Impassioned people do tremendous things
I spent many years in public service as a U.S. Marine and in Law Enforcement here in Central Florida before transitioning to private sector. I have to say that during my time in public sector, I was constantly humbled by the high quality of the people I met and what we were willing to do for people we barely knew or, in most cases, did not know at all. When the time came to act, we just did. I know people who have paid a high price to serve others. History is filled with those who gave even more... Those who "gave the last full measure of devotion" for a common good and in some way made us all better people.
Some people just do not like to work
During the day I like to get up from my desk at work, from time to time, and just walk around the office to see what my team is working on. I often find people diligently working away coding new solutions or resolving customer issues. For the most part, you see people doing what they get paid to do: Work. There are times; however, when I stumble across folks who are just surfing the web or texting on their phones. That, in of itself, does not really bother me. What I find interesting is that its the same people who I always see surfing that also say there's not enough time in the day to get all of their work done. Seems like a pretty simple problem to fix right? Just tell them to stop playing and start working.
Fixing it is not that simple
I believe that there is more to it than that. I believe that people generally do what they want to do. If they want to come to work and do a good job, that's what happens. If they want to come to work and be ineffective, that's what happens. Unfortunately, ineffectiveness is contagious while excellence in execution is more elusive. It is easier in small, well funded, organizations to execute a strategy to get the right people in the right place and doing the right things. It's also easier to craft and communicate your organizations' "ethos" or fundamental values. How do you go about engaging your team in a manner that makes them feel that what they are working on is meaningful and important? How do you motivate your employees to be impassioned about their work when it really is boring and mundane? How do you give your cause charisma?
You can give your cause charisma
You can turn "Stone Cutters" into "Cathedral Builders" by helping them take a step back from their work and allowing them to see what they do from a larger perspective. (Its actually a very enlightening story about how different people see their work environment.) As leaders, we must be able to see the larger picture in order to communicate the larger picture. If our vision is limited, our teams' vision will be as well. We will view our work as just something we do each day to pay the bills... and nothing more. Our teams will fall into a general malaise where you pay them just enough so they do not quit, and they work just enough so you won't fire them. Life is short... Dream Big! Do More! I encourage you to help your team see their jobs in a new light. Help them see that they are not just stone cutters.
Some final thoughts
Do you feel passionate about the work you do? Do you believe that there is a deeper meaning to your vocation and that is the real reason why you do it? Or do you simply believe your job sucks and their is no hope for improving it? Write a comment and let us know why you feel that way.
Where to start… You are talking the basic TPL report and how many copies are needed…the root question about dysfunctional organizations. I have seen the same thousand yard stare from workers in the government sector as I have in the private sector (as a matter of fact, the single laziest group of workers to be found anywhere are federal GS workers). But it is as unfair to accuse public sector workers as a whole as unmotivated as it is to see a minute slice of a private sector worker’s day when they may be texting their daughter about her homework or the babysitter about where the diapers are, and assume they are constantly doing that. Organizations are very similar to families: some are organized and goal oriented; some are dysfunctional, haphazard, shell-shocked, and unmotivated. It is not rocket science, nor the secrets of self-improvement books to realize the answers. Some author may have the theory of turning stone cutters into cathedral builders, but putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t improve the looks of the pig and only wastes the lipstick.
ReplyDeleteThe view from the top looking down is very different than the view from the street looking up. When you are high enough up, you get to see birds flying, clouds rolling by, and beautiful sunrises. From the street it strains the neck to even look up and in doing so you may inadvertently step in something smelly. The view from the top is often obscured by clouds that blur the focus. Organizations in which management is segregated from its workers, both physically and emotionally seem to me to be inherently dysfunctional. Part of the magic of Microsoft was that Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, was billg@microsoft.com in email, just like everybody else. Everyone at Microsoft could connect with him; and did. Bill knew that being at the top of the cathedral required casting a much bigger shadow that could be seen from the ground.
Challenges: if we are not challenged we get stale, no matter what the job or the responsibilities. In the news this morning is the story that senior pilots are losing flight control skills because much of today’s airline flights, other than take offs, are handled by computers. We all need to be refreshed in our jobs, the pot stirred sometimes from the bottom. For workers who see no succession plan in their future, no organized way of rising upward in the cathedral, work life can be less than fulfilling—human nature is such that we work harder for reward (advancement, glory, and more money--probably in that order for most of us). If all there is to our job is our job, endless, never changing, we tend to start our day with the same lack of enthusiasm as our employer has toward our future.
Keeping the house in order. A clean, well-lighted place is going to be a happier environment than a cluttered, chaotic home. Offices with PA systems that blare away, group meetings held in hallways instead of conference rooms, employees yelling down the cubes at one another, a complete lack of privacy and quiet, personal space; supervisors constantly giving different orders and countermanding what other supervisors have just given; new policies and procedures that change weekly; all this going on while managers hide away in window offices, with doors that can close out the racket; and a disconnected HR department sending out reminder emails about workers not abusing their two legally-required 15-minute daily breaks, to remember to work their fully 8 hours, and to keep the break room clean—cannot be called as much a thriving environment that motivates workers to reach for the stars as it is a real-life example of the cult-followed movie Office Space.
Very well said Dave. I especially like the part about managers being disconnected from the rest of the organization they are trying to run. The nature of typical organizations seems to drive their bureaucratic characteristics. Managers are constantly tasked to produce reports and results. They are not tasked to connect. Managers often forget that they can't get the former without first having the latter.
ReplyDeleteLeaders have to lead. Their organizations survival depend on it. Visionary leadership coupled with an appropriate HR strategy will work to address many of the issues you accurately raise.