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Creating a sustainable workplace

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“I cannot get away from this. I mean never. My wife and kids yell at me every time I pick it up. And you are saying I need to spend more time thinking about how to construct my emails so I don’t hurt someone’s feelings?”

“This” is a Blackberry.The gentleman speaking is a mid-level manager at a ____ company. I’ll call him Dave. I’m not surprised to hear this outburst. I’ve just led a group discussion about the need for more sensitivity and care in constructing internal emails, and Dave has been writhing in his seat the entire time.

Feeling emboldened by the affirmation from the group that things need to change, I say, “Why not just shut off your Blackberry when you want to spend uninterrupted time at home with your family?”

His face reddens and his eyes darken. “I’ll tell you why. I’ve already been in trouble for not replying to an email until the next morning: one that was sent at 10:00pm the previous evening!”

I learn that he is one of the few surviving managers from his group after a recent merger and he now has three times the number of people (twenty eight!) reporting to him than previously.

Clearly, something has to change in Dave’s company.

In our research, OLG has discovered some key themes that tell us what is and isn’t working at our clients’ organizations. We specifically asked our clients how they will emerge from the current economic downturn, and remain or become truly exceptional places to work.

What Isn’t Working, or The Amygdala Hijack

We asked our clients to describe their everyday lives. Obsessed, crazed, stressed and overwhelmed are some of the words we heard. “We seem to do nothing more than put out one fire before racing off to attend to the next troubled hot spot,” said one senior manager.

So what’s suffering? Our physical and mental health, our ability to feel connected to our work and our colleagues, our feelings of happiness and contentment, and the quality of our relationships overall. Excessive stress, unmanageable anxiety, fear, irritability and anger overwhelm our everyday interactions.

Daniel Goleman, the author of the book Social Intelligence, coined the term “Amygdala Hijack” to describe what goes on in our brain when we try to take on more tasks than we are capable of managing. The amygdala’s role is to get problems under control immediately before the perceived danger overwhelms us. Unfortunately, a hijacked amygdala bypasses ration and reason. You’ve experienced an amygdale hijack if you’ve ever said something you’ve regretted or lashed out in an email.

Our hijacked brains and bodies recover physiologically and neurologically in about 18 minutes according to Goleman, but with no “down time”, the body’s stress response is activated so often that it doesn’t always have a chance to return to normal, resulting in a state of chronic stress. This can lead to impaired cognitive abilities, high blood pressure, heart attacks and lower immunity to infections.

Ed Hallowell, a Harvard University teacher and practicing psychiatrist, has recognized what he calls an increasing absence of “human moments” at work. Hallowell says, “Coworkers slowly lose their sense of cohesiveness. It starts with one person, but distrust, disrespect, and dissatisfaction on the job are like contagions.”

The cost to organizations of creating such a “toxic” work environment is significant. Absenteeism, low morale, low productivity and high employee turnover are some of the reported effects on employees which has consequential impacts on the organization’s profitability and long term sustainability.

The Cure – Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is defined as a measure of an employee’s feelings of happiness and contentment at work and the pride he feels for his organization. An engaged employee’s greatest professional desire is to perform at a higher level, and grow within a company.

Fifteen percent of American workers are “actively disengaged” and 56% are “not engaged” at work, according to data collected by The Gallup Organization in a 2006 survey. When asked to rate their agreement with the statement "At work, we share new ideas with customers," 74% of engaged employees strongly agreed, contrasted with just 13% of actively disengaged employees.

Any doubt as to the correlation between engaged workers and the financial success of an organization can be dispelled with the results presented by research organization Kenexa, Inc.: Kenexa’s research demonstrates that companies who had higher employee satisfaction scores had up to 700% higher shareholder return.

How to Do It, or Creating Community at Work

Tell it the way it is and give others the opportunity to do the same. Again and again we heard from survey interviewees on the need for more candid conversations in the workplace.

Enabling candid conversations.“If employees are to be engaged and inspired to connect with their organization and its vision, then leaders have got to become more transparent in how and what they communicate,” said one senior executive.

There are benefits of open and honest dialogue at all levels of an organization. Efficiency, loyalty and productivity all increase tenfold when employees are making the best, value-based decisions for themselves, their organization and customers.

Create a caring environment. Work places are increasingly staffed by a diverse group of employees. Leaders and managers need to devote more time learning what it takes to make each team member feel taken care of emotionally, and physically. One size no longer fits all in terms of how we engage employees.

The occasions in our careers when we feel genuinely known, understood and listened to by our managers are the times that we feel at our most productive best. Managers need to take the time to know their people, give them regular feedback and praise, and tell them how they can grow and develop in their careers.

As one senior executive said, “Employee engagement is directly linked to feelings of inclusion, new generations, and a global business.”

Connect with ourselves and others. The “tyranny of technology”, as one interviewee put it, has created a work environment where many people can spend the work day in front of their computer screen doing their job without having to engage with others, except electronically.

Leaders and managers need to find ways to create opportunities for employees to reconnect with themselves and others during the work day. Whether it’s through physical activity or taking time to slow down and breathe for the individual, or face-to-face team meetings or informal social gatherings for groups; people need to recharge and re-energize by being given the opportunity for “down time.”

It is through these pauses in our frenetic day that we get to truly listen to ourselves and others. Taking the time to listen for what has heart and meaning, we can connect with those around us in a way that demonstrates and encourages support, understanding, collaboration and creativity.

As one manager told us, “I want to build a community I’m inspired to be a part of.”