A couple of weeks ago, I was -- surprise -- writing an article for HeroX.
The article was about pervasive workplace dissatisfaction. I was learning all about how when people are unhappy with their employment, their mental and physical health degrades, which degrades their family unit, which degrades their community -- and so on. The problem of workplace dissatisfaction has a ripple effect throughout our entire society, and I personally feel this is a really important issue. I really wanted to address it.
I aspired to make an action manual that would make it easy for people to leave uninspiring work so they can begin working in a way that benefits them, their family, and the whole world. I found myself thinking how can I make this more compelling? How can I track what kind of effect this article has?
I spun and spun, the hamster wheel in my brain working away. Even when I was out celebrating the holidays, I was thinking about how to make this article more effective…and then someone asked me what my New Year’s resolutions would be…
THAT’S IT!
I realized that the jobs article would be published New Year’s week, along with -- surely-- thousands of other articles giving people advice about New Year’s Resolutions.
Great idea, I thought. The article will connect with people who resolve to change their job in 2016!
Great! said the more sarcastic side of my brain, just one more resolution for people to break!
Wamp.
I was hesitant. Did I even want to mention New Year’s and risk the associated cliches and disappointments? That’s when my second epiphany struck: who’s going to publish this? Oh yeah, HeroX. They make designing an incentive challenge possible for anyone, and suddenly the answer was clear: this is my challenge!
I’m passionate about writing articles that help people make positive change in their lives, and HeroX is a way for me to help set this goal with readers, make progress with them, and on top of all this: I can reward people for their own success! I might not have the money to give away a large cash reward, but that’s ok: there are great incentive alternatives to cash. Recognition, for example, is something I can definitely offer. Not to mention, people who like this challenge can donate funds, creating a cash reward that will grow with support throughout 2016.
That’s how the Work Worth Doing challenge came to be.
I went onto HeroX.com, and within a couple of hours I had the challenge all set up. I have since put in many hours fine tuning things, like an image change, but HeroX makes the nuts and bolts of this a breeze. The HeroX prompts and templates enabled me to design the challenge without quitting my day job.
Work Worth Doing will be running through 2016.
Throughout the year, I will write updates about the challenge design experience.
I’ll write about challenges and success that I experience with the Design Your Own Challenge Platform. Hopefully, in sharing about this process, other people will feel more informed and less intimidated about Launching their own HeroX Challenge!
Next week, I’ll write more about the initial experience of designing and launching WorkWorthDoing.
