Inspire Genius - (Head and Heart in Harmony)
By Jay Forte, Humanetrics LLC
For a body to survive each of its cells needs to contribute its role; the body engages every cell. Similarly, for a company to survive it must engage and activate every one of its employees; anything less will lead to its demise.
Many companies have management styles that are left over from the industrial revolution; these command and control environments host managements who spend their time dictating procedures and policies that have little effect in maximizing performance. We are now in the age of intellectual capital; this service economy has been brought in by the movement off shore of much of manufacturing. The economy has changed and therefore the rules for managing have changed; brain is in, brawn is out.
The command and control style of management doesn’t work in running a country and it doesn’t work in running a company. This is because the definition of work and contribution by the employee has changed. Now, employees need to be constantly thinking, inventing and creating responses and solutions. “One size fits all” management responses based on previous repetitive task workplaces do not work in this information rich technology environment. Since the employees and their roles have changed, our management style needs to change.
Intellectual capital is punctuated with an abundance of information, something that was previously in a more limited supply. With limited access to information, management had been able to control the workplace and the information that affected it. Today, with the pervasive nature of information and the ease that every employee has to access information, successful companies are lead by managers who do not try to control information but rather those who create cultures that inspire their employees to constantly watch and share what they see and hear. This introduces a new approach to both management and the value of the employee.
So what does it take to win the collective genius of our workforce? What does it take to get an employee to be a thinker at work?
Employees are human that means that they function not only on brain and brawn, but heart. Employees contribute at their best levels when they feel connected… inspired.
Author Jan Phillips explains in her book, The Art of Original Thinking, that if we look at the word “inspired” we see that employees who are “in-spired” are “in-spiritus;” in other words, they are connecting with each other on a spiritual level. This does not refer to religion but rather that intrinsic emotional connection between people. Spirituality in the workplace refers to the company’s ability to fully understand and activate the “whole” (complete) employee – head, hands and heart. Old command and control styles of management will not accommodate employee “spirituality” or connectedness; instead, it looks to consistently assert domination over employee performance.
Head and heart need to be connected for full engagement. When the heart (emotions) enter(s) in, important human to human (spiritual) connections are built. These connections allow employees to relate to both others and to themselves. This strength of feelings and emotions helps the average employee become a more engaged employee which manifests itself by increased thinking, innovation, creativity and performance-based risk taking. Connected (in-spired) employees reach for ideas that are at deeper levels; they demand more of themselves and of others. They start to see things that require greater effort and strong vision. Feeling connected and engaged allows employees to feel inspired to offer what they think and to share what they know. This improves the quality of ideas…and their ability to be remarkable and different.
For this level of performance the Head and Heart must be in Harmony. Think of it this way: Heart and Mind mean Emotions and Brainwaves. Emotions and Brainwaves mean Information and Relationships. Information and Relationships are the components of today’s service competitive advantage and what drives employees to perform. Information that is constantly shared and used for success. Relationships to help employees feel valued, empowered and connected to their work and the people in it. The combination of information and relationship is the formula for connected, high contributing employees and great company performance.
Creating an environment that encourages both the employee’s Head and Heart creates the possibility for high performance because it addresses and activates critical attributes of employees. It is not enough for employees to just think at work; they need to be emotionally connected to their role and to others in the workplace to “inspire” them to invent, respond and work in ways that others do not. And this is required for the entire organization.
Statistics from the Gallup Organization indicate that between 55% and 65% of employees do just enough in the workplace so they don’t get fired; I’ll call this “working half time.” the connection between all employees and employees and management is the same as fully functioning body. All cells are expected and required to do what they do best in a way that benefits the entire body. If only half of the cells are working, illness and chaos result. If too few employees are engaged (inspired) then only part of the company is functioning well; there is a general decline in the company health and results suffer. Employees are like cells…each need to be clear about their performance expectations and engaged to act as they need to for optimum health or success.
It is therefore our style of management that either encourages this engaged approach or discourages it. It is our style of management that either encourages the creative genius of our people (helping each one contribute in their way) or inhibits through misunderstanding of what moves current employees to profound performance. Creative genius is launched in the information movement and relationship building that inspires employees to do their best and take calculated risks. Creative genius is the result of organizations that know how to create cultures that value employees and allow them to build strong bonds with each other…bonds that help them feel “in-spiritus.”
As Dee Hock states in his book The Birth of the Chaordic Age, “If your beliefs are based on the old model of top-down command and control, specialization, special privilege, and nothing but profit, your organization will, in time, turn toxic. It will become antithetical to the human spirit…” Instead, we now need to focus on engaging the human (whole person) spirit; it is the key to generate human energy, human innovation and human performance. The numbers do not make the company…they just measure it. The human side of business (the people) makes the numbers and therefore the performance. Engage the entire person, Head and Heart, for results that are out of this world.
Humanetrics LLC. All rights reserved 2007.