Making the High Road Accessible – My Hope for 2008 and 2009 and 2010…
By Michelle Malay Carter on December 28, 2007
I’m feeling philosophical at year’s end – an intriguing mix of sadness and restlessness?tempered by faithfulness and hopefulness.
Systematically Building Trust?through Integrated, Consistent Systems Design
One of the greatest attractors I have toward Elliott Jaques’ total-systems Requisite Organization model for organization design and managerial leadership?is that it is the epitome of the high road.??I believe those who criticize it have not considered it or grasped it?in its entirety.
One of the litmus tests Jaques used when deciding whether to integrate a concept into his model was:??? Will this increase trust within an organization?? Anything deemed to reduce trust was deemed incompatible with the Requisite Organization model.
Believing?the Best about Human Nature?
Further, the requisite model is based upon the belief that humans are wired to create.? All work is creative, and therefore, all humans are inherently motivated to give their best at work.? We need not motivate employees to work in their areas of interest, but conversely, we can create conditions that make them unwilling?to give their best or unable to reach the high road.
What Work Could Be
I’ve said that I?believe work has the potential to be a highly gratifying and noble expression of a unique human soul.? We make ourselves vulnerable through work, as when we creatively give of ourselves at work, we are exposing our souls.? When our work is rejected through ingratitude or impediments or unfair judgment, it is the emotional equivalent of unrequited love.
Work can be a source of great joy or a source of unending misery.? Systems drive behavior.? Executives are accountable for organizational systems.? Therefore, executives either drive joy or misery via the systems they create or leave to default.???
What Behaviors Do Your Systems Drive?
Using?Requisite Organization as a basis for creating organizational leadership systems creates an environment that allows for the fullest expression of employee talent and, hence, drives joy (as well as productivity and sustainability).?
Our current leadership systems simply make the high road inaccessible to employees by constantly thwarting their efforts to work.? This leaves?many hard-working and well-intentioned workers are stuck in a cycle of unending misery.? Been there.? Done that.?
Should We Laugh or Should We Cry?
I was torn about posting this Bad Day at the Office Compilation video clip below sent to me by Nathania of Bold Interactive.??Helplessness breeds cynicism (and, it appears, violence too.)? It can be quite funny if you view it at face value, but it loses its comedic value when you consider what?a sad statement it makes about the condition of the organizations we rely upon to make a living.? What makes it worse is that most of these conditions spring from leadership-system ignorance, and they?can be rectified through integrated, science-based systems design.
My?passion is to help executives design systems that allow the human spirit to soar – for the benefit of the individual worker, the organization, and our society.? Shall we partner in this endeavor?
I’m OK.? You’re OK.? Let’s fix the system.
Has your work day ever gotten this bad?
Filed Under Corporate Values, Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Organization Design, Personal Observation, Requisite Organization
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