By Mostafa Sayyadi and Michael J. Provitera
Strengthening the culture and building social capital, which is based on relationships among the workforce, is the best way. Effective managers are also efficient at building these relationships.
Many employees base their current situation at work on their past accomplishments. Unfortunately, past accomplishments have already been recorded and in many cases, rewarded. Managers are asking employees “What have you done lately?” Many managers have to create group relationships and manage and motivate the whole group all at once. This takes away from individual attention, but it is necessary to manage large groups of people. Simple teamwork and collaboration tools help gather participation for decisions and organize conversations so that the group is rowing in the same direction. To get to this point in a cohesive culture, managers must satisfy the employee’s desire for personal growth and development. This needs to be created as an ongoing process with milestones of not only improvement of the social capital but also rewards. Rewards must be for both the team as a whole and also for the individual.
The Belaboring of the Past and the Anxiety of the Future
Our ability to do our work with empowerment is one of the important factors in our success. To be innovative and creative without being micro-managed is key to a successful culture. [1] [2] We found that the technical abilities of workers help them keep their jobs but do not always give them the impetus of satisfaction with their work. To promote a more cohesive culture, managers must also help employees develop soft skills. There are also health benefits to the quality of work. The more employees are satisfied with their work, the less work will affect their lives.
1. The Art of Teams
Working harder not smarter must be the mantra of the team. Soft skills can build social capital so that teams can be cohesive. [3] [4] Leaders often feel that their employees naturally know how to establish good working relationships with their colleagues and that they are able to identify issues and solve problems. Leaders can learn techniques on how to make groups productive. In fact, if conflicts are managed well, it will cause growth, creativity, and transformation. Conflict itself is not the issue. Rather, having a small number of conflicts can build camaraderie. Conflict allows people to express their opinions and ideas and makes the group benefit from “collective consciousness.” Unmanaged conflicts may cause the team to fall apart. There are two very general definitions of conflict. Both are wrong. The number one misdiagnosis is that the other person has no personality. He or she is “ignorant,” “arrogant,” “selfish,” “belligerent,” and “selfish,” and working with him or her is unbearable. In other words, the conflict has arisen because of a personal conflict as opposed to a work conflict. Misdiagnosis number two is the conflict that people are “unworthy.” He or she lacks the intelligence and ability to become a good team member. He doesn’t have the necessary training to do the job. These two ideas are the cause of misguided conflict.
2. The Power of VABES
VABES is a unique collection of people’s expectations coupled with the extent that they can feel fulfilled in both work and life. VABES awareness skills are the most important competency for survival and progress. Think of how this plays out in the workplace. Raul does not ask others to do something. He gives orders. Raul gets angry very quickly. One of the workers says about him, “His face is angry. His face turns red. Every time he comes to me, I want to hide under the table.” Raul has a tendency to summon people through the public page system and speaks in a tone so that everyone knows that the summoned person will be in trouble. Only those who can work with him can tolerate his aggressive way. But the others have nothing to do with him. When asked “Why are you so angry?”, he says, “I am not angry,” in a very angry tone.
Then there is a VABE Abrasion. This is a unique feeling one has when what someone expects the world to be like is proven to be the opposite. This is a VABE Abrasion. In our book, Mindsense: Catch Your Mind Before You Lose It, we explain this in the following true-to-life scenario.
In October 1849, a trader named James White, his wife Ann, and their infant daughter were traveling on the Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico when they were attacked by a band of Apache. James was killed while Ann and the child were taken captive. Major William Grier and a company of Dragoons when in pursuit of the raiders. Their scout was Kit Carson whose sensational, bigger-than-life adventures were chronicled in popular dime novels of the day. VABES, as discussed, are made up of our values, attitudes, values, beliefs, and expectations about how we see the world and how the world should be.
On the twelfth day out, they spotted a large camp and attached. As the warriors were fleeing, one fired an arrow into the breast of Mrs. White. Her child was never found.
Mrs. White had been dead only a few minutes and her body was still warm. Among her possessions was a copy of the popular dime novel, “Kit Carson: Prince of the Gold Hunters,” a story about Carson saving a beautiful woman from death at the hands of a band of Native American Indians. Kit Carson could not read nor write and when the story was read to him, he muttered “Throw it in the fire.”
Kit was deeply shaken by the fact that this woman probably died hoping that the famous scout would come to her rescue. Life does not always imitate art. Unlike in the dime novels, Kit Carson got there too late. It was said that the incident haunted Carson for the rest of his life. ___ True West History of the American Frontier
When something goes against your VABES, you have what is called a VABE Abrasion. A VABE abrasion is a temporary feeling that something we thought should be a certain way happens to go against our way of thinking.
In a book by Ed Grant and Cathy Blanche, titled “Kit Carson’s Own Story of His Life,” published in 1926, Kit is exploited and faced with a true revelation about himself. Kit lived between December 24, 1809, to May 23, 1868. This story of Kit Carson was published long after his death.
Unfortunately, his attempt to save the woman did not work and Mrs. White died before he could save her. A soldier in the rescue party wrote: “Mrs. White was a frail, delicate, and very beautiful woman, but having undergone such abuse as she suffered while held captive, nothing but a wreck remained, her body was literally covered with blows and scratches. Her countenance even after death indicated a hopeless creature. Over her corpse, we swore vengeance upon her persecutors.”
Imagine not only failing to save Mrs. White but seeing a book in her hand with his name on it. A huge VABE Abrasion.
Carson wrote in his Memoirs: “In the camp was found a book, the first of the kind I had ever seen, in which I was made to be a great hero, slaying Native American Indians by the hundreds, and I have often thought that Mrs. White would read the same, and knowing that I lived near, she would pray for my appearance and also pray that she would be saved.”
What had happened was that the real Kit Carson had met the fictional Kit Carson, and he was deeply upset at his inability to save Mrs. White, for he had failed to live up to the growing myth around himself.
He was sorry for the rest of his life that he had not rescued Mrs. White. The dime-novel Kit would have saved her. Kit suffered what Jim Clawson, a University of Virginia leadership expert, called “A VABE ABRASION.” Kit had a distinctive feeling that the way the world is and the way the world should be has been unimaginably opposite.
Kit Carson (was born on December 24, 1809, and died on May 23, 1868), never returned to tracking and never returned to being an expert at knowing the terrain of the wild west ever again. It has been assumed by many that he was devastated at the picture of Mrs. White’s death which was just too much for him to bear.
The lesson here is that you too may have a VABE abrasion and hopefully it is not as devastating as Kit Carson’s loss and despair.
Instructions for Working with Each Other
In order to change your working relationships, you have to attempt to tap into not only your own VABES but also the VABES of followers and this will change your thinking towards your colleagues. You have to raise the concept of teamwork to a new level using an understanding of not only your own VABES but the team’s VABES also. To do this, use some simple guidelines that can be implemented in your workplace. Necessary guidelines for creating fruitful relationships and identifying and solving problems between groups that always occur. To establish a fruitful team, start with understanding the goals, the roles of people, and the process of action items that need to be addressed on a daily basis. Group members should ask themselves:
- What goals are we trying to achieve and how will these goals impact my VABES?
- What role is expected from each team member to align our VABES with our corporate culture?
- How do we coordinate our work with each other to thrive and row in the same direction?
These guidelines will help to accurately identify the source of conflicts that occur in group work.
1. Participation in Decision Making
The issue that has attracted organizations for organizational development in the past decade is the cooperative management model. [5] [6] Edward Deming initiated the movement to improve continuous quality by expanding employee participation. He devoted his entire life to helping companies produce high-quality goods and services while realizing that costs could be reduced by reducing waste and inefficiency. Deming’s findings have been focused on the attitude of companies regarding organizational issues. [7]
He realized that productivity is more than determining the activity and how to do it for the workers. Deming theorized the opinion that when an error occurs in doing work or there is waste and inefficiency, there are two reasons for it: the individual worker, or the existing system. He also concluded that only 5% of errors, wastes, and inefficiencies are caused by workers and 95% by systemic factors. He concluded that if workers participated in management, systemic problems would be identified. This led to the invention of the term Total Quality Management which originated from quality circles in Japan. This is more predominant based upon Jack Welch’s Six Sigma today, but the remnants of Total Quality Management still exist.
The cooperative movement is to remove barriers between management and workers who provide products or services as a result of Deming’s continuous improvement movement. Deming argued that the process of participation in decision-making should be clearly specified. This includes determining a decision-maker and the people who should be consulted during the decision-making process, as well as those who should be involved in the final decision. Predominantly, decisions should come from the lower levels of the organization in more of an organic culture and decentralized decision-making process.
2. Announcement of Decision
When a decision is made, everyone should know what that decision was. You have to find ways to inform the people who are interested in the decisions from top to bottom. Today means of communication such as e-mail or intranet can be used for this purpose. Remember, participatory decision-making does not mean that every decision must be made through voting. Rather, everyone should give an opinion and have the opportunity to present it. Decision making is still done in the upper hierarchy of the organization as before but now the front-line employees are also brought into the decision equation. When it is appropriate, take time to give thanks. A handwritten thank you note can make a huge difference in how people think of you. When Jack Welch sent a note to someone.
3. In Conclusion
One of the definite needs for a complete and satisfying life is a life based on personal visions that come from self-awareness and mindsense. This includes clarifying your destination. Develop a personal vision of where are you going, why are you going there, and the one-best-way to clarify your personal perspective to become your best self. Give yourself positive feedback and do not feed into the negative thoughts that are surmounted in your thought process. To start, ask yourself how close you are to the goal of feeling that you are living in the moment and not concerned about the past while leaving the present to unfold naturally. Then ask yourself where you want to be when the future arrives. Do you need more experience and training to achieve your vision? If the answer is yes, make a plan to achieve it by looking at where you are, what you want, and how you can close the gap between the two.
