How centred are our companies?
"Modular Cube by Jun Maekawa" by georigami
My curriculum this last academic year involved an extensive qualitative research project. The organisation under study was a popular group of restaurants in Leiden (The Netherlands), and my class group was out to understand the innovative methods restaurants employ in human resource management — considering the high customer-facing (therefore stressful) job requirements.
A grounded theory approach yielded a fascinating although (in retrospect) an unsurprising insight. The crux lay in employee lifecycle management. It mattered to a great detail how employees are hired, how they are trained, what they experience throughout their roles and how an exit is managed. This intricate process involved stakeholders across this organisation of 300 plus personnel, and they pulled it off with an enviable finesse. Pride of Leiden, I’m certain.
None of it was rocket science. It did, however, involve a complex human emotion that we know as ‘empathy’. Being a good listener, a patient colleague and a leader who leads by example calls forth our fundamental human traits of honesty, mutual respect and humility - and these cannot be taught. If an organisation can identify and incorporate these human traits in everyday decision making processes, it functions like a ‘good human being’ — successful and generally well-liked.
‘If’. This is where the hiccups begin.
Firstly, there is an innocent tendency of viewing the organisation as separate from the people who make it. Regardless of the internal and external marketing communication, leaders may take decisions that do not align with brand personality and/or the brand personality may not be as nuanced to highlight how it treats ‘you’ (if a brand meets a client on the street, how would the interaction be). This is problematic, since it offers this dichotomy a justification. Employees look to their leaders for direction, and this two-faced behaviour spreads throughout the organisation leading to rot over time.
Secondly, organisations miss out on a realistic understanding of their present capabilities, unique contexts that offer advantages and disadvantages, plus acquiring a red-eyed view of ‘what the competition is managing to do despite’. This is flawed, and not unlike what an individual goes through in times of stress. A skewed view of self and unwarranted comparison with the outside world serves neither an individual’s nor an organisation’s purpose.
A conscious individual, in order to remedy the situation, indulges in a mindful integration of contrasting and conflicting streams of thought. An organisation, no matter how mindful at the top, faces internal resistance in the form of fiefdoms and differing work objectives. The rules of an individual are allowed to not extend to an organisation. A business and its fluid organic oneness is thus mistook for a compartmentalised machine. A machine breaks down and needs repairs, while an organism generates antibodies and heals.
Emotions, while immeasurable and subjective in nature, control every aspect of organisational functions. Measurable ‘levers’ can be deployed to ‘direct’ personnel emotions, while keeping an eye on tangible output they generate. These levers can be radical, and take the form of organisational structure and communication flows — regularly reviewed and updated — custom hierarchies, workspace design, performance management methods, expectancy management, two way feedback and foresight on the competency pool.
While the terms mentioned belong in a glass cabin, the basic principle is the same as a developing personal relationship between two individuals — especially considering that all aspects of an individual’s behaviour are understood to be connected to that one person. We do not associate their work behaviour as independent of their overall personality or offer a clean chit on erratic behaviour that is noticed only at home.
Thus, marketers need to hold their organisations accountable for the smallest and the most massive decisions while keeping the value core in mind. Any error in doing so is a sign of brand corruption. A discoloured fingernail or a tiny blocked artery are signs of a life threatening problem. Similarly, no problem is too small or too isolated for an organisation that is healthily centred.
The act of holding the organisation accountable (of which a marketer is an integral element) involves clear and regular communication to the leadership that highlights problems and possible dire effects on business performance. Leverage in these negotiations needs to be drawn from across the marketer’s departments of influence - people, product and PR. The effectiveness of a marketer’s judgement and an organisation’s ability to tackle its challenges will vary. However, a perspective that ‘integrates’ would be better placed to spot the interdependencies within the organisation (blocked tiny arteries leading to a dead brain) as opposed to a mindset that sees functions in isolation.
Businesses will always blunder on, “like humans do”. However, as marketers, we should ensure it is the best blundering the world has ever seen — through enabling ‘healing’ and ‘graceful ageing’.
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Words: Sushrut Munje