Great work, good work, bad work is an intuitive mental model by Michael Bungay Stanier1 that helps me understand where my passion and energy are best directed.
Each type of work meets me where I am. What is Bad work for me may be Great work for another and vice-versa.
To do more Great work I need to do less Good work and delegate the Bad work to someone else. In imposes upon me the responsibility of understanding which category of work my daily actions fit into.
Bad work
Any work that drains my energy, provides me little value, does not advance my knowledge and takes sucks up time I could be spending in Good work or Great work. Work I would give anything to avoid.
Good work
When I get home at the end of the week, with that good level of weariness that shows I have been working, but I can’t remember what I was working on, I’ve been doing Good work.
Good work is the work that is in my wheelhouse. It can be so easy for me that others are left amazed. To me Good work is nothing special. It’s just “what I do”.
Great work
Great work is what makes my heart sing. It energises me and wraps itself in a mood of Wonder.
We all need to find our own Great work.
Great work does not need to be great for humankind. The standard is great for me.
As time passes, Great work can devolve to Good work. That is a good. It allows me to move into even greater work.