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You learned a lot of this from the ground up during your years with a company called AES Worldwide, an energy giant that eventually had employees in 31 countries and revenues of 88.6 billion dollars. I'm sort of stumbling on that because it's remarkable. So AES is not just where you learned that perhaps people should have more joy at work, but you actually put those principles into practice. Would you tell us a little bit about that?
Dennis Bakke: The book is a story of my journey to try to create the most fun workplace in human history, and what I first found out was that people really, really enjoy work -- they don't work for money, they don't work for parties, they work because they were created to work. We work to serve the needs of others, and along the way meet our own needs.
When you work for a company that is actually -- and I think most companies are like this -- doing something useful for society and it really matters -- whether it's entertainment or a technology that is helping people communicate or providing a digital highway -- whatever it is, there's a huge amount of things that are being done by companies and the people in those companies to improve life in the world, and that can be really rewarding if you get the right purpose. As opposed to -- people do not work well for money; money is not a motivator.
Bethanne Patrick: Is part of this though too -- and I don't want to get you off that point -- do people need to know a lot about themselves before they go into a job? What happens if someone starts working very young before they really have an idea of what they want, what's the best way for them to take 'Joy at Work' and use it to help themselves?
You learned a lot of this from the ground up during your years with a company called AES Worldwide, an energy giant that eventually had employees in 31 countries and revenues of 88.6 billion dollars. I'm sort of stumbling on that because it's remarkable. So AES is not just where you learned that perhaps people should have more joy at work, but you actually put those principles into practice. Would you tell us a little bit about that?
Dennis Bakke: The book is a story of my journey to try to create the most fun workplace in human history, and what I first found out was that people really, really enjoy work -- they don't work for money, they don't work for parties, they work because they were created to work. We work to serve the needs of others, and along the way meet our own needs.
When you work for a company that is actually -- and I think most companies are like this -- doing something useful for society and it really matters -- whether it's entertainment or a technology that is helping people communicate or providing a digital highway -- whatever it is, there's a huge amount of things that are being done by companies and the people in those companies to improve life in the world, and that can be really rewarding if you get the right purpose. As opposed to -- people do not work well for money; money is not a motivator.
Bethanne Patrick: Is part of this though too -- and I don't want to get you off that point -- do people need to know a lot about themselves before they go into a job? What happens if someone starts working very young before they really have an idea of what they want, what's the best way for them to take 'Joy at Work' and use it to help themselves?
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Dennis Bakke: I don't think it matters, because we may not be very aware of how we're made, but every one of us is made the same way. We all have the desire to use our skills to help others and meet our own needs as well.
Bethanne Patrick: And in your saying that, I think that's a very significant statement -- I know that for you and for 'Joy at Work' and for some of the other foundations and institutions you're working with now, the principles underlying all of this are based on your Christian faith and practice.
Dennis Bakke: Yeah, but it's not essential because if everybody just really searches in their own mind -- I had to do this -- just figuring out what is it that really causes people to have fun working, what does it take? I watched and looked and I self-examined and realized that there are two things that are required. One is there has to be a purpose -- I have to understand that I'm working at something important. Making a difference for others, and of course along the way I'm going to meet my own needs too.
But if you're just doing selfish stuff like, 'I'm doing this just for me,' people are not really motivated by that. There are a few, I suppose, but that is not the primary motivation that gets people all turned on about work. The second thing -- and this is more important even than the first -- is we need to be able to be human beings in our work. What I mean by that is, I realized that what separates human beings from all other species is our ability to think, reason, make decisions and then hold ourselves responsible for that.
Bethanne Patrick: Well that's a very important thing about 'Joy at Work' as well because one of your key principles is that it shouldn't just be the bosses and the management who are making decisions. You take the example of your administrative assistant, who is, to use that old word, empowered to make all kinds of decisions in her own way and you think that many employees, if not all employees, should be making decisions.
Bethanne Patrick: And in your saying that, I think that's a very significant statement -- I know that for you and for 'Joy at Work' and for some of the other foundations and institutions you're working with now, the principles underlying all of this are based on your Christian faith and practice.
Dennis Bakke: Yeah, but it's not essential because if everybody just really searches in their own mind -- I had to do this -- just figuring out what is it that really causes people to have fun working, what does it take? I watched and looked and I self-examined and realized that there are two things that are required. One is there has to be a purpose -- I have to understand that I'm working at something important. Making a difference for others, and of course along the way I'm going to meet my own needs too.
But if you're just doing selfish stuff like, 'I'm doing this just for me,' people are not really motivated by that. There are a few, I suppose, but that is not the primary motivation that gets people all turned on about work. The second thing -- and this is more important even than the first -- is we need to be able to be human beings in our work. What I mean by that is, I realized that what separates human beings from all other species is our ability to think, reason, make decisions and then hold ourselves responsible for that.
Bethanne Patrick: Well that's a very important thing about 'Joy at Work' as well because one of your key principles is that it shouldn't just be the bosses and the management who are making decisions. You take the example of your administrative assistant, who is, to use that old word, empowered to make all kinds of decisions in her own way and you think that many employees, if not all employees, should be making decisions.
