If your company is going through tough times, it's easy to blame uncertain economic conditions, an upstart competitor, or a rogue accountant's scandal. But the real reason may be employee dissatisfaction--and your failure to acknowledge or address this problem can cause it to fester and infect the whole organization. By telling the true story of the demise of a once-successful company, organizational behavior experts Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer demonstrate how seemingly trivial workday events can have a powerful ripple effect on entire organizations, effectively squashing people's creativity and productivity. In this chapter, the authors define inner work life and its three components (perceptions, emotions, and motivations) and explain how you as a manager--no matter your level--can boost the inner work life of the people around you. Basing their analysis of this cautionary tale and its relevance to managers on thirty years of research and an in-depth day-to-day study of employees at seven companies, the authors show how nurturing inner work life can help you build a successful organization--one where people love to work because they have the chance to accomplish something that matters, every day. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 1 of "The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work."