

Wellsprings of Courage

If you are a founder and are now sufficiently inspired that you can overcome fear and doubt to pursue a good jobs strategy, you’re lucky. You’re building something from the ground up, so you can create good jobs and operational excellence from the start. But if you’re a professional manager in a company already operating in mediocrity, then making system change probably seems like a risky bet. You can’t ignore profitability, even in the short term. A drop in the share price could cause a drop in morale. A few quarters of poor performance could cost you your job.

Even if deep inside you know your company needs to turn its vicious cycle into a virtuous one and even if you are inspired by the leaders we’ve just heard from, you might conclude that this process would take too long. Why should you be the one risking your own reputation when you weren’t the one who caused all that mediocrity? The vicious cycle was put in place long before you got there.

There is indeed plenty there to fear, but remember that courage is not the lack of fear. Rather, it is the capacity to do something risky or hard because—even though you are afraid—you see that it’s the right thing to do. What this book—and the next four chapters in particular—can do is give you the courage it takes to move forward. To make you a little less afraid. We will hear leaders from retail to health care to hospitality to manufacturing explain what gave them the courage to pursue system change—specifically, the big bet on people. We will see that the benefits to be gained are greater than you might expect and the risks, though real, are less than you might expect. Much as I admire these leaders, I want to assure you that you don’t have to be a superhero to join their ranks.

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