Learning From The Past and Planning For The Future
MENTAL HEALTH MOMENT May 10, 2002 These behaviors can help start you on the road to a new standard of communication for your organization. Over time you will begin to notice a new level of interest and excitement about your leadership. However, the payoff is not just in compliments for your communication style. It is in the active participation by others. This participation will signify increased productivity for the whole organization. How can you measure increased productivity? For the knowledge worker, the true measurement is innovation. Whereas the increased productivity of manual workers was the greatest achievement of twentieth century managers, the most important work of the twenty-first century will be to increase the productivity of the knowledge worker. The most significant factor that will determine knowledge worker productivity is that the worker be seen as an asset rather than a cost. It will be important that the worker want to work for the organization in preference to all other opportunities. It is the requirement for willing participation which defies structural solutions to the problem of knowledge worker productivity. Organizational consultants have been working on this problem of willing participation for over a decade. The word empowerment has stuck like glue to human resource professionals. Many have spent most of their career creating organizational and communication models that will facilitate people's taking responsibility for the organization. Many people simply will not express their ideas in the organization and do not offer new thoughts for innovation for the organization. It is rare to see an opinion survey in any established organization that reflects an eagerness on the part of employees to express opinions freely. Why is this so? Most people come to an organization with a built-in filter about expressing their opinion. Those who do not soon develop such filters usually leave. People who are willing and able to express contrary opinions will start their own organizations, work in smaller organizations where they are clear that their voice is really making a difference, or will distinguish themselves by speaking up and eventually sit at the top of a large organization. Such potential heroes and heroines are sprinkled throughout most large organizations. However, to keep such brave and competent folks and to develop more in a large organization, the leadership must be very skilled and aware. Depending on natural selection is not enough. Herein lies the irony. Stephenson (1997) and others suggest that even in the worst environments, where opinion surveys suggest that people do not feel safe enough to offer suggestions for the good of the organization, they still express themselves. It takes tremendous tyranny and constant watching, listening and punishment to prevent people from self-expression. Opinions will always get expressed. However, they rarely get expressed in ways or in places where the expression will be effective in actually changing things. Rather, new ideas are expressed as complaints in hallways or bathrooms, and are often voiced to people who cannot help implement change. According to Stephenson, these expressions occur in all natural networks, in every organization. However, the operation of these natural networks is based on the perceived level of trust, not on the organizational heirarchy. Whether opinions are expressed openly or clandestinely depends largely on the trustworthiness of the leadership. The natural network lines do not often correspond to the actual organizational structure of the organization. In other words, innovation does not happen in organizations in which there is not a high level of trust in the senior management. If it does happen, it is the result of the good ideas of those senior managers themselves. Ideas only get expressed to fulfill a compelling purpose. Generating new ideas is first a matter of aspiration, of common dreams for the future. Without a compelling vision and the inspiration to serve it, organizational changes themselves are meaningless. To pretend otherwise would be to pretend that a bad marriage can be fixed with a new house. Organizational structure cannot compel participation. Likewise, reward systems, suggestion programs and even formal and institutionalized forums for generating ideas are impotent by themselves. The starting point for innovation is interest and a commitment to the issues. People are creative when they care about something getting better. It is up to the leader to create the atmosphere which can coaxe these creative impulses to come out. Leaders must not only create an atmosphere in which people care, but must also "make it safe" to offer criticism of current procedures or to suggest entirely new ways of doing things, and then to nurture the implementation of ideas. *********************************************************************************************"Advice: It's more fun to give than to receive." - Malcolm Forbes
Short Subjects
LINKS Mental Health Moment Online CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS:
Suicide Prevention Strategies and Helping Those Left Behind Cope
Wednesday May 29, 2002
8:30 AM to 4:00 PM
Cheyenne, WY
Contact: William Quinn, Southeast Wyoming Mental Health Center
(307) 634-9653American Psychological Association
Annual Convention
August 22-25, 2002
Chicago, ILEffectiveness of Rehabilitation for Cognitive Deficits
September 17 - 19, 2002
Location: Cardiff, WALES
Contact: Conference Convenor Professor Peter Halligan
Email: HalliganPW@cardiff.ac.ukLatino Psychology 2002 Conference
October 18-20, 2002
Location: Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Contact: Maria Garrido, Chair, "Latino Psychology 2002"
Adjunct Professor of Psychology
University of Rhode Island
Email: mgarrido@etal.uri.eduNADD 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE (MH/MR)
October 23-26, 2002
Denver, CO.
NADD 132 Fair St.
Kingston, NY 12401
Phone: (845) 331-4336, (800) 331-5362, Fax: (845) 331-4569
Email: thenadd@aol.org
GENDER DIFFERENCES DURING LIFE'S FINAL SEASON
Men and women suffer somewhat life-threatening health problems about equally in old age, a Penn State-led study has found; although, the genders differ in the numbers of very life threatening and not-at-all life threatening illnesses that befall them. Carol H. Gold, Penn State research scientist and study leader, says that using a three-level severity of illness scale paints a much richer picture of gender differences in health than the usual life threatening vs. non-life threatening categories usually reported. Her team found an important category of illnesses and conditions with no gender differences--the somewhat life-threatening health problems--and this category includes the largest number of health problems of all. The study is detailed in the current (May) issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. For the full story by Barbara Hale, visit http://www.psu.edu/ur/2002/mfdifferences.html
UNDERGROUND: THE TOKYO GAS ATTACK AND THE JAPANESE PSYCHE
A writer examines the impact on survivors and family after a terrorist attack. Medscape General Medicine 4(1) 2002 http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/431681?srcmp=psy-042602
ARE SLEEP PROBLEMS LINKED TO INATTENTION AND HYPERACTIVITY?
Children who show symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing are more likely to have problems with inattention. Brown University Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology Update 4(4) 2002 http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/431307?srcmp=psy-042602
Red Cross Worker Eases Wartime Stresses for Soldiers, Their Families
JoAn Miller, 71, has been helping U.S. troops and their families deal with the difficulties of military life. She most recently returned from Camp Doha in Kuwait, where U.S. forces have amassed in response to the current war on terrorism.
Siberians Rebound from Economic Crisis with Food Assistance
Siberia is a land vast in natural resources and beauty, yet nature has dealt it a cruel hand.
Leadership communication begins with the idea that employees and workers need to know who the "leadership" is and where the "leadership" stands. They want to be engaged, to know what is in your heart, to know where you are leading them, and to know if they can trust you to take them there. When they know these things other media such as the internet can be used effectively to promote inspiration. The internet, email, and various other technologies offer ample opportunities to spread information around. However, the greater the volume of information pushed by technology, the greater is the need for integration, and the greater is the need for relating these pieces of information to a meaningful whole. The task of leadership communication is to convert the volume of exchange into something that is meaningful and constructive. In order to build passion and commitment to an organizational mission in a world dominated by information, and to build an atmosphere which compels participation and contribution, leaders have to deploy themselves more frequently, more personally, and more skillfully. Whether you lead an organization or a small team, the following principles could prove useful:
LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION * Make leadership communication your number one priority. * Develop a sincere interest in and commitment to learning from others. It is the linchpin of building relationships at every level. If your first reaction to others' ideas is to justify your own, practice suspending not just your verbal reaction, but your mental and emotional reaction as well. * Consciously monitor how many times people ask questions when you speak about change. If you are not engaging others, ask them why. * Solicit feedback actively from people who are closest to the organization. Avoid waiting for their ideas and avoid blaming them for not being willing to come forward. * Develop a practice to hone your ability to hear what is below the surface of comments. Practice bringing the hidden meanings and feelings to the surface. Ask questions for clarity. * When you are answering questions, use new measurements: Did the person feel heard? Did I respond to the person or merely answer the question? * Reveal more of yourself than you think is necessary, not just your accomplishments, but also your own personal hopes and fears. Even if you do not believe in being social with those who work for you, learn more about them as human beings. * Practice stating the vision of your organization as a metaphor so that others can see and feel themselves involved in its accomplishment. Use images generously as you communicate about what you see for the future * Focus on values every time that you speak about the future of your organization. Do not allow your organization or team to be totally focused on the bottom line without some greater sense of accomplishment that comes with success. * Write the history of your organization that has led to any changes you want to make. Share this context liberally, noting the key distinctions that make continued change necessary. Communicate the context every time you speak about the future. * Deploy yourself generously. Strive to be authentic at all times. Use the new technologies to establish informal dialogue. * Use email and voice mail to pass information but not for opinions or emotionally charged communication. Be complete in these media. Imagine yourself as a reader or listener. What is missing? What questions would you be asking if you heard your message as the receiver? Would it be wiser to use these media to set up actual conversation or face-to-face time?REFERENCES Stephenson, K. (1997). Who's mentoring whom? Forbes, May 19. To search for books on disasters and disaster mental health topics, leaders, leadership, orgainizations, crisis intervention, leaders and crises, and related topics and purchase them online, go to the following url: https://www.angelfire.com/biz/odochartaigh/searchbooks.html ********************************************************************** ********************************************************************** Contact your local Mental Health Center or check the yellow pages for counselors, psychologists, therapists, and other Mental health Professionals in your area for further information. ********************************************************************** George W. Doherty O'Dochartaigh Associates Box 786 Laramie, WY 82073-0786 MENTAL HEALTH MOMENT Online: https://www.angelfire.com/biz3/news
