Many articles in the newspapers lately talk about people´s behaviour at work. Some days ago a professor in psychology said that people behave as they are taught by the culture in their workplace. So true!
One example: In one of the Swedish communities, Mark, just east of Gothenburg, there has been issues about their way to handle fosterchildren. They have been accused for doing inferior research and not take the perspective of the children into consideration. It created headlines some year ago and now they have done it again. The first time both the politicians and the officer resigned. It seemed people thought this was the end of the problem, but they did not do anything to the real problem - the culture in their organization. So it happened again.
The same thing happens when people get outburnt. Most of the time this is caused by the organizational culture or climate, sometimes in combination with personal patterns. The culture affects everyone in it and creates certain patterns. The person on sickleave gets rehabilitated and sent back to their old job, only to get sick again. Who rehabilitates the organization?
It would be interesting to learn how many organizations that consciously works with their culture in order to create healthy and positive patterns among their people. If you are working in such an organization or leading one, please share what you are doing. If you would like to work in a consciously learning organization, let´s discuss what it takes to get there.
Water of life,
tiny drops and an ocean,
irresistable force when flowing in the same direction
3 comments:
Eiwor, your input to many conversations that we have been in about the high cost of life depleting cultures has been important and useful to us as an organization. I hope you get many followers of your blog so that they too can benefit from your wisdom.
Birgitt Williams of the Genuine Contact Co-owners Group, Inc.
Elwor, you are inviting important discussions in your blog. Reading what you wrote made me realize how deeply concerned I am about what is happening in our organizations especially now in the US with so many losing their jobs or worried about losing their jobs. There is a lot of fear, a lot of isolation, a lot of overwork and a lot of submissiveness in the workplace which in turn is carrying over into people's lives, the social fabric of our communities and most importantly in family life and with our children. Can I support all of this with data? No. However the anecdotal evidence and the many conversations I have had confirm what you say. I am interested in anything that you have that relates to this. Suzanne Daigle, NuFocus Strategic Group.
Susanne, thank you for sharing your thoughts, I too believe the issue is the fear. If we go back to what creates a climate for learning, which is important since learning in the workplace is essential for the development of an organization, one important requirement is trust. To be able to learn you need a climate where you feel trusted. Stephen R Covey, in his The 8th Habit, says that low trust is the first chronic problem that all organizations face. The symptoms are painful, backbiting, in-fighting, victimism, defensiveness and defensive, protective communication, some of what you mention. When I in workshops invite people to tell me what a life depleting organization would look like, I get some of this and much more. People also know the answer to what creates a life nurturing organization. The problem might be to get there.
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