Passive and Involuntary Strikes Greatly Inhibit Personal/Organizational Growth and Progress

By Mwangi Wanjumbi – Newtimes B. S. CEO & Chief Consultant/Trainer

Any strike anywhere, rekindles the memories of the powerful Solidarity Movement that was an enigma to the Polish Government in the 1980s.  Rather than getting frustrated with the happenings in our own country, some of which were difficult to come to terms with, I found refuge in seeking out information from around the world. Newsweek Magazine, then my greatest source of global information brought out highly captivating news. Those about Poland were by no means astounding. Anyway, Lech Walesa the charismatic leader of this Solidarity Movement ended up becoming a one term president. Never mind how he faired, though his one term presidency may probably be a good indicator, of the level of success.

Thus, the strike by teachers, nurses, doctors, university lecturers and others that may not have been publicized should not just be judged on the face value. Actually, what comes to the fore is challenged leadership, which could easily and unnecessarily build monsters out of minnows. In any case, nature abhors vacuums anywhere. Could the same not send our fragile economy tumbling? Why then do the bureaucrats concerned, continue practicing crises or re-active management/leadership on such matters?

Needless to venture into details, it is well known that strikes anywhere do not just happen in one day. The process is more often than not preceded by reduced work effort, then go slows before complete downing of tools. It is even worse in situations where staff could be de-motivated by other things independent of the money factor. Come to think of it; do public servants comprise a motivated critical mass? Alternatively, are strikes a healthy avenue of demonstrating the de-motivation of the public servants, as is currently the case?

Perhaps, it is for now, best to keep the respective answers to ourselves. Nevertheless, there may be need to consider the motivation that guides us into doing what we each do, either for a living or as occupations. If it is money, then we could all be doomed because no money is ever enough anywhere. Besides, people motivated only by money can literally do anything under the sun, to get that money, the risks involved not withstanding.

Further, externally driven motivation could still lead us into trouble. This is so because the volatile environment around us keeps changing, rather drastically, to the extent that we can hardly cope.  The situation becomes horrible when the work we do directly affects innocent children (particularly national exam candidates) as well as the incapacitated, in the case of hospitals. What of the man hours lost that could have contributed to economic development? Actually, could there be better ways of effectively sending the messages of disaffection to the offices concerned?

Meanwhile, people whose motivation is externally driven could also be a danger not just to the respective employers but also to themselves. They easily get disoriented and the slightest excuse will divert them from productive engagements. Even worse is that personal and career growth is likewise threatened. Is it not well documented that de-motivated employees perform only to the extent of 10 -20% of their potential?

Thus, 80 – 90 % of their potential goes to waste and will never be recovered, whatsoever. Even if such employees are not actively on strike, they are passively so going by the deduction process. Are they always aware? Is it their fault? Strikingly, they may not only be unaware, but may also not be to blame for the situation. Nonetheless, it is suicidal to leave the matter at that.

Therefore, there is inevitable need to revisit personal work ethic, guiding philosophies and more. Essentially, concerted efforts of re-aligning organizational culture, while at the same time re-branding the workforce could do. That should be in line with continually changing realities, especially borrowing from modern global organizational culture.

Incidentally, one organization was about 4 years ago continually experiencing decline in performance under unexplained circumstances. Interventions through customer and staff satisfaction surveys leading to customer care training could not yield the exact desired results. But, upon embracing our business leadership and performance management training, the situation changed drastically. No wonder, this turnaround has since then yielded more training engagements (for us) from the same now vibrant company.

In the meantime, do you remember the article titled “Money is the last thing in my mind (in our ULR)?” That is part of the content of our ½ day motivational seminar, themed “Working Smart and on Purpose.” For now just be on the look out! Passive and involuntary strikes could easily destroy personal and organizational growth if allowed to take root.

Recent Comment

Leave Reply

Hey, so you decided to leave a comment! Thats great. Just fill in the required fields and hit submit. Note that your comment will need to be reviewed before its published

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>