A few years ago there was a commercial on the television which showed a group of executives sitting around a conference table. They were holding a "blame-storming" session. Obviously something had gone terribly wrong at their company and since the executives were not going to accept any blame for their own failures, they needed a plausible scapegoat. Thus, they were looking at employees and trying to decide who would make the best victim. Once they decided on the best candidate, then they needed a good story. They needed to create a logical explanation as to why it was this employee's error and not their own...and they needed to tell the story as often as possible so everyone in the organization knew it.
I have never forgotten that commercial, although I only saw it a couple of times. It seems more real today than it did those couple years ago -- it was just a parody then, but today it is reality.
Hasn't blaming become part of the American way of doing business? After a day of campaigning, each political party has their paid strategists research and come up with plausible "sound bites" to blame the other candidate or party for something that may not even be true -- if it sounds good and if it is salacious enough, they believe the voters will believe it -- the truth does not matter.
From what I hear and experience, this is not too far removed from what happens in the workplace today. A reader of my last blog pointed out that he does not believe this is the case everywhere -- and I am not suggesting that it does happen everywhere, but it seems to be prevalent enough to warrant being talked about.
How can employees feel part of an organization when someone in a position of power blames them for something that went wrong that was beyond the employee's control. Maybe they were involved, but they were not he decision maker; maybe they were only involved tangentially, but the "story" that is told that so and so did blah, blah, blah, and places them as the one responsible for the debacle. If a leader says it enough times with enough conviction, they begin to believe their own stories and other employees will believe it also. Suddenly it IS the truth and that employee is in deep kimchi through no fault of their own.
Can an organization thrive when this happens? I think not, and I hope that you think that too. It is impossible to have a successful company, organization, or government, until we start hearing the truth, and holding those leaders accountable for their own bad decisions.
Only when the bullying and the blame games stop, will we begin to heal and get back to the real business of government or running a company. We need to start rebuilding the culture inside of each of these entities. It is not an easy thing, but it is a very doable thing...and it needs to start now.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Vol. 2.5 Workers are in a Catch 22 Situation
It is my hope that many of you out there are happy in you work life. I hope that you have a fulfilling job that gives you many psychological rewards. If you are, I need to meet you. I either hang with the wrong crowd or that happy fulfilled crowd keeps shrinking and eludes me.
I think that I get around quite a bit even though I am retired, but I do not talk to anyone -- not one single person, who is happy in their job. They may like the work that they do but not the office politics -- or being told to execute really bad decisions. The thought of an employee asking a question to try and understand a decision is next to heresy.
Yet employees want to be included in discussions, they want to think that their opinion counts, and they want to contribute to their workplace in a positive way. Employees used to be hired because they had knowledge, skills and abilities, therefore having a very good chance of performing the duties of the position for which they were hired. Those days appear to be long gone.
It is no wonder that most state exams are now done on-line -- just a point and click exercise. Anyone could take an exam and lie about everything on it...heck your dog could take it and the dog could get the top score. In fact the percentage of top scores is around 90%, unlike any Bell curve that I have ever seen. If someone in state government has the hiring power, they can bring in anyone that they want...their friends, family, children -- all with no verification of anything on their application or the supposed "exam". One day you are unemployed and practically the next day you can be employed by the state (assuming there are openings).
This practice started during Governor Wilson's administration and was short lived because it was deemed to be a very ineffective way of hiring the best talent for state government. Potential employees were not being vetted in any meaningful way. Apparently that logic no longer applies, and realistically it may not matter.
The sad fact is that there still exist very smart, and skilled employees in the workplace. But they are not allowed to offer their advise or ask questions. Their job, if it were to be described correctly on their duty statements or position descriptions would simply say "execute whatever the boss wants ". If they offer an opinion, ask a question or have the audacity to suggest a direction, they are accused of not being a team player, or taking over a situation and excluding others; if they sit back and don't engage, they re told they are not contributing.
The rules of engagement in the work place have changed. Is it any wonder so many employees are so unhappy? They do not know whether to zig or zag. Employees are caught in a Catch 22 situation.
I think that I get around quite a bit even though I am retired, but I do not talk to anyone -- not one single person, who is happy in their job. They may like the work that they do but not the office politics -- or being told to execute really bad decisions. The thought of an employee asking a question to try and understand a decision is next to heresy.
Yet employees want to be included in discussions, they want to think that their opinion counts, and they want to contribute to their workplace in a positive way. Employees used to be hired because they had knowledge, skills and abilities, therefore having a very good chance of performing the duties of the position for which they were hired. Those days appear to be long gone.
It is no wonder that most state exams are now done on-line -- just a point and click exercise. Anyone could take an exam and lie about everything on it...heck your dog could take it and the dog could get the top score. In fact the percentage of top scores is around 90%, unlike any Bell curve that I have ever seen. If someone in state government has the hiring power, they can bring in anyone that they want...their friends, family, children -- all with no verification of anything on their application or the supposed "exam". One day you are unemployed and practically the next day you can be employed by the state (assuming there are openings).
This practice started during Governor Wilson's administration and was short lived because it was deemed to be a very ineffective way of hiring the best talent for state government. Potential employees were not being vetted in any meaningful way. Apparently that logic no longer applies, and realistically it may not matter.
The sad fact is that there still exist very smart, and skilled employees in the workplace. But they are not allowed to offer their advise or ask questions. Their job, if it were to be described correctly on their duty statements or position descriptions would simply say "execute whatever the boss wants ". If they offer an opinion, ask a question or have the audacity to suggest a direction, they are accused of not being a team player, or taking over a situation and excluding others; if they sit back and don't engage, they re told they are not contributing.
The rules of engagement in the work place have changed. Is it any wonder so many employees are so unhappy? They do not know whether to zig or zag. Employees are caught in a Catch 22 situation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)