Some weeks ago the Dalai Lama was guest editor for the Vancouver Sun. In his lead article he commented that our purpose in life is to be happy. Certainly no-one can argue that most of us want to be happy. Just look at the self help section in your local bookstore.
The Dalai Lama then goes on to say that we achieve a greater sense of well-being when we care for the happiness of others. This takes care of the simplistic, and indeed destructive, notion that we can and should strive for continuous personal happiness. In other words, if I understand the Dalai Lama correctly, our happiness is a by-product of our striving for the general good.
Things become a little bit more complicated when we look at the workplace. Should happiness be something we strive for within the workplace? How do we collectively define happiness and what is the greater good within an organizational setting?
These are hard questions to answer. Let’s tackle two of them:
1. Is happiness important in the workplace?
2. What is the greater good in the workplace?
As a result of research by John Helliwell, professor emeritus of economics at UBC, we now understand that the pay cheque is only half the story in terms of employee satisfaction. Just as important is how far you think you can trust your boss. If, on a scale of one to 10, you can give your employer a one-point rise in rank on trust issues, the flood of well-being you'll experience will be equivalent to a one-third increase in income. So – improve trust levels – employees will be happy and performance will improve?
Well, maybe – but didn’t the Dalai Lama also say something about happiness being the by-product of working for the greater good. So what is the greater good in an organization – the vision? Many visions are centred around making more money, selling more product. Perhaps we have to look at the organizational values; the accepted standards and behaviors that hold us together.
Values throughout the western world espouse notions such as; honesty, integrity, respect, loyalty, innovation, teamwork, excellence, accountability, pride. These are all concepts we can relate to and probably adhere to in our personal lives. So if we can connect the organizational values to those of the employees – we have something that is a common good. Something we can work toward together.
I have been involved in not-for-profits where the personal and organizational values were so closely linked that it was hard not to feel like everyone was working for the greater good. It’s a little more challenging when you deliver janitorial services. And yet my friend Steve says the company he works for is hot on values – it’s something he talks with employees about all the time, topmost among them pride and teamwork.
Happiness and values – these are tall orders for a busy organization. If you don’t have a retreat planned when you can build your values or an HR consultant to help you develop strategies to improve trust, try these two simple strategies:
1. Each senior leader take a value that is important to him or her and does three things:
a. Live that value very deliberately – every day
b. Talk about that value
c. Comment on others living that value.
2. Just as the Vancouver Sun did when the Dalai Lama edited the newspaper, ask people to submit stories about themselves or fellow employees who live the values. Display them on the notice board. Give out prizes. You will create a groundswell of goodwill and coincidentally break down silos.
Here’s to happy, value-driven workplaces!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Yesterday morning my 17 year old decides to shake up her routine a little. She’s up at 6:15 am – out for a run and ready to hit the bus for school at 7:45. Her 13 year old brother, who is usually the one waiting for her, has the tables turned on him.
My daughter sits at the kitchen counter waiting for younger sib. Irritated by his homework spread over the surface she comments that she had never realized how annoying it is when someone (?) leaves papers and binders in the common area.
Her brother is tardy – she goes to the bottom of the stairs to give him a yell.
“Gosh mum”, she says, “I think I now understand why you get frustrated with me when I’m late.”
Eureka!
There is nothing like experience to help people learn important life lessons. All too often we expect employees to get it when we tell them, when in reality the best lesson will be the one they take from their own experiences.
Memo to managers: We need to get out of the way and let our employees learn from life. Our role is to help them make the connections.
My daughter sits at the kitchen counter waiting for younger sib. Irritated by his homework spread over the surface she comments that she had never realized how annoying it is when someone (?) leaves papers and binders in the common area.
Her brother is tardy – she goes to the bottom of the stairs to give him a yell.
“Gosh mum”, she says, “I think I now understand why you get frustrated with me when I’m late.”
Eureka!
There is nothing like experience to help people learn important life lessons. All too often we expect employees to get it when we tell them, when in reality the best lesson will be the one they take from their own experiences.
Memo to managers: We need to get out of the way and let our employees learn from life. Our role is to help them make the connections.
Friday, October 2, 2009
TELL STORIES AND CONNECT EMOTIONALLY WITH EMPLOYEES
Each of us has our own unique "mental vocabulary", an internal library of words and pictures that we associate with certain events, places, people and feelings. When we hear a story about a little girl in Africa who is hungry and would like to go to school, our internal library is hard at work looking for associations and eliciting emotions - and it is these feelings that will make us decide to act.
Skeptics might argue that all we have done is create an imaginary scenario in someone's head. But imagination and action are very integrated. Electrodes placed on a person's brain while he or she visualizes an activity will see the same parts of the brain turn on as if that person were actually doing the activity. Top sportsmen know this and integrate visualization into their practice routines. Similarly if we want employees to act, we have to get them to the point where they are visualizing their own actions.
The key is to reinterpret all the contextual information we provide; relate it to what is happening in your organization. There are two strategies we can employee to do this. The first is the more traditional reporting of information in the newsletter with statistics and interpretation and through the established cascade process. This is good and should be continued. It begins the process of making the information relevant to the front line. The only trouble is that it does not provide employees with a blueprint for how they should act.
That's where stories and examples from within the organization come in. Real stories of people who have understood the urgency and taken action are personal, powerful and provide a clear framework of expectations and behaviors. With stories we tap into an individual's internal library and we take a step toward connecting with them emotionally.
Each of us has our own unique "mental vocabulary", an internal library of words and pictures that we associate with certain events, places, people and feelings. When we hear a story about a little girl in Africa who is hungry and would like to go to school, our internal library is hard at work looking for associations and eliciting emotions - and it is these feelings that will make us decide to act.
Skeptics might argue that all we have done is create an imaginary scenario in someone's head. But imagination and action are very integrated. Electrodes placed on a person's brain while he or she visualizes an activity will see the same parts of the brain turn on as if that person were actually doing the activity. Top sportsmen know this and integrate visualization into their practice routines. Similarly if we want employees to act, we have to get them to the point where they are visualizing their own actions.
The key is to reinterpret all the contextual information we provide; relate it to what is happening in your organization. There are two strategies we can employee to do this. The first is the more traditional reporting of information in the newsletter with statistics and interpretation and through the established cascade process. This is good and should be continued. It begins the process of making the information relevant to the front line. The only trouble is that it does not provide employees with a blueprint for how they should act.
That's where stories and examples from within the organization come in. Real stories of people who have understood the urgency and taken action are personal, powerful and provide a clear framework of expectations and behaviors. With stories we tap into an individual's internal library and we take a step toward connecting with them emotionally.
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