Helping Define Better Ways to Operate: The Transactional Behavior Analysis and Alignment System
July 2, 2014
Creating a Collaborative Working Environment
July 10, 2014
Purpose and intent of Loyalty Solutions Group posts:
This blog is about people, their attitudes, their specialness, their problems, and the opportunities that exist to unleash a common human spirit. The existing managers were raised in cultures that celebrated the individual, that idolized the entrepreneur. The organizations of the past were confronted with a steady stream of issues, each somewhat dependent upon a history of stability. America’s production machine has been the same for a long time. The government built roads on cheap land; that allowed Detroit to build cars, and developers to build things. With each new project, people earned money and the process repeated itself. In each case, the process was orderly and consistent. There were very few radical changes. The organizations built were stable and the changes were not radical, but evolutionary. Bureaucracies functioned in an orderly manner with the politics and human factor being consistent. There has not been much reason for management to change, because the process worked.
The ideas and thoughts in this blog cause a problem. Egos must be adjusted, managers have to listen and actually do activities that historically have not been rewarded. In the transition, we need to find ways to live with the culture of the past while trying to have faith in a new way. It has been my experience that an involved work team takes several years to create, and in many ways is never really created. The whole effort becomes a belief and a process, one that is never complete.
This blog attempts to form the belief in people and the characteristics of a working environment into tangible activities and techniques which, if practiced with a true heart, will deliver a highly motivated and innovative work group, eager to confront new issues and take advantage of discovered opportunities.
Of all the practical ideas, I would start with the job description exercise. I would spend quality time working on the job descriptions and discussing these documents with the people doing the work. I believe this has the highest return on investment, and demonstrates the power of clear communication and employee dialogue.
To return to that old adage, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. Many times, I see young managers challenged to take classes or improve their management style with no way for them to experience success. Work group discussions about job descriptions is a great place to start.
I believe the way to sum up this blogg is with some thoughts about empathy. Many of the ideas and concepts are based upon my belief that the second most important value, following love, is empathy. To have empathy, one must be able to walk in another person’s shoes; one must remove the word “I” and use the words “we” and “you.” I am often bothered by the helplessness I feel when walking down the street and seeing homeless people. To so many of us, these people become invisible and we lose all empathy for them. As managers, are we not in some ways doing the same thing to our employees? We know there are problems, yet we don’t feel we can solve them, so we lose empathy for our people, becoming blind to their plight.
In the past environment, things got fixed. If you wait long enough, things often correct themselves. Well, I believe those days are numbered. Managers as a group can no longer afford not to have empathy. To ignore our employees’ existence as fellow human beings will create failure. Our “rite of passage” occurs when we embrace our employees as equals, not as an expense line or statistic to be controlled.
My objective in these writings is to offer a clear concept and set of values and activities that can help create a business culture of high human intensity and creativity. They have worked for me. I hope some thought or idea that comes to you while reading this blog will work for you.
