Statistics

The authors have done extensive research, even blending it with research from other resources like the Gallup Organization and Franklin Covey. Here is what Brent and Gaylan have said about their findings:

“Our research has been revealing. We knew that workplaces are filled with conflict and confusion. We knew that people change their minds and so do organizations. We knew that marketplaces shift and demand new attention. What we didn’t know is that the bigger, more pressing problem is fake work —where people are doing tons of fake work and organizations haven’t begun to calculate the real costs. More importantly, perhaps, is that our anecdotal research—the hundreds of stories we have heard about thousands of people are much stronger in tone and concern that these numbers—if that is possible.”

The following statistics represent their research:

  • 87% of workers are not satisfied with the results of their work.
  • 81% of workers do not feel a strong level of commitment to their company’s top priorities.
  • 68% of workers do not feel that their workgroup goals are translated into real work tasks.
  • 52% of workers feel they are held accountable for reaching their commitments on time, however.
  • 54% of all workers feel they have more creativity, resourcefulness, talent, and intelligence than their job requires or allows.
  • 53% of workers think that the work they do doesn’t count for anything.

Statistics like these don’t paint a particularly promising portrait of the individual workers responsible for driving the global economy we’re all a part of. But, if you look at the company cultures these workers are a part of, the view isn’t much better. We have found that:

  • 56% of workers don’t clearly understand their company’s most important goals.
  • 73% of workers don’t think their company’s goals are translated into specific work they can execute.
  • 70% of workers don’t routinely plan how to support agreed-upon goals and tasks in their workgroups.