Archive for the 'Changeology of Organizational Learning' Category

Keen Awareness is One Concept of “Change Capacity”

Published
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gay
on March 20, 2008
in Changeologists Recommends, Changeology 101, Changeology : Hospice/Healthcare, Changeology for Organizational Performance, Changeology of CHAOS, Changeology of Organizational Learning, Changeology of Systems and Changeology of leadership
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THE DISTANCE IS NOTHING; IT IS ONLY THE FIRST STEP THAT IS DIFFICULT

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

                                                                                                                                                             Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

The first step is ALWAYS the hardest. However, we know that in time and with practice the unknown becomes known, our comfort zone expands and we begin to create some degree of normalization after the event of the first step. 

Think about the “first step” an infant takes. Think about the overall magnitude that motion, forward movement, and the ability to move toward something they want has on the rest of their lives. The first step for an infant is risky, unsteady, and scary…BUT they keep trying until they finally were able to put one foot in front of the other, typically while others cheer on. How proud they are of taking the risk, trying over and over again until they do it. Is it perfect? NO, not by a long shot. 

The first step doesn’t need to be perfect… it just needs to be a first step attached to the willingness to keep getting back up to try again. 

I briefly discussed “Change Capacity” several weeks ago. Prior to understanding change and how it may “function” in an organization or even in our personal lives, the first step was to EMBRACE the concept change is not stoppable. It is occurring in some way and in some fashion every second of everyday. However, the change we refer to most in organizations is change that either immediately or over time and space has some impact on persons and organizations.    

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines change as both a verb and a noun. The verb form is defined as “to make different in some particular” or “to replace with another.” The noun form is defined as “the act, process, or result of changing,” a “transformation,” or “substitution.” Often we use the word to signify what is “different.” Webster goes on to say, “Change implies making either an essential difference often amounting to a loss of original identity or a substitution of one thing for another.” It is this “loss of essential identity” that seems to be of most importance in human systems  ( Schwandt, 2006). 

It is this potential loss that members in organizations must deal with. Often change leads to new roles, different organizational models, and altered power relations that can result in differences in motivation, performance and possibly conflict. “The word ‘change’ produces emotional reactions. It is not a neutral word. To many people it is threatening” (Cartwright, 1951). Just the word “change” in organizations can have immediate effects on people’s lives and organizational effectiveness. 

One concept in an organization’s “Change Capacity” is the concept of first identifying the potential loss or change in an organization’s self-concept (An organization is not necessarily the total whole of the business but can be a department, team, smaller organization or group embedded within the whole). The perceived loss and the reaction to it can be called a “weak signal” (Weick, 2008). This means if “weak signals” go unnoticed the reactions may create undesired actions or accumulated undesired actions. If an organization is prepared to identify “weak signals” more aggressively leading to identifying employee’s perceived losses prior to a change effort, it can increase its capacity for greater change success implementation by planning, communicating  and by increasing intentional awareness to the subject matter. 

A great exercise for any manager to do at the time of planning a change, prior to announcing a change or implementing a change, no matter how small, is to ask, “How MAY this affect individuals, and the whole?” “How does this change impact the organization’s  current  self-concept and its future self-concept?”   It is important to be aware of the perceived current organizational state and the perceived future state (Dooley, 1997) of organizational members. Many times we make changes without asking ourselves these types of questions. Remember, some of the greatest impact from a change is from small incremental or continuous reactions to change that lead to more change having greater impact. 

The hazard we face in management is we “devalue” that even a small change can have great impact. With the right preparation, keen awareness as to potential perceptions and actual reactions to the change an organization’s “Change Capacity” can be increased leading to greater organizational success in implementing the desired change.

This is one small intervention to increase Organizational “Change Capacity” it is in the implementation of doing it well that becomes significant. In the near future, I will discuss further the concept or “Organizational State” (Dooley, 1997) mentioned above.

Until the next time… 

Practice putting your feet in front of the other and eventually that first step will happen… even if you fall, the “getting up” becomes much easier with Practice. 

gay rogers

Verbal Abuse: the latest management strategy

Published
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gay
on March 12, 2008
in Changeologists Recommends, Changeologists Reflections, Changeology : Hospice/Healthcare, Changeology for Organizational Performance, Changeology of Organizational Learning, Changeology of business Culture and Changeology of leadership
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Blog for Workforce Management 3 12 08:  This blog was in response to Workforce Magazine’s Editor’s Blog Site:  http://www.workforce.com/wpmu/bizmgmt/about/March 7th, 2008

Verbal Abuse as a Workforce Strategy

I’ve worked few a few screamers in my career—and for some over-the-top, intimidating bullies, too. The worst one was this short, stocky guy who used to love to stand and glare, clenched fists at his side as if he was ready to punch you. He didn’t scream much, but when he did, it was a full-on string of your typical obscenities delivered in a full-throated roar.

As a bad manager, he was the complete and total package.

All of this came back to mind as I was reading a story in the Rocky Mountain News about a former assistant for Dish Network who was dismissed from the company after six years of work and is suing “because of alleged gender discrimination and retaliation. Her claims of a hostile work environment and breach of contract were dismissed this week.” The jury trial is continuing on the remaining causes of action before a U.S. District Court in Denver.

According to the newspaper account, a “Dish Network executive screamed at his assistant Sharon Baker numerous times and in one instance called her a ‘f—— stupid b—-,’ jurors were told in the closing arguments of a federal discrimination case.

The satellite TV company failed to act on Baker’s complaints and ignored its own policies prohibiting crude behavior among managers, Thomas Arckey, one of Baker’s attorneys, told jurors. Instead, top executives routinely engaged in screaming, swearing and sexual jokes, he said. Arckey described the company’s ‘trademark’ policy as ‘hear no evil, see no evil, investigate no evil, correct no evil.’ ”

As stunning as all of that is, what’s even more amazing is the response from Dish Network. It essentially comes down to this: Yes, we were verbally abusive to her, but we didn’t discriminate because we’re verbally abusive to everyone.

 “In the company’s closing arguments, Dish Network attorney Meghan Martinez attacked Baker’s credibility, maintained there was no evidence of gender discrimination and told the jury that the case simply ‘doesn’t belong here, and you know that,’ ” according to the Rocky Mountain News story. “Martinez acknowledged that Dish Network executives, including Baker’s boss, Executive Vice President Michael Kelly, yelled and swore at times. But she said the screaming equally was ‘male to male, executive on executive,’ and that Kelly denied ever using the word ‘b—-.’ Martinez also said witness testimony showed Baker ‘uses profanity and is comfortable with it.’ ”

There you have it: verbal abuse as an accepted part of a company’s workforce management strategy. In other words, Dish Network embraces a corporate culture where it is OK to swear and verbally abuse people in the workplace, and it’s not discriminatory to do it since everyone there does it all the time.

I’ve written a lot about boorish behavior from the top boss and a workplace where sexual harassment was tolerated and ignored, but I’ve never seen one where out-and-out verbal abuse was condoned and defended at the highest levels.

I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I predict that Dish Network won’t have much legal success in defending verbal abuse as an acceptable workforce practice. It will be interesting to see how the nearly all-female Denver jury will see it.

Posted by John Hollon on March 7th, 2008 at 9:45am in Legal Issues, Motivating Employees, Corporate Culture, Management Skills | | Comments (21) | TrackBack

Workforce Blog Entry: 3.12.08 by gay, changeologists, inc.

Workplace Abuse: How does this inpact “Respectful Interaction: of trust, trustworthiness, and self-respect” and Radical Change?

 

The question I have is:  How long has “verbal abuse” been the accepted culture at Dish Network?

During the hiring process, are prospective employees made aware of the “accepted culture?” If they are, does this mean they have made a contractual agreement of accepting employment knowing they will be subjected to “workplace verbal abuse?”

Turning the page on these questions, my first thoughts are of course with the formal leadership of the organization.

How is this culture affecting productivity, systems improvement, financial performance, the ability to hire and retain good people, the ongoing engagement and commitment of employees to the vision and goals of Dish Network?

Leaders or those we place into formal leadership positions, are responsible for facilitating understanding in the organization. Karl Weick (1979) speaks of this as Sensemaking.

Formal leaders’ influencing role in Sensemaking is: 

  1.  To set the social relations that are encouraged and discouraged
  2.  To set the identities that are valued or derogated within the organization (Weick,2008). 

So, what is it saying for these Leaders, if they have encouraged the social relations of “verbal abuse?”Is the Dish Network Identity one of “little respect for the value of human interaction?”Another concept of Sensemaking for Leaders is to facilitate “Respectful Interaction: trust, trustworthiness, and self-respect” In other words, the Leadership of Dish Network and those who accept to stay in this environment may not possess self-respect. If they don’t possess it, how can they give it to others?Living within this type of environment is toxic to our humanity, both within and without the business environment.How will Dish Network’s organizational culture change even if the Leadership doesn’t intend to change it?  The article in Rocky Mountain News has possibly started a RADICAL CHANGE EVENT from an external source moving within and into the organization.

Radical events can be one large scale action through an external event or an internal event OR a series of small events occurring in rapid succession creating radical change (Plowman et al. 2008)

If Dish Network were going to change its culture, despite the formal Leadership, it will be done through employee action, one at time in a continuous process that would allow for a Radical Impact for change to occur.

So, Let’s believe on the integrity of a few folks  to encourage”Respectful Interaction” within Dish Network.

gay 

  

   

Laughter & Business : a compatible couple

Published
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gay
on March 5, 2008
in Changeologists Presents!!, Changeologists Recommends, Changeologists Reflections, Changeology : Hospice/Healthcare, Changeology of Organizational Learning and Changeology of leadership
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When we deliberately inject humor into the workplace, organizational dynamics begin to shift, cooperation is more prevelant,  innovation occurs, and there is less defensiveness and tension.

  

This article by the Director of Everything at FUNsulting provides us with great suggestions on how to intentionally add humor into our workplaces … try it,  you may like it!

Prescription for Humor10 Tips for Adding a Bolt of “Lighten”ing to the Healthcare Workplace  

  1.       Use HUMOR in communicating information through emails, memos and presentations, discharge instructions, etc.
  2.      Start all staff meetings, team meetings, nurse’s reports and case presentations with a bit of HUMOR to create a relaxed atmosphere.
  3.     Create a FUN committee to help plan parties, celebrations and recognition events for staff.
  4.     Create a HUMOR Bulletin Board in the nurse’s station or staff area where you can put funny cartoons, jokes and pictures to share with other staff.
  5. Hold a LAUGH Lunch once each month where, over lunch, staff have a chance to share jokes, stories, embarrassing patient care moments and other funny things.
  6.    Collect HUMOROUS books, tapes, and magazines to be made available to patients and their families to relieve stress.
  7.  Create a FUN Stress Relief Area for staff that includes stress balls, candy, Koosh Balls, etc.
  8. Cut out a famous person’s picture from the newspaper and put it over the photo on your name badge.
  9.  Give a FUN prize each week to the staff person who had to deal with the most difficult patient, family or colleague.
  10.   Keep a copy of LIGHTENing Bolts at your nurse’s station or staff area (See below).    

  Ron Culberson, Director of Everything! at FUNsulting, etc., is a former hospice social worker, middle manager and senior manager whose mission is to help healthcare staff and leaders achieve a new level of excellence through humor.  As a speaker, humorist, columnist and author, he shows people how to have more fun while maintaining the integrity of the work they do.  You can find out more information about Ron’s programs and services in addition to subscribing to his free printed newsletter HUMORoids by visiting www.FUNsulting.com.