Where is the innovation? Where is the creativity? What happened to all the pride in work?
You can chalk that up to the growing sense of learned helplessness in the workplace. What is learned helplessness?
Learned helplessness – A term developed by Martin Seligman, pioneering researcher in animal psychology, to describe what occurs when animals or human beings learn that their behavior has no effect on the environment.
From the perspective of an employee at almost any level in the organization, their ability to control their destiny has greatly diminished, if not vanished entirely. Whether people have jobs or not, their passion for doing more and being more has been replaced with surviving. Of course that is understandable. This is the worst economy since the Great Depression.
Learned helplessness is a phenomenon affecting employees at every level in every organization. It stems from the lack of impact employees believe they have on the day to day outcomes they are expected to achieve. When people feel like they don’t have control there is a tendency to:
- Not try new things
- Do only what is required
- Never question the status quo
The problem is that work still has to get done, orders need to be fulfilled, and customers need to be taken care of. What can be done to shake employees out of the doldrums they are in?
Surprisingly enough, it is simple and therefore difficult to implement.
1. Find out what the state of the state is
An organization can only improve when it knows the truth about itself. It is important to look for an organizational assessment or survey that will give a sense of how engaged the organization is AND how aligned it is.
2. Give managers the tools to drive engagement and align the culture simultaneously
Front line leaders are the key to driving success in any organization. It is IMPERATIVE to give them the tools in a practical, easy to use method. This same tool should be used to drive alignment between the Macro Culture (vision, mission, etc) and the Micro Culture (work team).
3. Push accountability down to the lowest level
Don’t try to control everything. Organizations that win hold every person accountable for outcomes that forward the business. Then, within reason, allow them to reach them in the best way possible. Let employees get work done and get out of the way. Trying to over regulate or put too many processes in place can stifle creativity. Where possible let employees make decisions about how to get their work done. If they don’t deal with that by checking in regularly and helping them correct course.
Of course this is easier said than done. But the cost of keeping things as they are is too high.
Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.
Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
