Like a number of us, we have been following the drama out of Washington regarding the raising of the debt limit. If you have not we are faced with the possibility that the US will go into default on its loans because a group of congressmen are so determined to have it their way or no way. They have forgotten the lessons learned from the past that have shown that the way to solve our problems is through compromise and finding common middle ground that we can all agree on.
We have that same problem in many corporations. These organizations still operate under the assumption that the only way to run an organization is to do what the CEO edicts down the chain of command. They operate under the concept that as senior management they are the only ones who knows how to run a company. What happens in the long run is that the hardline turns your most important asset into individuals who lose engagement.Who come to work for the paycheck and not to enhance the organizational place in the marketplace. The employees take on the attitude that they are just children with no voice in their existence.
The key to the success of an organization in the global marketplace is the level of innovation and collaboration that goes on between the organization and its customers- internal and external. So yes we have problem Houston when we forget that the employee that is int he trenches may know better what needs to done to meet the customers requirements than the executive sitting in the ivory tower.
The World English Dictionary defines collaboration as something created by working JOINTLY with another or others, The definition does not say that you created something because the CEO says this is the way it will be done.
So yes Houston we do have a problem. We have many organizations out there who consider their employees as turnips and try to get every last ounce of blood out of them, forgetting their role in the vitality of the organization. They forget that the road to success down through time has always been characterized by compromise towards the middle of the stream in which both sides gain in return for the giving up some steadfast piece of ground. In the Industrial Revolution this prevailing attitude may have worked fine. Today it just plain won't work whether we are talking about the corporate boardroom or the floors of congress. Move your organization forward and open the discussion to find that middle ground. We will all be better off in the long run.
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