We are an odd combination as humans in the Western World. On the one hand, we see ourselves as being more democratic, more technically advanced, more moral than other parts of the world.
I’ll tell you why I think this kind of evolutionary thinking is a problem. We become used to big ideas and notions of progress without noting the problems of such thinking. We live in a culture that believes that big movements of change are not only possible but a mandate of our conception of progress and civilization.
Look at our visible proofs. We have unbelievable technology. Technology that is visible as markers of advancement in all aspects of work lives spanning high tech, health care, manufacturing, in fact in any arena you can think of. We see progress.
We can consume progress by updating our own personal technology on a regular basis and it’s easy. We can be hip with the changing world on that level without a whole lot of effort aside from cost and in my case figuring out how to use the technology.
What I’m getting at is that we expect the same clear signals of change for the human side of development particularly in the workplace. We easily become resigned that “nothing ever changes” and that “there’s no point in trying.”
Of course we’re not going to see dramatic change and I feel consultants really do a disservice to their clients when they promise such results. People don’t change dramatically and the processes that we impose do not force any consistent change in human behaviour.
I’ll come back to this point shortly. First though I want to look at change. We live in a world of constant change. Our own lives are in constant flux moved by large human events such as birth and death but also by the strains of economics, and the more minute shifts that are sometimes only perceivable in hindsight. The same is true of the workplace. There is nothing static about it or of the people who work in these organizations.
Organizations do not simply progress; rather they move in many different directions. Often times one department is more efficient and better at generating results than another. An organization is not a monolith where all the parts move in the same direction in unison. Nor are their histories of one steady movement forward. The problem is that while this inconclusive history of change might be the reality, we fail to recognize it as normal because we are surrounded by stories of business heroics. Such stories are then used to build on the rags to riches myth of progress.
We have got to stop looking for one final solution to all our problems. We have got to stop saying things like “....if only so and so would step up to the plate, everything would be okay.” or “if only our president would lead we’d be okay.” But we must also stop saying things like, “nothing ever changes so what’s the point in participating in another training session bound to fail.”
The former statements reduce problems to silly solutions. And because they’re silly we don’t engage in more creative thinking to address problems. The latter set of statements is obviously equally as useless. Both are sure fired ways to ensure failure.
To offset the nihilism of the above it’s time first to recognize where change good, bad or neutral is occurring. We need to stop creating evolutionary kinds of expectations and start doing the better more difficult task of thinking through issues and finding more realistic goals and solutions to work with.
We can only find these solutions however, if we truly observe what the problem is and secondly what we personally can do about it in perhaps even in small measure.
And thirdly, we have to stop expecting big results -- we rarely get there. Finally we have to expect to review our ideas and actions and re-work our plans. The first solution rarely works to our expectations.
So many of the management books bore me because they all propose dramatic change by following their set of steps. Again its all about evolution. So, who’s at fault if we try to follow the steps outline? Apparently we are. The companies noted in these books all seem to have the same story of how they went from a faltering state to one of great power and profit. All other companies are then measured or measure themselves in comparison.
Our current criteria for success is both limiting and a denial of the many organizations that are successful but not successful in the same way that the Forbes 500 list would contend.
Our desire for constant movement forward toward this idealist notion of success is problematic. I know many would counter me by saying that profit is the only measure. Maybe but maybe that too is limiting considering how companies vary widely in their profits and their practises.
Are they doing something wrong. No they’re not. They’re working as hard and as smart as any organization with big a name. Our problem is that we have come to believe that all success is progressive when in fact it isn’t. Not only is our definition flawed but it creates the wrong ideas about progress, the wrong measure. It demoralizes us. It stops us from thinking more clearly. Innovation is all about thinking and this means challenging the myths that put in place only one story of success.
Like humans, organizations are in constant motion. Sometimes they fail entirely, sometimes they experience good times and sometimes they move into very bleak or challenging stages.
Sometimes they are more successful at some things and not others. This reworking of the story of greatness is realistic. We are not all going to be a RIM. But neither do we know what their future holds.
~ Dr. Helen Ramirez
