Please answer the following question $($based on following discussion$)$

Q$.$ How do we apply the Progress Principle as we support our staff and their progress and performance?

$$That$\text{'}$s them lead lives of quiet

desperation Henry David Thoreau wrote

those words in $1846$ when he lived on the

shores of Walden Pond now I don't know

where Thoreau collected his data but I

do know that his words are true

today there is a disengagement crisis in

organizations if you look deeply into

the everyday lives of people at work as

I did you'll find that far too many are

quietly disengaged from what they do and

their performance is suffering as a

result we cannot solve our economic

crisis unless we solve this problem job

satisfaction is at a low point in the

u$.$s$.$ across the spectrum of workers in

all ages and income levels employee

dissatisfaction leads to slower revenue

growth and lower profitability in other

words employee engagement drives the

bottom line people cannot do their best

work if they are disengaged the cost of

disengagement is staggering estimated at

$300$ billion dollars annually in the US

alone it doesn't have to be this way

work should a noble not kill the human

spirit there's hope and opportunity in

this crisis because it forces us to

fundamentally reevaluate how we operate

my research shows that although most

don't realize it

managers have the power to re$-$energize

the workforce and revitalize creative

productivity so I$\text{'}$m a psychologist

unfortunately for you I$\text{'}$m not the kind

who can cure any neuroses you brought

with you today

but I am the kind who researches

psychological experience

and performance my mission is to show

how we can improve everyday work life in

every organization and in the process

lift the level of organizational

performance the well$-$being of people

across society and even our economic

condition this mission drove me to spend

the past $15$ years looking deeply into

the hearts and minds of people at work

think about yourself at work

are you as engaged as you could be what

about you are you really well if you are

that's great but think about other

professionals you're close to your

spouse son daughter your closest friends

my guess is that at least some of them

are disengaged unhappily stressed or

both so what's missing what does get

people deeply and satisfyingly engaged

in their work well I can tell you what

doesn't with a story from the Diaries we

collected this is the story of a

software engineer named Marsha who

worked in a team of nine information

analysts and programmers in a tech firm

this team was highly motivated and very

skilled initially motivated not long

after we started our study this

organization announced a series of

terminations with little explanation and

no clarity on criteria engagement on

this team plummeted and when I read

Marcia's diary I had a very strong

reaction I think of myself as a rational

scientist but her diary the day the

termination started moved me to tears

it is very hard to work and get anything

done around here today $39$ people lost

their jobs and it seems like this is

just the beginning they will get rid of

people from the project managers level

next and then they will move on to us

I feel like an abused spouse that will

not leave the abuser I keep giving them

another chance and they keep shocking us

in the face this and the other twelve

thousand diaries revealed inner work

life and that is the usually hidden

emotions perceptions and motivations

that people experience as they react to

and try to make sense of the events in

their workday in a work life is

essentially moment to moment employee

engagement and it strongly influences

creativity and productivity in other

words in a work life drives performance

people cannot do their best work if they

have poor in a work lives now bad in a

work life doesn't have to stay that way

in fact it fluctuates all the time as a

function of the events going on at work

even on marshes team people did have

some great days listen to this one this

is from a fellow programmer of Marcia's

named Tom he had been working to solve a

problem fix a bug in some software he

was creating I smashed that bug that's

been frustrating me for almost a

calendar week that may not be an event

to you but I live a very drab life so

I$\text{'}$m all hyped

no one really knows about it three of

the team members who would be involved

are out today so I have to sit here

rejoicing in my solitary smugness

Tom's diary reveals our main discovery

from analyzing $64,000$ specific events

that people reported in these Diaries we

call the discovery the progress

principle of all the events that can

deeply engage people in their work the

single most important is simply making

progress on meaningful work progress can

lift inner work life even if it seems

like just a small step forward like Tom

smashing that bug in his program but you

might call a small win when we analyze

people's very best in a work life days

we found that the single most prominent

event was making progress &