Welcome
Welcome to the latest issue of Bringing Work to Life. Last month we
explored seven key aspects of the organizational and business drivers
for workforce development in an article titled “Opening the Door for
Workforce Development” (http://www.elsdon.com/july_2004.htm).
This month we explore what development means for each of us and for our
organizations in “May You Live All The Days of Your Life”.
May You Live All the Days of Your Life
“May you live all the days of you life” said
Jonathan Swift. How often we wish that for our colleagues, for those
close to us, and for ourselves, and yet how hard this can sometimes seem
in today’s organizational world.
We worked together for almost a year, my client, a
vice president in financial services and I. We will call her Karen. It
began when Karen sensed problems with her current organization, which
was recently acquired by a regional competitor. Her extensive
experience and knowledge of the industry meant little in the political
mayhem that followed the acquisition. It was no surprise when she lost
her job about two months after we met. There followed a time of
introspection, some self-recrimination, and some depression. We
explored Karen's aspirations in depth and she began to realize that a
new life could come out of this loss. This new life could offer Karen
the expression of her natural gifts in her work, the opportunity to join
an organization that matched her values and relocation to a place that
she and her husband desired. In short, it could provide alignment of
who she was with how she worked and lived. Or as Brewi and Brennan
(Mid-Life Psychological and Spiritual Perspectives, 1989) describe it,
“the spirit within us, found in the core of our own Selves . . . slowly
and painfully weaves its way through anxiety, confusion, tension and
conflict to hear the rhythm of our own personal tune made up of choices
and values that are truly our own. This becomes our great contribution
to the world.”
So with growing elation and some anxiety, over the
following months, Karen gradually developed a finely tuned sense of who
she was and where she could best express this. It was no surprise when
she located an organization that valued her innovative and slightly
irreverent style. It was in the location she wanted and it needed her
knowledge and expertise. So they came together, Karen and the
organization, and they crafted a path forward that was better for both
of them. They crafted a path forward that was fulfilling for Karen and
that generated value for the organization. They crafted a path forward
based on mutual affiliation.
Now, what is unusual about this story? Certainly
not her job loss. In the 1980s, 90s and 2000s downsizing has been a
corporate mantra. Not the roller coaster of emotions that Karen felt as
time passed. These are natural responses to this traumatic event. The
unusual aspect is the extent to which Karen was able to completely
redefine her life and find alignment where there was little previously.
Part of this alignment was affiliation with an organization, a
community, which shared her values. Part of it was a rebalancing of her
life to meet her spiritual, psychological and practical needs. This was
a transforming experience, which led to a fundamental re-expression of
her humanity. And for the organization that was fortunate to employ
her? Here we see the seeds of transformation due to the infusion of her
new ideas expressed through her engagement and commitment.
It illustrates principles that guide the choices
made by individuals for themselves and for their organizations. As Izzo
and Withers indicate (Values Shift, 2000) that “when 1,000 working
adults were asked whether they would rather earn high salaries or earn
‘enough’ doing work that makes the world a better place, 86% chose the
latter.” Selling (out) to the highest bidder was not acceptable. Izzo
and Withers also quote David Packard, the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard,
as saying “I think people assume, wrongly, that a company exists solely
to make money. Money is an important part of a company's existence, if
the company is any good. But a result is not a cause. We have to go
deeper and find the real reason for our being. . . . [A] group of people
get together and exist as an institution that we call a company, so that
they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not
accomplish separately—they make a contribution to society.” So it is
not just about money for the organization either.
Put another way, how can we avoid an ethical
lobotomy in establishing an organizational perspective? Lynn Rhodes,
from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California poses three
questions that get to the heart of the individual, organizational and
community issues. These questions challenge us to consider fundamental
values in wrestling with the tensions inherent in the relationships
between individuals, organizations and communities. The questions are
as follows:
We have an opportunity to be advocates for a new, brave organizational
world in which each person is respected, in which partnerships are built
and in which local and global communities are strengthened. And that
voice needs to be heard.
This article will be published in the October, 2004 issue of the
California Career Development Association Newsletter. Much of the
article is extracted from Affiliation in the Workplace: Value Creation
in the New Organization (Praeger, 2003) by Ron Elsdon.
Employment Trends
U.S. unemployment rates have remained elevated since the economic
slowdown in 2000/2001. The unemployment rate fell slightly to 5.5% in
July 2004 from 5.6% in April, May and June as shown in the figure below.
Challenges in the high tech arena are reflected in the drastic reduction
in the number of people employed in the San Jose region as shown in the
figure below.
These challenges are accompanied by significant erosion in average
weekly earnings in the U.S. since the late 1970s as shown below.
This is in stark contrast to the increase in CEO compensation as a
multiple of average worker pay (from inequality.org):
We are challenged to create organizations that respect the needs of all
their constituents, not simply those with the most power. If we ignore
these legitimate interests we will place organizational sustainability
at risk. In respecting the needs of all constituents we will create a
firm foundation for sustained growth and prosperity.
Quote
“And we shall, I am confident, if we maintain the
pace, in due season reap the kind of world we deserve and deserve the
kind of world we will have.”
John. F. Kennedy, 1963.
Upcoming Elsdon Organizational Renewal (EOR) Events
·
Staying Career Fit. Annual
Career Workshop, French-American Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco.
(Bubble
Lounge Networking)
o
August 26, 2004, Bubble Lounge, San Francisco, CA
·
Building Affiliation: Workforce
Leadership in Action. HR Southwest Concurrent Session.
(HR
Southwest,
http://www.hrsouthwest.com)
o
October 7, 2004, Fort Worth Convention Center, TX
·
Becoming Career Fit in Turbulent
Times. Project Management Institute - SF Bay Area Chapter Meeting
Presentation
(Project
Management Institute SFBAC - San Francisco Bay Area Chapter,
http://www.pmi-sfbac.org/index.phtml?menu=other_page&menu2=51)
o
October 21, 2004, Courtyard Marriott, San Francisco, CA
·
Global Issues Forum.
International Career Development Conference (ICDC) Panel Discussion
(International
Career Development Conference - Career Assistance.
http:///www.careerccc.com)
o
October 27, 2004, Sacramento Convention Center, CA
·
Opening the Organizational Door
for Career Development. International Career Development Conference
(ICDC) Concurrent Session
(International
Career Development Conference - Career Assistance.
http:///www.careerccc.com)
o
October 29, 2004, Sacramento Convention Center, CA
·
Building Employee Commitment in
a Growing Economy. 56th Annual California Groundwater Association
Convention and Trade Show Concurrent Session
(California
Groundwater Association Events,
http://www.groundh2o.org/events/events.html)
o
November 6, 2004, Silver Legacy Resort and Casino, Reno, NV
About EOR: Our Value Contribution
We enhance your workforce, leadership and organization by:
·
Using proprietary approaches to understand workforce and leadership
challenges
·
Creating tailored action plans and solutions to strengthen workforce and
leadership practices
·
Building individual capabilities and contributions
We enable you to focus on external results and building value, confident
that your organization and leadership are operating at peak
effectiveness.
Our Mission
To support your organization by enhancing performance, productivity
and effectiveness through revitalized workforce relationships and
leadership practices.
Our Approach and Values
We tailor our engagements
to the needs of each organization with a process designed to surface
critical issues, identify root causes, build effective solutions,
monitor progress and implement.
With a scope that ranges
from system and organizational interventions to work with individuals,
our focus is on the heart of the relationship among the individual, the
organization and the community. We believe that organizational and
community prosperity are built on enabling each person to fulfill his or
her potential.
Our Services
We work with individuals and groups in your organization to drive
performance and development for both the short and long term. As result
people will choose to work in your organization and will prosper there.
We bring solutions when you need to:
·
Reverse declining revenues and performance
·
Revitalize your workforce
·
Stem the loss of key talent
·
Redirect your organization to new areas
·
Stop losing customers or market share
·
Penetrate new markets
·
Combat aggressive competitors
·
Handle major change
·
Break down communication barriers
·
Energize your leadership team
·
Successfully build on an acquisition or merger
Our proprietary services include:
·
State-of-the-art tools to take the pulse of your organization and then
move to action
o
Web enabled systems
o
Experts to gather and analyze information, moving your organization to
action
·
Individual leadership coaching to give you world class leadership
capabilities
o
Leaders who know themselves and their aspirations, build their
capabilities and become catalysts developing others
·
Workshops to build interpersonal skills in your organization so that:
o
Communication is timely, concise, accurate and personal
o
People listen to each other
o
Negotiations are quick and effective
o
Differences create rather than destroy value
o
Teams move forward, get results and quickly commercialize new products
and services
o
People understand and link their motivations to your organizational
needs
o
Your teams understand what it takes to create a committed, energized
workforce
o
People use their time well
·
Systems that make it easy to drive performance and build capabilities
by:
o
Linking objectives throughout the organization
o
Strengthening key competencies
o
Making sure you have the bench strength where and when you need it
o
Giving people tools to take charge of their own careers, development and
have a major long term influence on your organization
·
Proprietary simulation and modeling techniques that let you explore how
to maximize the value of your workforce
o
Move from guessing what might happen to looking in depth at the
financial impact of different approaches
