What sets top workplace performers apart?

To answer this question, Morten Hansen, Professor at University of California, Berkeley, studied over 5,000 U.S. corporate employees for his book, Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More. Through his research, he found that top performers engage in 7 key practices that explain 66 percent of the differences in their level of performance.

Co-author with Jim Collins of the highly acclaimed book, Great by Choice, Morten is also the author of the book, Collaboration, and he has been ranked one of the most influential global management thinkers by Thinkers50.

In this interview we discuss:

Why working longer hours is not enough to achieve high levels of performance
How seven work-smart practices can explain 66 percent of the differences between top performers and their peers
Why we need to do less and then obsess to produce exceptional work
How an obsession with sled dogs led one explorer to reach the South Pole before his highly competitive and well-resourced peer
Why Jiro, the famous sushi maker, is one of the best examples of someone who does less and obsesses his way to a Michelin star
The key question employees need to ask their bosses in order to do less and obsess: which of these projects is of the highest priority for achieving our goals?
How a lack of prioritization can be the linchpin to doing less and obsessing over it to provide key value
How a high school principal architected a work redesign that epitomizes what it means to start with delivering value and then determining goals
The value of redesigning our work without spending more or adding staff
Why our goals should emerge from the value we seek to deliver
How focus on fewer work projects allows you to ask deeper questions and provide more value
Why a focus on passion and purpose allows us to contribute more than passion alone
The fact that the goal of collaboration is better performance, not better collaboration
Why we need to avoid over collaborating and under collaborating and, instead, focus on disciplined collaboration to achieve our goals
How small changes can help us achieve big results, especially when it comes to focusing more, saying no to some things, setting better priorities, and collaborating more strategically

Links to Topics Mentioned in the Podcast

Robert Falcon Scott

Roald Amundsen

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Psyched Up by Dan McGinn

A Flipped School and Greg Green

Hartman Goertz and Tangier Terminal

Berkeley Executive Education

Genevieve Guay

Curious George

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Thank you to Emmy-award-winning Creative Director Vanida Vae for designing the Curious Minds logo, and thank you to Rob Mancabelli for all of his production expertise!

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