April 5th, 2010
Last fall I wrote a post called “Whole People Build Whole Organizations” and I just recently stumbled across some discussion about this post on another site. One comment in particular caught my eye:
All common laments. Let’s celebrate individuality and engage the “whole”.
And as a manager, it means nothing to me. Its mindless, its complaining without context; its distraction.
Ok, all you downtrodden employees, tell me this: How do I compete in a worldwide market place, with armies of Chinese workers, goose-stepping in perfect cadance, while all of you are exploring your holistic souls? Tell me how I partner with you to meet my company’s needs while still allowing you the space you need to be human?
Tell me, how do I accomodate worker creativity and wunderlust without redefining my company’s mission everytime someone comes or goes? How do I get my company’s work done – the work the company wants done, with workers busily self-exploring their navels? How do I compete and make sure they get paid!
My work is about the value of intangible assets, things like diversity, inclusion, trust, empathy, creativity, communication, etc. And that means, that I get responses like this on a regular basis.
I have some breaking news. If you build widgets, and your business plan is to build those widgets faster or cheaper than your competitors in the worldwide market you should dust off your resume.
How you succeed in business in America has changed.
You know how every time a successful business person has been interviewed in maybe the past 50 years they nearly always make a comment like; “our people are our most valuable resource?”
This is an interesting statement for a couple of reasons…
1.) Nearly all of us know that the person saying this has been lying nearly every single time, because we know that nearly all of our organizations do not treat people like people, our organizations treat people like things.
2.) The truth is catching up with the lie.
Because of technology, because of changing cost structures, because of the global marketplace, there are fewer and fewer things that you can do that your competitor cannot easily duplicate if they wish. Things like efficiency and productivity are still important, but they are hardly real opportunities for competitive advantage any longer…especially when you consider differences in the cost of labor. The one thing you have that cannot be duplicated is your workforce and your organizational culture…they exist nowhere else on the planet.
If you think you do not have the time for your employees to bring more of their questions, more of their ideas, more of their passion, more of their uniqueness into the workplace then you are competing on a 21st century playing field using a 20th century approach to management. And that long shadow of yesterday is a cold place to be.
Be good to each other.
I’ve been reading the book "Meatball Sundae" by Seth Godin, and what you’re seeing with comments like the one above are the potential death throes of traditional organizations built on the "build an average product and sell it to the masses". People yammer on about global shifts and paradigm realignments ad nauseum, but really, they need to look at their business. The above manager is just as guilty as those people he’s questioning. Folks, it’s just not working. You need to not just jump on the bandwagon, you need to change your business.
Yes! yes, yes yes!
Thanks for reading and sharing Bill.