What’s Missing?

Basic Business Cents

Some organizations can’t seem to hold on to good people. Others have waiting lists of applicants. What’s the difference?

Money is the first thing that comes to mind. After all, it is the most common reason people give for leaving in exit interviews. However, it is probably not the main reason. It is a convenient excuse because people do not want to burn bridges, hurt others feelings, or they have difficulty expressing their feelings of unhappiness. They probably would not have looked for another position if they were content with their present organization. Survey after survey shows money to be in the top ten reasons for job motivation, but it is usually in the bottom five. So, if money is not in the top five reasons for leaving a present position, what is?

Some organizations foster a spirit of brotherhood that creates a good feeling of belonging and pride. People in these organizations look forward to going to work each morning. They enjoy bonding with fellow employees and feel a part of a whole. IBM in its early years was this type of organization. They even had their own songbook about the company and employees would enthusiastically sing from it at social occasions. NASA in the early years was also a good example of brotherhood in work. Employees took great pride in their role in placing a man on the moon. The United States Marine Corps has an indescribable spirit of brotherhood with their motivational drivers like no brother left behind, always faithful, and accomplishing the most difficult tasks. They also developed a strong sense of accomplishment by making through their boot camp.

The feeling of accomplishment may be the strongest reason for employees to stay with their present organization. Everyone wants to feel like they are doing something worthwhile; that their job is important. Necessary to achieve this feeling is to comprehend the aim of the organization and why that is important. Proper leadership is key to creating this environment. They must create the picture of where the company wants to be in a finite period, usually a five-year goal. This aim must be communicated throughout the organization so that all employees are in agreement with the aim.  Communication has two components, sending and receiving. This means that leadership must define the goal or aim of the organization, why it is important, what it means to employees and the community at large, and why they are important in achieving the aim. Then leadership must listen carefully to employee feedback and be willing to accept ideas from the workforce. In this way, they have ownership. A good aim or vision must satisfy three criteria:

·      It must be memorable. It is of no value if each employee cannot recite it from memory. It must be clear and concise.

·      It must be inspirational. It needs to be so desirable and important that employees want to be a part of making it happen.

·      It must be compelling. It is so powerful and irresistible that it moves employee to action.

A spirit of brotherhood accomplishing something deemed worthwhile by employees will create loyalty and fulfillment in their present organization. That overcomes temptations to move to another organization. Money cannot entice them to give that up.

Building Teamwork

Basic Business Cents

Building teamwork is an unnatural act. We are raised in a competitive society and it starts early. We experience sibling rivalry over which child is loved the most by parents, who gets the biggest dessert, who gets treated the most leniently, who is the most attractive, and who is the tallest or slimmest.

We then start school and are graded and ranked. A primary school teacher told me she tried cooperative learning for a term on a trial basis. They were allowed to experiment for a term but at the end had to return to the regular format. She said the biggest problem she encountered was to get her students to go outside and play during recess as they were so absorbed into the team learning that they did not want to interrupt it for recess. On to secondary school and the students are pressured to get better grades than others because parents believe they have to be in the top ten percent of their class to get into the college of their choice. If a child gets a poor grade in one subject, they may think they are no good, for example, in math and will quit studying or avoid math. Sports are also all about competition.

Adulthood brings more competition. We compete for the best job offer. Once in the work force; we are ranked with our fellow workers, which impacts promotions. Our legal system is competitive; we face bigotry, ego building, financial transactions, and even winning the love of our life. These are all win-lose situations but they are not all bad.

However, in many cases we are better off with a win-win situation. Teamwork is needed throughout all of our organizations. How do we do this? It is not easy; a quick literature search this morning revealed very little.

The first step to achieve win-win is to build mutual trust and respect, up down, and across the unit in which we find ourselves at the moment, whether it is our family, school, workplace, or community. Multiple brains working together are more powerful than one. Teamwork requires one to compensate with his/her strength to compensate for others weaknesses. Everyone benefits from responding to others questions.

From the book, Out of the Crisis, by W. Edwards Deming, “Everyone on a team has to have an opportunity to contribute ideas and plans. They need to understand their ideas and plans may be discarded by a consensus of the team. They may be more appropriate later. A good team has a social memory.”

A team must be united to accomplish the aim of the organization. To do that, they need to understand that aim and what is expected of them. It is key that every member of the team buys into the aim or goal before work is started. A statement must be specific and understood by all. A team has customers who must be satisfied and more.

In summary, to build teamwork in our settings, we need to:

·      Display mutual trust and respect for others

·      Understand the aim and desired result for the team

·      Openly share ideas and plans to improve

Alfie Kohn said in his book, No Contest, “Let’s work together so our workplaces and classrooms, our playing fields and families, begin to provide opportunities for us to succeed together instead of at each other’s expense.”