Copyright © 2010 The Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College on behalf of Project Zero. All rights reserved. People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfi sh, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you fi nd serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. - Mother Theresa TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Acknowledgements 54. Firm about ‘Flim Flam’ 3. About the Authors 56. To Print or Not to Print 5. Foreword by Howard Gardner 59. Refl ective Activities 7. Preface 59. What is Excellent Work? 9. Introduction 60. Top Ten 13. Overview 61. Today’s Top Story is … CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS GOOD WORK? 61. Protecting Your ‘Valuables’ 19. Introduction 62. For and Against: Debating Excellence 21. Refl ective Activities 62. Making a Case for Taking the Case 21. What Is Good Work? An Introduction to the Concept 63. Your Two Cents 22. Your Thoughts on Criteria for Good Work 64. Getting Specifi c: What Do YOU Want? 22. A Job Interview CHAPTER 3: ETHICS 23. How Professions Change Over Time 67. Introduction 24. Value Sort 71. Narratives CHAPTER 2: EXCELLENCE 71. Silence Isn’t Always Golden 31. Introduction 73. Divided Loyalties 35. Narratives 75. Honest to Goodness 35. All the World’s a Stage 76. Marketing Me 36. Money Matters 78. Clothes Call 38. The Right to be Wrong 79. A Believer in Bolivia 40. The Meaning of Grades 81. A Tale of Two Lawyers 42. Camera Shy 83. Drama Drama 43. Excellence at Risk 84. Playing Hardball 45. Valuable Investments: 85. A Life Worth Living Ethical Values in Business 87. Serving a Cause vs. Serving a Client 47. A ‘Stereotypical’ Problem 87. The Diagnosis Dilemma 48. In Pursuit of Excellence 88. Food for Thought 50. When in Doubt ... Make it Excellent! 89. ‘Good’ Censorship? 52. Does Excellence Always Equal Success? 92. Money Troubles 52. Lookin’ Good 94. Beyond the Science Club 97. Refl ective Activities 133. If You Could Change… 97. Shifting Perspectives 134. Dear Mentor… 98. And We’re Live! 134. Offi ce Space A Reporter’s Perspective 135. Picture Yourself as a… 98. In a New Light 135. My Ideal Job 99. A Spotlight on Ethics 136. Who’s My Hero: Identifying Infl uences 100. You Be the Judge on Work and Life 101. How Does It End? 137. Refl ections on Refl ections 103. Thinking About Responsibilities 137. Where Are You and Where Do You Want to Go? 103. What Do You Value? 138. Value Sort 104. Challenging Choices APPENDICES CHAPTER 4: ENGAGEMENT 142. A. Short Versions of Narratives 107. Introduction 151. B. Bibliography 111. Narratives 111. Acting Out 153. Appreciation 112. Finding the Thread 113. Empathy: How Much is too Much? 115. There’s no ‘I’ in Team 117. Tough Love 119. What’s a Mentor? 121. Mentorship at a Distance 123. The Hardy Hedgehog 124. Typecast? 126. Baiting the Bully 129. Refl ective Activities 129. In Their Words 131. Looking at the Big Picture: Investigating Professional Goals 132. Enjoyment and Excellence 132. Dramatic Dialogue 133. Crafting a Resignation Letter ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS any individuals on the GoodWork Project across creating materials to use in the classroom. We are most Mall three university sites have helped in the devel- especially grateful to Denise Simon and also to Damari opment of the GoodWork Toolkit. We want to thank the Rosado for her fi nancial expertise. On our own team, we educators and their students, many of whom have stayed would like to thank Kathleen Farrell and Lucy Curran in touch with us over the past fi ve years about their use for their efforts drafting sections of the Guidebook, nar- of these materials. Their feedback about how they work ratives, and refl ective activities. Their thoughtful ques- in the classroom and during professional development tions and attention to details have greatly contributed sessions, along with the student work they shared with to our work. us, have helped us to develop a version of the Toolkit that We also thank individuals who have participated in this we hope will be valuable to educators, students, and study and spent precious time responding to our ques- others around the world. We would especially like to tions and telling us their stories. These data are at the recognize Joan Miller and her cadre of professional nurses, heart of the Toolkit, and we are grateful for their willing- the faculty at Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, ness to be a part of the GoodWork Project. Massachusetts, and Cheryl Christo at Arlington High Lastly, we are indebted in particular to our generous School in Arlington, Massachusetts. funder, Julie J. Kidd, President of the Christian Johnson We thank Howard Gardner for his time, expertise, and Endeavor Foundation, and her colleague Susan Kassouf, leadership. Howard has provided important guidance both of whom have been valuable resources for us. and feedback on creating practical interventions for Without their support, we would not have been able to individuals—interventions that draw on the fi ndings bring these materials to people all over the world. We of our qualitative research. We are also grateful for the have been so fortunate to receive their support of our thoughtful input of several individuals at Project Zero, website, the GoodWork Toolkit, and the study of young each of whom offered helpful pieces of advice about professionals on the GoodWork Project. Guidebook 1 ABOUT THE AUTHORS Wendy Fischman joined Project Zero at the Harvard Lynn Barendsen is a project manager at the GoodWork Graduate School of Education in 1995 as a researcher Project. After graduating from Bates College, Lynn spent with Project Co-Arts, a study of educationally effective several years engaged in graduate study in American lit- community art centers. Since 1996, she has managed erature at the University of Chicago and Boston University. various aspects of the GoodWork Project, specifi cally She has published articles on African American and region- focused on the meaning of work in the lives of young alist literatures. At Boston University, she taught courses children, adolescents, and novice professionals. Wendy in literature and fi lm, English and American literature, has written about education and human development and expository writing. Lynn has been working on the in several scholarly and popular articles addressing topics GoodWork Project since 1997, focusing in particular on such as lifelong commitment to service work, inspira- the work of young professionals. She has written several tional mentoring, and teaching in precollegiate educa- articles about young social and business entrepreneurs tion. She is lead author of Making Good: How Young People and young professionals in theater and business; and con- Cope with Moral Dilemmas at Work, published by Harvard tributed two chapters to Responsibility at Work: How Leading University Press in 2004, and contributed two chapters Professionals Act (or Don’t Act) Responsibly. Most recently she to Responsibility At Work: How Leading Professionals Act has coauthored, with Howard Gardner, a chapter on young (or Don’t Act) Responsibly. Wendy has taught humanities workers in a global age in the Oxford Handbook of Positive to middle-school students and has evaluated school Psychology and Work. reform programs facilitated by a government-sponsored regional laboratory. She received a BA from Northwestern University. Guidebook 3 FOREWORD TO THE GOODWORKTM TOOLKIT know of no resource quite like the GoodWork Toolkit want the same thing. We call this situation “alignment.” Iand the accompanying Guidebook that you are now view- Conversely, when the stakeholders want different things, ing. Building on over a decade of research, the Guidebook good work proves more elusive. Many of the narratives presents a collection of intriguing narratives and dilem- here depict situations of nonalignment or misalignment. mas that have actually been faced by workers—young or Yet ultimately, the decision of whether to pursue good old, leaders or rookies—as they attempt to carry out work work is a personal one. Well-aligned fi elds may harbor of high quality. None of these dilemmas has a clear-cut those who produce compromised or bad work; and mis- solution; rather, the narratives serve as catalysts, as invita- aligned fi elds may nonetheless have many “good workers” tions, to ponder how work is accomplished, and how it in their ranks. Third, a promising way in which to approach might be carried out in a better way. Accompanying these good work is to ask, “To whom or what do I feel respon- stories are stimulating questions and exercises, which sible?” There is no single correct answer to this question. prompt the user to dig more deeply into the facts and But those who ponder it regularly, who discuss it openly issues of each case. And while the focus of the Guidebook and candidly with their colleagues, who refl ect on deci- is on how other people have handled dilemmas in the sions made with reference to responsibility, and who workplace, its ultimate usefulness is personal: it is a guide- alter course as indicated, are far more likely to carry out book about how each of us, whatever our status or station good work in the future. in life, might go about carrying out good work.