Choice
Human beings evolved through our ability to make choices. The industrial revolution brought corporate hierarchies that restrict choice, so by forcing people into job descriptions or values that they don't quite fit into, that choice is suppressed. In order for you to live to your values or pursue your own interests, you have to steal time or make time for hobbies and other interests.
I spent 17 years in the telecoms industry and saw a direct correlation between a person's happiness and productivity and the alignment between their personal identity and their job description. This is obvious - we know through concepts like NLP Logical Levels that alignment through Identity, Beliefs, Capability, Behaviour and Environment leads to congruence, the absence of conflict both inside and outside.
The industrial revolution created restrictive job descriptions that say you can't have ideas because you're an 'administrator' not a 'creative director'. As a pre-sales consultant I sometimes had to take sales people along only to write a contract because it wasn't in my job description, so the processes didn't allow for it.
So in order for people to fully express their individuality, they have to steal time from the company, they have to make time at weekends and they have to find time amongst the housework and overtime.
What companies want is 100% commitment, but they go about this by interviewing people - management selection - in order to find people who fit the job spec with the minimum of squashing. On the other hand, executives and executive search consultants work by taking a person's skills and creating a job around them. They will say "We have to have this guy - what can we get him to do?" Investment banks create whole new departments and products around the skills of talented people.
Well if it's good for the bankers and executives, why shouldn't we all have some of that?
Because, as the middle managers will tell you, if everyone was allowed to fully express their skills and interests, who would put coal in the furnaces? Who would man the checkouts? Who would clean the toilets? The country would grind to a halt! Our industrialised society would fall apart if people didn't do what they were paid to do - whether or not they want to do it.
The end result of this is that we no longer have the job for life. Is this because companies don't care about us any more, or is it because the demands of globalisation, shareholder returns and business process re-engineering have created job specs so narrow and process driven that no-one can stand to be squashed for more than a few years, and their natural individuality finds a way out - through finding another job, or through a stress related illness.
Well I don't know if anyone can do it, but I know one thing for certain. I can, and if I can then you can.
And I know that if we can do it within excellerate then we can do it with our clients, and our clients can do it within their own businesses. We can't change the world, but we can change the minds of the people we touch.
excellerate is therefore founded on a simple principle, that choice and commitment are not mutually exclusive. For me to commit to a business, I don't have to give up my choice to pursue other interests. For me to have choice over my interests, I don't have to sit on the fence, hedge my bets and fail to see the returns on my efforts through a lack of commitment.
With excellerate, I can wake up each morning and decide what to do. Then I can fully commit to that course of action.
I can wake up and be the Director of excellerate, I can wake up and be an Ascent coach, I can wake up and be Millie and Isobel's Dad, and I can fully be any of those identities without any compromise to the others.
So tomorrow morning when you wake up, who will you be?
I spent 17 years in the telecoms industry and saw a direct correlation between a person's happiness and productivity and the alignment between their personal identity and their job description. This is obvious - we know through concepts like NLP Logical Levels that alignment through Identity, Beliefs, Capability, Behaviour and Environment leads to congruence, the absence of conflict both inside and outside.
The industrial revolution created restrictive job descriptions that say you can't have ideas because you're an 'administrator' not a 'creative director'. As a pre-sales consultant I sometimes had to take sales people along only to write a contract because it wasn't in my job description, so the processes didn't allow for it.
So in order for people to fully express their individuality, they have to steal time from the company, they have to make time at weekends and they have to find time amongst the housework and overtime.
What companies want is 100% commitment, but they go about this by interviewing people - management selection - in order to find people who fit the job spec with the minimum of squashing. On the other hand, executives and executive search consultants work by taking a person's skills and creating a job around them. They will say "We have to have this guy - what can we get him to do?" Investment banks create whole new departments and products around the skills of talented people.
Well if it's good for the bankers and executives, why shouldn't we all have some of that?
Because, as the middle managers will tell you, if everyone was allowed to fully express their skills and interests, who would put coal in the furnaces? Who would man the checkouts? Who would clean the toilets? The country would grind to a halt! Our industrialised society would fall apart if people didn't do what they were paid to do - whether or not they want to do it.
The end result of this is that we no longer have the job for life. Is this because companies don't care about us any more, or is it because the demands of globalisation, shareholder returns and business process re-engineering have created job specs so narrow and process driven that no-one can stand to be squashed for more than a few years, and their natural individuality finds a way out - through finding another job, or through a stress related illness.
Well I don't know if anyone can do it, but I know one thing for certain. I can, and if I can then you can.
And I know that if we can do it within excellerate then we can do it with our clients, and our clients can do it within their own businesses. We can't change the world, but we can change the minds of the people we touch.
excellerate is therefore founded on a simple principle, that choice and commitment are not mutually exclusive. For me to commit to a business, I don't have to give up my choice to pursue other interests. For me to have choice over my interests, I don't have to sit on the fence, hedge my bets and fail to see the returns on my efforts through a lack of commitment.
With excellerate, I can wake up each morning and decide what to do. Then I can fully commit to that course of action.
I can wake up and be the Director of excellerate, I can wake up and be an Ascent coach, I can wake up and be Millie and Isobel's Dad, and I can fully be any of those identities without any compromise to the others.
So tomorrow morning when you wake up, who will you be?
1 Comments:
i will be me
and i will be happy
hooray hooray hooray
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