Change is good, if it happens

First came the employee satisfaction survey. Then came the committee that interpreted the survey and selected the areas that needed to be worked on as top priority. Then came the focus group, the meetings and the quick wins. Then came the announcement that management was going to focus on the area selected as the least critical to employee satisfaction: communication. Then they arranged some employee appreciation days, and called it a resounding success.

As I returned to my desk in a daze, I wondered how much time and money had been wasted on this smokescreen, and how much the input of the committee REALLY mattered to management. Not much, I concluded. Then I started wondering if I should start putting up posters of the director in my cube and carrying around a printout of the company dress code in a red duo-tang.

Two years later, another survey was conducted. I predicted the results and my colleagues at work were astounded by how accurate I was. (Really, you're surprised?) I also predicted that management would continue to ignore all of the new results and continue to focus on the area that they had selected after the original survey. And lo! A TV spouting inspirational quotes and What's Happening schedules appeared in a high traffic walkthrough areas on every floor as well as the lunchroom. The walkthrough area is an inconvenient place to stop to watch the TV, and one must wait for the inspirational quotes to stop running before any pertinent information is presented. But so what? It's communication!! There was also a contest to 'name' the new information source. There was a winner and the TVs were appropriately christened with much fanfare. There was general disgust amongst the staff and more employee appreciation days were scheduled. Why didn't this work? Why wasn't the staff estatic? Communication is great, but if you don't have a good relationship with your people and they don't trust you, well, then you're screwed, period.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution under Chairman Mao followed much the same formula. In a nutshell, an initiative was concieved, trumpeted loudly by the government, and initiated with much hullabaloo. It would, many times, fail miserably, and some national holiday or celebration day would be created to distract from the fact that the initiative was a total bust. I mean, a celebration day totally makes up for failed improvements to social welfare, doesn't it?

Since then, I have come to the conclusion that my workplace is run much like what the Chinese call a hegemony. The World English Dictionary defines it thus:

Ascendancy or domination of one power or state within a league, confederation, etc, or of one social class over others.

I recall a question posed to me during my interview for my current post, for example. The interviewer asked me: "Can you do what you're told without questioning?" I immediately answered that yes, I can. And I can, most certainly, do what I'm told without question. As long as I trust the one giving the orders and that the orders are within reason. If she had asked "Will you do what you're told without questioning?", well then, that would have been a totally different story! And I'd probably be working in a different department today.

At lunch with a dear friend earlier this week, I learned that they are planning to send out another employee satisfaction survey at work. I jokingly commented later to another friend that management had obviously never heard Albert Einstein's famous quote:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Now I hear that there's a giant "re-org" in the works as well. They will be appointing new leaders from the existing leadership pool. They will be providing 'training' on the new initiatives to these new old leaders. There will be a new reporting structure. There will be new and unfamiliar processes presented to the staff with no additional training or opportunity for input. And my prediction? I expect that nothing will change. Staff will be treated as they always have been. Management will have the same, do as I say, no questions, mentality. There will be employee appreciation days. There will be another survey.

When changes are concieved, one of the most important things to keep in mind is that at some level, they will involve people. If the people aren't engaged and if the people don't trust you, the initiative will fail. It may be implemented through to completion, to be sure, but people won't really be behind it, regardless of how many employee appreciation days there are.