| By
Jeffrey A. Miller
Is your organization drowning in anxiety? It's a question you may
never have considered. After all, as a manager, your concern is
productivity. Results. Teamwork. All of those "bottom line"
issues. You don't have time to worry about the emotional state of
your workforce. You just want them to get their work done, quickly
and cost-effectively; you're not paid to play the role of company
psychologist. Right?
Yes and no, says management consultant Jeffrey A. Miller, president
of Chicago firm Jeffrey Miller + Associates. It's true that profitability
is the bottom line. Problem is, a company that's staggering under
the weight of excessive systemic anxiety may be incapable of profitability.
Indeed, it's a company that may not be around much longer. And no
matter how much planning you do‹or how many training initiatives
you implement and "teamwork" retreats you hold-you won't
be able to change that fact.
In his new book, The Anxious Organization: Why Smart Companies Do
Dumb Things Miller explains how too much anxiety causes people to
make decisions based on emotion, rather than on solid business principles.
More to the point, he offers techniques one person (i.e., you) can
use to help break the cycle of excessive anxiety and create a brighter
future for your troubled organization.
So
do you work for an anxious organization? Ask yourself these questions:
1. Do people take sides with other people instead
of taking stands on issues? Do they form coalitions and/or cliques?
2. Do people assert their territory to the detriment
of the organization as a whole? Are feuding, back-stabbing and turf
wars a way of life?
3. Do work groups tend to come to rapid agreement,
with very little discussion or dissent?
4. Do particular individuals or departments tend
to be blamed consistently for organizational problems?
5. Is there a problem with disruptive employee
turnover? Are people constantly quitting due to job stress or dissatisfaction
with the organization?
6. When conflicts and problems arise, are people
exhorted to show more "team spirit?"
7. Does leadership send out conflicting instructions
and mixed messages? Are organizational objectives contradictory
or unclear?
8. Do people tend to avoid conflict by avoiding
each other altogether? Do they hide out in their offices or cubicles,
neglect to return calls, etc?
9. Is "improved communication" considered
the solution to all problems and conflicts, rather than making decisions
that are based on solid principles?
10. Is high productivity emphasized as the key
to organizational well being? Do you get the feeling that people
are overworked?
If your answer to most of these questions was an emphatic yes, you
probably are dealing with a level of anxiety that's too high to
be healthy-for your employees or for the company itself.
"Anxiety, like anything else in life, is best in moderation,"
says Miller. "A small amount is natural, and positive. If there
were no anxiety at all, no work would ever get done. But when the
pendulum swings too far in the other direction, all sorts of counterproductive
things can happen. Not only do employees get burned out, the organization
tends to make a lot of bad business decisions that threaten its
long-term survival."
"If you work for an overly anxious organization, it may be
a good idea to seek a fresh point of view," he concludes. "Sometimes
it only takes one person to recognize the destructive cycle and
break out of it. You could end up greatly improving your company's
profitability. In fact, you could end up saving its life."
|
