Effective

Chapter 2Building Your Effectiveness Architecture to Withstand a Changing World

What does it mean to be effective at work, anyway?

Writer and actor Brett Goldstein rocked the business world in 2021 when he asserted, on Brene Brown’s podcast, that “The secret of the Muppets is they’re not very good at what they do. Like Kermit’s not a great host, Fozzie is not a good comedian, Miss Piggy is not a great … None of them are actually good at it, but they f*cking love it …”¹

Goldstein’s main point—that you don’t have to be perfect to get out there and try, especially surrounded by people who care about you—is a terrific one.

But as a fellow Muppets superfan, I really went down a rabbit hole about his basic assertion.

Are the Muppets bad at their jobs? Is Muppet work substandard work?

I would argue that the picture is more nuanced than Goldstein makes it out to be. Kermit, for instance, repeatedly proves himself a basically effective reporter on Sesame Street; he’s just thrown into a disproportionate number of chaotic situations. (A subject we address in Chapter 9!) Animal is a good drummer, but struggles with the lifestyle issues that have challenged drummers across an array of famous bands (including Spinal Tap). Jury’s out on the culinary performance of the Swedish Chef or Rizzo, and the other rats-as-chefs in Muppets Take Manhattan—we haven’t personally tasted their food.

All kidding aside, it’s interesting to try to parse out the cultural stories we tell about being effective ...