|
|
|
|||||
|
specialists in enhancement and management of human performance |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Profit both creates and is a measure of corporate health. Similarly, an individual's satisfaction in life can be, in large part, the result of working in a healthy corporation. The United States now ranks third among nations in productivity. A 1989 Gallup poll indicated that 70 percent of those surveyed found their satisfaction in life comes as a result of working, but only half of that 70 percent are satisfied with their current job. What's going on here? Surely Americans are not purposely striving for less satisfaction in their work! Are they? We say - not intentionally. But there is a major increase in nonproductive addictive activities within our corporate walls. Addictiveness is rapidly increasing and profit is decreasing. Many different factors have brought us to this point, but three major national causes keep recurring: (the Vietnam conflict, the impact of high technology and the vast increase in substance abuse. The Vietnam Era - Conflicting Goals In the 1960s we were asked to support a battle over which our own nation was divided - to fight or not to fight. Whether it was making war-related items, being in the military, knowing someone in the war or being in the denial about the war, everyone was affected by it. Closure on a war is important. Nations can reestablish their positions and set new goals. Japan, after World War II, accepted its loss, rewrote its constitution to decrease its military might and decided instead to compete in the world of business. They have become Number One in Gross National Product and in aiding third world countries. Our country, which won that war, subtly moved toward a posture of helping other countries while not addressing its own productivity needs. Some historians say the guilt felt by Americans as a result of the bombing of Hiroshima is what turned us into a helper ((codependent) nation. Vietnam, where the U.S. became engaged as part of our Help Other Countries movement, escalated into a full-fledged conflict. If we were trying to fight a war from a posture of our World War 11 guilt and saying we simply wanted to help small struggling countries this could easily be considered codependent behavior - putting the needs of others before our own. It gave mixed messages to our citizens. Are we goal-directed, powerful, productive? Or have we become a national social work agency? There was never closure on this question nor on the war, only a series of very strong emotional opinions on each side. This, along with other factors, set our nation up to become dysfunctional with regard to individual productivity and commitment to the goals of organizations. One young soldier, who went to Vietnam willingly with the hope of making a difference in the world, lost his arm the first month there. He was denied any feeling about it for 20 years but when he saw the movie Platoon, it broke through, his emotional barriers. He saw that for 20 years he had worked against every organization that had employed him. He had resisted and undermined authority and had been extremely critical of management without ever knowing why. He did numb his painful feelings temporarily but they returned in the form of helpless anger which caused him to sabotage authority. This soldier became a success story who his healed his addictive behavior through the corporate structure. His earnings jumped from $2,500 per month to $10,000 per month within two years. He is, however, more the exception than the rule. High Tech Creates A Higher Demand For "High Touch" In both Megatrends and Reinventing The Corporation, John Naisbitt reminds us that technology has its price. The more use of technology there is, the more we need to deal with people as human beings, to "touch' them by having more individual contact than in the past. Touch means respect, acknowledgment, recognition, trust and communication. But in most corporations, high touch did not grow to meet high tech - and understandably so. We are usually so totally absorbed in our understanding and selling tip new technology that we often don't have time to deal with the needs of people. Unmet needs, however, lead employees into sabotaging habits: gossip, resistance to growth, fear of change, wasted time, etc. Process Addiction As A Reaction To Drug And Alcohol Addiction Probably the clearest explanation of this link between drug abuse; and process addiction is demonstrated through the Adult Children of Alcoholics movement in our country. This nationally growing movement has several million members. Children who had an alcoholic (or otherwise emotionally unavailable) parent took on certain roles to assure their own survival. One of these roles was protecting the alcoholic parent from the natural consequences of his or her actions. In doing so, the children became part of the family lie, e.g., "We are happy and normal " In The Self Sabotage Syndrome, Janet Woilitz describes how these children, now adults, operated in the corporate world. They are quick to give up their own judgments, commitments and goals in favor of a noisier, more addictive person (tempers, tardiness, errors) whom they are trained to serve automatically, first, and to cover for. Corporate goals and personal goals take second or last place. In Critical Path, Buckminster Fuller stated that he felt the only way humanity will make it on this planet is if each person takes responsibility for his own work, goals and judgments; we must never sell out our natural knowing. The secretiveness of drug abuse is what tempts us to blank out the problem. When confronted, most substance abusers deny its use. If they admit it, they say they are quitting "next week." It often looks as though everyone is normal at work or in a meeting. That's the cover-up. People get so brilliant in their cover-up that it seems foolish to even suspect a problem. Consequently, non abusers begin to think they are crazy when, in fact, they may be the only non-addicted people in a work group. For their own survival, going unconscious is often the only way out, for when conscious, they see users; when they confront them, it is denied; when it is denied, they feel crazy again. So in reaction to a country of possibly 100 million drug abusers, it makes sense that 96 percent of the population has taken on addictive behaviors. Symptoms The sabotaged corporation is one that has lost sight of its vision, goal or reason for being. Such a corporation is undermined by activities and energies placed in areas unrelated to the goal of the vision. These activities and energies are identified as addictive processes. Some symptoms of a corporation afflicted with process addiction are: 1. The profit goal is kept a secret. Employees don't know how much profit the firm needs to make in a year. 2. Those who are in on the secret goal know that either it is missed every year or it is met but where the profit goes is kept secret. 3. The stated goal and mission (if any) are not reflected by our actions. 4. When we leave work at the end of the day, we feel uneasy, a little crazy and off-balance. 5. We think that our corporation is much worse than other corporations. No one would believe what goes on here. 6. Work that once was energizing and exciting now grinds us down so we spend the whole weekend recovering. 7. We do not look forward to going to work in the morning (or evening). 8. Our corporation has spent thousands, maybe millions, of dollars on consulting packages and, even with the best of analyses, there is no lasting change. 9. There is a basic denial throughout the organization about the addictive behavior it encourages. Employees of corporations that foster process addiction get drawn into counterproductive behavior &endash; "They are playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I show them I see this game, I will be punished. I now also play the game of playing at not playing the game." An organization that fosters addiction is a closed system. It is closed to behavior different from the behavior of the addictive group For example, an employee group obsessed with making one person a scapegoat will ignore information that can't be used as evidence against that person. People who insist on contradicting agreed upon falsehoods will often be fired, ignored or transferred. In an open system, by contrast, people accept negative information and try to correct problems. Open systems are conducive to extraordinary productivity and service. Complaints are welcomed and corrective measures are taken. Open systems are a key to excellent customer service. In a typical organization, employees spend 75 percent of their day complaining or explaining. The complaining often focuses on another employee but can also spotlight the boss, the company as a whole, the company's customers and/or the company's policies. The explaining often focuses on why someone, cannot meet or commit to deadlines or on what someone is doing wrong. We are reminded here of the well-known quote of Henry Ford II, "Don't complain; don't explain." Getting agreement from others about their complaints and explanations is a temporary fix to compensate for the recognition employees are not getting. But this fix soon becomes habit-forming. An engineer, reflecting on his career tells how 20 years earlier, he worked for a large engineering firm where everyone was obsessed with criticizing the boss. This period was the low point in the engineer's personal and professional life because he, too, became consumed by this boss's weakness. The engineer was weakened in his own work by this distraction. Those accountable for profit and new technology may also develop obsessive behaviors but of a different sort. Both high tech leaders and CEOs, feeling the lack of support from employees and colleagues, become obsessed with their lone mission to generate profit. It becomes frustrating for them to listen to employees because of the 75 percent explaining/complaining factor. They feel they are the only ones who care about results. Yet in refusing to listen to employees and colleagues, they eliminate a crucial source of information and, as a result, may make disastrous mistakes. The final symptoms of a corporation which has been sabotaged is usually the loss of profit and productivity that was possible but - "for some reason" - just wasn't reached. We believe symptoms of sabotage can be identified and corrected well before deadlines are missed and quality falls short. (NOTE: Allies Consulting offers a menu of programs that deliver profound improvements in individual and organizational performance: increased productivity, profits, retention, morale, quality, communication, teamwork, and more. They will meet or exceed your expectations: they are designed to deliver real results. They can help you become masterful at your performance skills, or your staff to do so. They also leverage our other programs, magnifying your ROI!)
|
POBox 9635