Why Joy and Flexibility Are Good for Business | Rosie Sargeant | TED

2,980 views ・ 2025-05-06

TED


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00:04
How do you feel about going to work?
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Excited to start the day or kind of dreading it?
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We've been hard-wired to believe that work isn't supposed to be enjoyable.
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Work is work.
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But here's the thing.
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In the future,
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companies will succeed or fail
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based on how much their people enjoy their work.
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Now, when I tell that to business leaders,
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a lot of them say, "That's great, Rosie,
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but it's the end of fiscal quarter and the CEO is breathing down my neck
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because the board is breathing down her neck
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because our stock price is dropping.
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Let's talk about enjoying work once we're in a better spot.
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Or never."
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Now I get it.
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These leaders are right to fixate on business performance.
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But I've spent the past six years exploring this topic
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as a people and organization expert at BCG,
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and the data is clear.
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Making work more enjoyable pays off big time.
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Just look at the top 100 companies to work for in America.
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Over the last 28 years,
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their stock returns were more than double their peers'.
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So instead of asking how can we boost productivity,
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these leaders should be asking, how can we boost enjoyment?
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Productivity and profit will follow.
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So here are my top three tips to make work more enjoyable.
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Tip one: double down on joy.
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Ask yourself, "What do I enjoy most about my work?
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And how can I do more of that?"
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Take Trader Joe's,
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an American grocery store with a cult following.
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If you've been to a Trader Joe's,
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you know it just feels different shopping there.
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Every employee seems genuinely happy to see you.
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They want to know what you're doing this weekend
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and whether you've tried these pumpkin spice Joe-Joe's.
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It's almost surprising how happy they seem in a stereotypically low-paying,
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high-turnover retail job.
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So how does Trader Joe's do it?
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Well, they know that the fun part of working in retail
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is chatting up your co-workers and the customers.
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So they've created this super social environment
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by purposefully overstaffing their stores.
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The result?
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Overstaffing means employees enjoy their work more,
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are less likely to feel burnt out,
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and are less likely to consider quitting.
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In fact, one in 10 Trader Joe's employees
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has worked there for over a decade,
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which is pretty crazy when you consider how expensive it is
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to replace an employee,
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not to mention the lost productivity as they learn how to do the job.
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But overstaffing doesn't just save Trader Joe's money,
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it makes them more money, too.
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Employees have more time to interact with customers and drive spending.
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If you compare Trader Joe's to its peers,
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they make 50 percent higher revenue per employee.
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So doubling down on joy is good for employees,
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customers and shareholders alike.
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And it didn't require expensive pay rises or fancy bonuses.
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Yes, you need to pay your employees a living wage,
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but don't make the mistake of thinking more enjoyment only means more money.
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It doesn't.
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We all know people who make a ton of money
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and still loathe their jobs.
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So get creative.
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Figure out what it is that you enjoy most about your work
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and do more of that.
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Tip two: eliminate frustrations.
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My second tip is the opposite.
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Ask "What's most frustrating about the work I do
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and how can I do less of that?"
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Back in 2020,
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US department store Neiman Marcus was in pretty dire straits.
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Employees were quitting at record rates,
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the pandemic had closed nearly all their stores
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and by May they were filing for bankruptcy.
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To survive, they needed to make some serious changes.
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So they created an option
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for store associates to serve customers remotely
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as work-from-home digital stylists.
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But here's where things get really interesting.
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When the world reopened post-pandemic,
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Neiman Marcus could have easily gone back to their old ways of working.
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But they know from extensive surveys
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that flexibility is their employees' number one concern.
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So while other companies were issuing return-to-work mandates,
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Neiman Marcus doubled down on flexible work.
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Now, a store associate might spend some three days a week in-person
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behind the makeup counter
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and two days working from home, serving online shoppers.
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With more people shopping online, it's a win for customers,
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employees and the company.
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Staff turnover has dropped by 20 percent.
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So if you want people to perform at their best,
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ask what's getting in their way
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and then design the work to minimize those frustrations.
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Tip three: keep experimenting.
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My final tip is to revisit enjoyment repeatedly.
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What works well today, might not work a month down the line.
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In my job, our teams take a weekly survey
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about whether we're enjoying our work.
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And then we review the results together.
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But we don't spend it poring over pie charts and line graphs.
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We make it fun by asking questions like,
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"Which one of these nine kangaroos represents how this week went for you?"
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And someone might say,
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“Well, I started out this week as the snuggly joey,
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safe and sound in his mother's pouch.
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But then I had a really atrocious client meeting
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and felt kind of hung out to dry.
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So by the end of the week,
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I was like the more feral, possibly rabid kangaroo."
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It might sound like a silly process for such a serious task,
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but it works.
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We've come up with so many ways to make work more enjoyable,
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like shifting a morning check-in 30 minutes later
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so that a team member can drop his kid off at kindergarten.
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A trivial change for us
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that made the world of difference to him.
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So make a habit of talking about enjoying work,
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and you'll come up with surprising solutions
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that make work more enjoyable for everyone.
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So before you get back to whatever it was that you were doing
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before you tuned into this talk,
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I'd love for you to ask,
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how can I enjoy this more?
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Because what's enjoyable for you
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is good for your company too.
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Thank you.
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