In addition to entertaining a child there is another great reason to travel to the theater and watch Disney’s new animated feature Moana, a well-told hero’s journey story. Prior to the feature is a thoughtful short, Inner Workings, about the internal battle between the heart and the head.

In the short we get an inside look at the primary organs in the protagonist’s torso and skull – it’s much more entertaining than it sounds. The heart is a party animal and the head is a pragmatist. The heart wants to eat some great tasting food. The head is concerned with nutrition. The heart wants to go to the beach. The head needs to get to work.

The head appears to have won each of these battles as our protagonist settles into his dreary job at a major corporation called Boring, Boring & Glum.

But something is different today, and rather than settle in for another boring brown bag lunch at his desk our protagonist goes out for lunch, enjoys himself, and comes back in a happy mood. Rather than sullenly going about his job he is now happy. His happiness is infectious and his colleagues are lifted out of their apparent mood of despair.

A happy ending!

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Or, is it?

The filmmakers’ treatment the scene at Boring, Boring & Glum is forceful in its portrayal of a dismal work environment. It is a picture that might convince us that the greatest threat in life is not climate change, gun violence, or even terrorism – it’s the diminishment of the human spirit through poorly designed work.

In an interview director Leo Matsuda commented that people struggling with mundane jobs. A point he wanted to make with Inner Workings is that it is important to find joy within your own life so as to break through fears. In the same interview producer Sean Lurie added that there is a need to have balance in your life, figure out what brings joy, and allow that to influence others around you. In his view the film is a realistic message about the opportunity bring the happiness to the office.

This is an easily accepted message – work in many corporate structures can be awful, and since most people need to work for corporate enterprises, people need to strive for balance in their lives so that the happy mood from doing the things they enjoy to do can carry over with them when forced to do work that is boring and glum.

What a horrible thought!

There is a bigger opportunity. Work that is singularly mundane is a signal that growth is static and that creativity has been engineered out of most people’s roles. It is when people working in the enterprise are seen as a means to an ends and not a vital part of the end purpose of the enterprise that work is allowed to become so dreary. This is also a signal that the enterprise may be on a path toward decay.

The work itself is simply poorly designed!

Rather than bemoan these signals, they alert to an opportunity for the enterprise leaders to better design the work itself. This is an opportunity for people at every layer in the enterprise to push back at mediocrity and design the work in their part of the enterprise.

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To recap the themes from Inner Workings, the first is that your heart knows how to make you happy. Follow your heart.

The second theme is that many of us are stuck with mundane work. Maybe a lucky few break free. But for far too many people work is drudgery.

And so the third theme is that if the work is boring then it becomes necessary to strive for some type of work life balance, and import some of that happiness from your real life into the workplace.

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But really, is putting on a happy face in an otherwise dreary environment a great long-term solution? Are we truly respecting people when we fail to design work so that it is engaging and supports the growth of the people working in the enterprise?

The Lean ideas practiced by a relatively few enterprise executive teams define a work ethic that supports designing the work so that people can find joy in the daily re-creation of how they contribute to the shared goals of all the stakeholders in the enterprise.

But is it enough for executive teams to be doing this work? And even when committed, can they design the work alone? People at every corner in a Lean enterprise are responsible for designing the work of the enterprise in a way that respects the needs of all stakeholders.

That design work involves a complex and continuing set of conversations to create a place that brings joyful experiences to workers, shareholders, customers and suppliers alike.

Good work design is not a one-and-done event. Good work design is a continuous process of improving how we converse with each other, make better offers and commitments, and then fulfill those commitments joyfully and efficiently.

For those of us in the Lean community, the Lean ethic demands that we share this continuous work design effort.

So, grab your child, or grandchild, or niece or nephew; and go see Inner Workings and Moana. It’s a great opportunity to reflect on the design of your work.

Click here to see the trailer.