Job crafting is a skill designed to help you find more fulfillment in your work. By making a few cognitive, task, or relationship adjustments, you can turn the job you have into one that inspires and challenges you. With job crafting you can find ways to use your interests, knowledge, and skills to level up and make a greater impact.
Before discussing the basics of job crafting, take a few minutes to reflect on what you value, what motivates you, and what you find inspiring. For instance:
- What are your personal strengths, and how could you put them to use more each day?
- What makes you happy, or gives you a sense of fulfillment?
- How do you want to be remembered in your job?
- How can you give your best in this position, to these people, at this time?
By doing a little self-reflection you will have greater insights as to what aspects of your job inspire you or bring you joy. By answering the above questions, you are ready to start crafting. There are three methods for job crafting. They include cognitive crafting, task crafting, and relationship crafting.
Cognitive Crafting
Cognitive crafting is changing your mindset to see your job as part of ‘something bigger’. How often do you think about the significance your work has for the mission of your organization, for the people you serve, or for the greater community? Amy Wrzensniewski, a researcher at Yale and the woman who inspired job crafting, said, “People who consider their work to be a calling (in other words, they feel their work has purpose) tend to be more satisfied than those who think of their work as ‘just’ a job”. We’ve all heard the story of three stone masons who were asked what they were doing. One answered that he was laying bricks, another that he was building a wall, and last that he was building a cathedral. It is easy to guess which of these three stone masons found the greatest fulfillment in their work. Take a minute to write down the bigger vision of your work. How does your job contribute to something that makes a difference, that is inspiring, or rich with meaning?
Task Crafting
Task crafting is changing the nature of your tasks and assignments so that they bring greater satisfaction and fulfillment. How often do you volunteer for assignments that align with your skills and interests or adjust tasks to better utilize your innate gifts and strengths? Additionally, how often have you honed a new skill so you could become an expert in a certain aspect of your job or found ways to optimize how a task is done? Think of an accountant who automates or streamlines the mundane aspects of her job so she can spend more time in the creative work that she enjoys. What about the cook who takes the opportunity to add his personal flair in creating delicious dishes of culinary art for his customers? There are limitless ways to infuse your unique gifts, talents and interest into your assignments that will enhance and breathe new life into your work. Write down 1-2 ways that you can change the nature of your tasks and assignments to better align with your strengths and those things that bring you joy.
Relationship Crafting
Relationship crafting is reshaping the type and nature of the interactions you have with others. It involves finding ways to build healthy relationships or serve and lift those around you. Interacting with others in positive ways can be very rewarding. It could be in the form of mentoring, in changing up the way you connect with co-workers, or in finding ways to enhance your customer’s experience. Think of the bus driver who chooses to bring joy to others by friendly greeting anyone who takes his bus. Or the high school custodian who not only takes pride in his work but who also takes the opportunity to mentor kids who he sees falling through the cracks. President Monson, in his talk, 'Love – The Essence of the Gospel', referred to a millworker, who at the expense of her own piece-rate income, took time to teach a fellow employee. This act of love created a lifelong friendship that was a blessing to both women. Take a minute to write down ways that you can improve or enhance your relationships with others at work.
Job crafting is a process. As you implement change, you build momentum which opens opportunities for more change. It starts with being intentional in those aspects of your job that are within your control. Over time you will find greater fulfillment in your work and see the positive ripple effects your actions have had on the people and environment around you.
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What is Job Crafting? (Incl. 5 Examples and Exercises) (positivepsychology.com)
From the Department of OR the Center for OR the Institute for (umich.edu)
How to find your sense of purpose at work | (ted.com)