Need for Work Ethics Moderation
“What could be happening to my people? Their answers do not reflect well for the organization,” This is a distress that often faces many team leaders.
The setting is an exercise forming part of a 3 day leadership and organizational transformation program. Each of the 20 or so members of the senior management team has volunteered the motivating factors that guide in their work routines. Of great concern is that networking or socializing, dominates all other work motives for this senior team that is charged with implementing the ‘strategic’ leadership direction of the organization.
The team’s concern yields urgent need for clear understanding of this organization’s behavior. Even more critical is what needs to be done to redress the situation. Another version of this unique work ethics moderation tool is quickly therefore administered and results obtained. The training finally ends, but with one agenda – the immediate restructuring of organizational performance dynamics for the close to 100 employee firm. The simple tool therefore influences new organizational thinking and direction.
This tool was formulated in 2007, aiming to help organizations to transform to improved levels of performance. It was initially meant to be a brain teaser. Soon however, it emerged that it could positively moderate people’s work ethics, whatever their vocations, seniority or pecking order in organizational hierarchy.
Administration of the tool is very simple. Every training participant volunteers some verifiable personal attributes that influence work performance, none of which is related to money. A reward of KES 1000 (one thousand) is always extended to anyone who scores at least 9 of the 10 marks maximum. Obviously, the reward is a good catalyst that always excites everybody into action.
So far though, no delegate has ever won the prize, despite administering the tool on all levels of organizational employees. This tool has also been administered on international delegates from many African nations, Asia, Europe and even America that I have occasionally been interacting with. Sometimes last year, I subjected the same to delegates from an international development agency, Kinshasa, DR Congo branch, where I had been engaged. Here, an offer of US $ 10 was extended to about 36 delegates that were subdivided into two teams.
Still, there was no claimant of the reward. Even more interesting is that I have since 2009 administered the same tool to delegates of a Trainer of Trainers (TOT) program, conducted for a professional body. The experience has been the same throughout. Up-to now, only 2 delegates have remarkably scored 7 marks out of 10, thus still missing the prize nonetheless.
The question whose answers we always mark jointly with the delegates is not hard as such. It is designed to innovatively play with people’s minds, and eventually influence the moderation of their work principles. Thereafter, people’s desire towards unleashing their full potential is subconsciously harnessed, especially if the principles leant are put into practice. Soon afterwards, transformation benefits become evident to the delegates and especially their employing organizations.
This is so because change anywhere begins with an individual; the measure of change too, is the individuals themselves. Many individuals form a team; whereas many teams form organizations. Still, many organizations form nations. Therefore, what counts is how change interventions have impacted positively on the skills, attitudes and knowledge of the individuals forming different teams and organizations.
It follows therefore that we could put up multi-billion shilling projects or facilities at organizational and national level, but still end up underachieving. Requisite benefits of the projects and facilities are supposed to be harnessed by the human element. This will effectively happen only if the human resources are armed with the right skills, attitudes (motivating factors) and knowledge. Complete integration of the 3 will mostly yield the desired habits and therefore culture that is ideal for transformed organizational direction.
This was comprehensively illustrated in my December/January 2014 article, which narrated the case of a corporate body, whose performance transformed radically, courtesy of the bottom up transformation strategy. Added to this is a recent case of a government parastatal that embraced the structured re-branding process.
Besides changing the corporate colours and office settings, the organization experienced the said bottom up-transformation strategy. Asked how they felt about their experiences, the Human Resource Officer responded,” we have even been surprised by the fast transformation of ‘hardcore’ employees.
The bottom up transformation strategy, which incorporates administration of the mentioned work ethics moderation tool, no doubt contributed to the transformation. Once people acquire the right focus towards work, they involuntarily direct their energy towards executing the respective responsibilities, and improving their personal status as well.
Best results are achieved when the critical employee mass is involved. Thereafter, the teams continually attract invaluable rewards rather than fighting for them through strikes and go slows. Alongside, the employing organization achieves entrenched unity of direction and purpose thus transformed leadership direction.
Andrew Carnegie once wrote that technical skills anywhere, account for only 15% of our successes in life. The balance of 85 % is attributable to our soft skills. Our attitudes, amongst others, not only form part of the soft skills, but also our value system. Carnegie was one of the world’s wealthiest men in the 20th century. He had in the 1930’s, amassed great fortunes from the steel industry.
His philosophy was to create as much wealth as he could, in the first half of his life, and give it all out in the other. Many years thereafter, Andrew Carnegie Foundation has continued thriving in reaps and bounds. It seems that Bill Gates, the world’s richest man for 18 years in a row, is living a similar philosophy. The well known Microsoft Founder retired in his 50’s. Today, he is a leading global charity icon. The philosophies of Carnegie and Gates may be crucial guides towards a review of our work ethics. The two have later in life, sought more fulfillments through giving to charity. Seemingly, the more they give the more they thrive.
In our case, we may probably only need to moderate our work ethics, to eventually achieve the desires expected of transformed leadership strategy. Consequently, the extent to which employing organizations focus towards development of soft skills, determines the levels of success in continually achieving desired growth and progress. More importantly, it pays handsomely to incorporate moderation of work ethics, as a strategy of maximizing the mutual benefits accruing from the relationship with the human capital.