The Joy of Working

How many of you actually enjoy working? I do, but then I’m self-employed. I know people who love their work but hate the organization that they work for. I also know people who work in great organizations but hate their work. 

As with anything as complicated the 21st century workplace there is more than one way to look at the joy of working…so let’s begin.

In 1985 Denis Waitley and Reni Witt actually wrote a book called the Joy of Working. This is a self-help book which includes thirty different things (one for each day of the month) that you can do to put more joy into your worklife. 

The authors write about such things as…

• dreams
• goal seting
• being your best
• self-reliance
• risk-taking
• learning, etc. etc.

Should we be happy in our work? Well, according to a growing number of people the answer is YES!

Kenford Nedd, MD writes, “You are entitled to be happy. Happy people live longer and they accomplish more”.

While this may seem like a no-brainer not everyone agrees with Dr. Nedd. In fact many of us have been raised to believe that the pursuit of happiness is somehow wrong. Some people even feel quilty when they feel good.

Of course the important question for today’s post is, “should we expect to be happy while we are working?”

Would it surprise you to learn that the subject of happiness and how it affects our performance at work is so hot that economists are investigating the subject? I kid you not.

The subject of happiness has been studied, examined and debated by philosophers for centuries.

The Greeks were experts on the subject of happiness.  They have provided us with two words that we can use to use when we are discussing the subject:

• Hedonia
• Eudaimonia

Hedonia, or the devotion to pleasure as a way of life, has gotten a bad rap over the years.

Eudaimonia may be more acceptable, especially when we are talking about being happy at work. Eudaimonia is described as “striving toward excellence based on one’s unique talents and potential”.

Finding happiness or joy at work is at once a very personal thing and at the same time it depends on the organization you find yourself working in.

Joy is the result of finding work that enables you to use and develop your unique talents and gifts. The Joy of Working mentioned above provides lots of ideas for things that you can do in your pursuit of happiness.

On the organizational side there are a few things that are required if people are going to be happy at work:

• great leadership (as always)
• organizational values such as respect and trust (that are shared and honored)
• communication
• recognition
• celebration
• social support and team work
• opportunities for ongoing learning and development

And remember what Studs Terkel said, “Most of us have jobs that are too small for our spirits”. 

Finding joy and happiness in your work will certainly feed your spirit.

Cheers!

Lesley 

Building Trust in the Workplace

Trust is the glue that keeps the workplace focused, energized and moving forward. Without trust relationships will not develop and without relationships there will be no teamwork.

Trust is fragile and can easily be broken. In today’s rapidly changing workplace I don’t think enough attention is given to the importance of trust.

Trust has to be earned. It can’t be mandated or negotiated.

James Kouzes and Larry Pozner note, “Before people will be willing to follow a leader’s vision or act on a leader’s initiative, they must trust their leader. This trust cannot be demanded. Leaders must earn it”.

A lack of trust in the workplace can also increase stress and may result in  staff turnover. When trust is absent workers will not be engaged with their work or with the organization. 

A 2006 Gallup report found that “business units with actively disengaged workers experience 30 – 50 % more turnover than those with engaged employees and those employees annually miss more work”.

What can you do to build trust at work?

Dennis S. Reina and Michelle L. Reina are the authors of the book Building Trusting Relationships at Work. Their book is well researched and contains a ‘four capacity trust scale’ and a framework to use when your organization is going through change.

Reina and Reina suggest the following seven steps for Healing from Betrayal:

1. Observe and acknowledge what has happened
2. Allow employee’s feelings to surface
3. Give employees support
4. Reframe the experience
5. Take responsibility
6. Forgive
7. Let go and move on

 

 

Healing the Wounds

There is no greater need for healing in organizations than in the aftermath of downsizing and layoffs. 

I was reminded of this over and over again while involved in the closing of two hospitals. During that time I came across the book Healing the Wounds by David M. Noer.

Noer’s book is a MUST READ for managers/leaders contemplating or engaged in downsizing their workforce. I think it would also be helpful for anyone who works in organizations that have been “downsized”. 

As an aside, the term “layoff” usually means that people will be returning to work when the economy improves and “downsizing” refers to permanent loss of jobs.

The book is actually targeted to three groups:

• managers and leaders
• layoff survivors
• layoff victims

Survivors? Victims? Are we talking about the workplace here? Yup, sounds depressing doesn’t it?

The really scary part is that many of the organizations that Noer examined as part of his research had downsized in order to “transform” themselves into organizations that were MORE productive and competitive.

Instead, “the people who had survived the reductions were clearly fearful, angry and depressed. Yet this was the same work force that was expected to turn the organization around and meet global competition!”

Prior to the 1980s layoffs were considered temporary, often seasonal, and a part of doing business in some industries.  These layoffs were accepted because people knew they would eventually be able to return to work.

Then in the 1980s we began to hear about organizations that were “downsizing”. These organizations often closed down plants or operations on a permanent basis and for the first time, in recent history, thousands of people found themselves without work.

What I find interesting is that in the 1990s when the economy was on an upturn, even profitable organizations were downsizing or “rightsizing” and continuing with large scale layoffs.   

In situations of downsizing and layoffs human resources are charged with assisting those who are leaving the organization by providing the following:

• severance
• benefits
• outplacement
• Employee Assistance Programs

This is a good thing for the people who are leaving the organization but Noer found that little or no thought was given to the people who were “left behind”.  

Here are some of the reactions typical of “survivors”:

• reduced risk-taking (reluctance to take on new challenges or introduce new ideas)
• lowered productivity (survivors become consumed by the need for information and gossip increases)
• thirst for information (any type of information that might reassure them that they will be ok)
• blaming others (this blaming is usually targeted toward management–no-one wants to take responsibility)
• justifying the need for the layoff (this is a way to ease the guilt felt by the survivors)
• denial (it is not uncommon for management, especially upper management to deny the feelings of fear, insecurity, sadness, frustration which are typical of survivor syndrome)

I think that once management understands and accepts that the “survivor syndrome” is a real threat to the future health of their organizations they can begin to implement the recommendations in the book Healing the Wounds.

So the goal is to revitalize the organization.

But first a word about managment. Managers/leaders are survivors too and will need assistance as they are expected to “turn the organization around”.

So you will need to provide managers with knowledge and skills in transition or change management.

Managers also need to recognize that they will experience feelings of grief and loss.

Other areas of focus/interventions that will assist in revitalizing your organization:

• Communication…you can’t communicate enough before, during and after the downsizing occurs
• Recognize and help people deal with the stress that is inevitable (there will be fewer people to do the work and most will have heavier workloads)
• Celebrate achievements
• Develop cross-functional, self-directed workteams
• Create new performance and reward systems
• Encourage people to take control of their own careers and encourage personal growth and risk taking
• Reconnect people with the vision, mission and values of the organization

 What’s your experience been? What else can be done to revitalize your organization? If you’re making a profit why do you need to downsize at all?

And for non-profit organizations there are things you can do to reduce costs BEFORE you terminate employees.

 

 

The Learning Organization 101

Shortly after I started writing this blog Virginia Langdon, Executive Director of the Workplace Council,  sent me an email. One of her comments relates to the need for organizations to support continuous learning:

“Being able to support an individual or team when there have been mistakes made and creating time for new learning to take place is crucial in developing a healthy workplace.”

I touched on the need to drive fear out of the workplace in a previous post.

Today I want to focus on the idea of creating learning organizatons as a way  to foster continuous quality improvement and innovation.

In 1990, Peter Senge, popularized the concept of the Learning Organization in his landmark book, The Fifth Disciple: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization.

                                                                                                             

The learning organization, as envisioned by Senge, has the following characteristics:

• leadership is shared and occurs at many levels in the organization
• learning occurs when people are able to reflect on their work
• learning is not always easy especially when assumptions are challenged
• work is done in and by teams
• the vision and purpose are consciously shared
• the organization is a complex, organic system

In the decade following the release of the Fifth Discipline numerous books and articles were written about the learning organization. 

The learning organization was also a “hot” topic at conferences and on list-serves (in the days before blogs) and we were optimistic that “things would change”. 

But the learning organization was easier to talk about than it was to implement. In 1999 Peter Senge was featured in an article, “Why Organizations Still Aren’t Learning”.

In that article Senge made the distinction between an IDEA and a CAPABILITY.

He pointed out that although we may have an idea about what a learning organization is we don’t necessarily have the capability to create one.

This has been the challenge for the past 17 years.

Fast forward to March 2008 and you’ll find another article about learning organizations. This one is in the Harvard Business Review. The authors, Garvin, Edmondson and Gino share a learning organization tool that you can use.

This tool will help you to determine what you need to do to “foster knowledge sharing, idea development, learning from mistakes (here we go again) and holistic thinking”.

So, here we are 17 years after the launch of the Fifth Discipline– still grappling with “how” to develop the capabilities required to create learning organizations.

The good news…we are still trying…and as the saying goes…Rome wasn’t built in a day!