Good morning from Haida Gwaii, the “Misty Islands” on the far north west coast of Canada, a remarkable, ancient and mysterious place. I have been working with a credit union here and have had many, many, ‘present moment = wonderful moments’ throughout my visit here.
One of our correspondents sent me this link the other day:
http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_meslin_the_antidote_to_apathy.html
Although the link is speaking about political apathy, I wonder if some of Mr. Meslin’s observations might be applicable in organizations. In my work with managers and leaders I’m often asked, how do we motivate people? How do we get people to take initiative? And for years we’ve been looking at the psychology of the individual and trying to create workspaces where people are more likley to be motivated. But perhaps we’ve been missing a key piece of the puzzle. What about the psychology of the organization? If we really do want employees to care about us, to be motivated, to take the initiative, how many barriers might the organization itself be putting up?
Simply put, how easy do we make it for people to be apathetic about what we’re trying to accomplish as an organizaton? For example, our obsession with numbers and metrics? If organizations were people we’d be hard pressed to be in their company, as self-centred as they seem to be. It’d be like hanging out with a person who spends all of their time looking in the mirror obsessing over minute changes in their waistline and butt size. Now being healthy and fit are good things, and we need to have measures to ensure that we are both. And we are not only healthy and fit for ourselves, we are healthy and fit for our families, for our communities. Or another barrier might be our tendency to hero worship. There are people I know in organizations who have been given status and authority in these organizations because they are hero; they have some skill or competency that is indeed very valuable, and yet they are often ill equipped to work in teams, to manage people, and to inspire and lead. And yet they are handsomely rewarded and even promoted because of their wizardy in some specific area. As a fellow employee, I can reasonably infer that the organization actually values that skill, rather than commitment, motivation and initiative, and so, why bother. Not mention the often cancer-like spread of unreasonable and inappropriate behaviour that rewarding heroes can enhance. If we really do value teamwork, if we really do value collective hard work, then, we need to clearly name and behave in such a way that supports teamwork and collective hard work. Perhaps excising the cancer can be the most motivating behaviour a leader can do.
May we each find an opportunity this week to look at our organization and wonder if the culture actually does inspire and motivate the people to do and be the best they can be?