Monthly Archives: April 2022

Individuals have personalities. Groups have Culture. Culture is the collective personality of a group of individuals. Without personality every person is just the same…. an assortment of organs, activities and soulless existence with no remarkable differences. It is personality that differentiates us from one another and gives us a unique identity. Similarly an organization is just an assortment of furniture, transactions and a collection of people without a distinct identity in the absence of a collective personality i.e. Culture.

Why is it important for an organization to have a personality? Several reasons. One of the reasons is that Personality renders a human aspect to the organization which brings life to the interactions and relationships between the associates and the organization itself. Let’s now dive a little deeper.

No Culture. Possible? – Assume we choose not to have any specific culture in our organization. What are we likely to get as a result? In all of history, have we ever heard of a group without a distinct culture? No. Culture still settles in.

If we are not mindful of culture it would be left to chance. Culture and Sub-cultures would creep into each sub-group depending on the leadership styles of the formal or informal leaders in each of these sub-groups. And it is likely that these fragmented group cultures would clash with each other often resulting in office politics and frustrations for the members of the groups. Cultures so formed randomly tend to be very volatile and dissolve as soon as the leader changes, giving way to new culture based on the new leader’s style.

Culture shapes Behavior – If you are a believer that Management is a lot about shaping the behavior of your people and driving results through building synergy, culture is what needs to be focused upon. A great culture can cause behavior to move from mediocrity to virtuosity. The virtues that are identified as distinctive cultural elements and promoted by the Leaders are the ones that would be practiced by the workforce. It clarifies to associates which behaviors are valued and which are condemned.

In the modern globalized world where people from diverse ethnic backgrounds work together, Organizational Culture supersedes the ethnicity related cultural differences and even blunts out office politics to a great extent. This leads to associates getting along with each other with ease and pulling in one direction. In essence, Culture matters! And in a big way!! This explains why associates in companies with strong culture outperform their peers in other companies by about 20%.

Intensity of Culture – Mild to Strong. Intensity of Culture can be defined as the degree of consistency with which members of the group exhibit behavioral traits that are distinctive of that group’s culture. High consistency with respect to a certain trait indicates high intensity and as we move towards a lower consistency on the scale, we gradually move towards mild cultures and then gradually to non-existence of that behavioral trait at a cultural level.

Mild cultures tend to get dissolved over a period of time and lose their cultural identity. This happens because conformity to cultural norms or the lack of it tends to be inconsequential for members of the group in low-intensity cultures. Organizations need to build enough intensity to create any impact of culture on results. Success through culture management is only possible when the intensity is high enough to impact the day to day thinking and behavior of group members.

What kind of culture suits your organization?Purpose & Values: Ensure everyone working for the organization is aligned to the purpose. Without knowing or believing or living the purpose for which the organization exists, people are never going to excel at creating products/services that serve the purpose for which the organization exists. It is of paramount importance to ensure that the culture of the organization is aligned to the purpose for which it exists.

Values are those that guide the interactions internally within employees and externally with other stakeholders. Values provide clarity regarding what to or what not to expect from colleagues and ensure there are standards set for acceptable behavior. Values also act as guidelines regarding the way in which organization expects staff to view the other stakeholders including Customers, society in general, vendors, Shareholders, etc. Values thus create a cultural framework within which the staff members tend to operate.

Competitive Edge: The kind of culture that fits your organization depends on the kind of business you have and the vision of the organization. It is important to identify the traits that would give a competitive edge. For instance, if you build a business which has innovation as your competitive edge, it would be beneficial to have a culture which fosters innovation. If unmatchable customer service is what the organization aspires to build as competitive edge to win over rival companies, you would like to build a culture which boosts customer service excellence as the paramount value.

How to build culture?

Dream and articulate your dream. First have a vision of how the ideal culture would look like for your kind of business. Have a very vivid vision. Use the Purpose & Values framework and competitive edge of your business as flag-posts in building the vision. Envision how the framework translates into expected behaviors in real life situations. Prioritize and synchronize. It would be a great idea to invite contributions and thoughts from various sections of your employees to straight away start engaging them in the process of building a fabulous culture.

Communicate – No amount of communication is too much when it comes to communication about Culture. Studies indicate that at least 22 percent of employees do not know core values or do not understand them. At least 25 percent of employees do not know their company’s mission. This shows why communication is so very important. You can create a cult culture by being as creative and clear as possible while communicating. Don’t just communicate what is expected out of them. Communicate what it would look like to possess the prized culture that you aspire to build. Communication process regarding Culture never ends. Reinforcement of communication has to be done at regular intervals to keep the cultural traits prevalent.

Set Example – senior leaders in the organization need to first practice before preaching when it comes to setting up a great culture. Spot opportunities for yourself to demonstrate the behaviors you expect from your people. Do it time and again.

Reward – Idolize great behaviors. Celebrate and publicize any instances/individuals who have exemplified commitment to the culture you aspire to build. Remember Ivan Pavlov’s experiment? You get more of what you reward more. Simultaneously ensure to condemn any behaviors that work against your culture, even if such behaviors get you short term gains. Remember, no great culture happens without some sacrifices.

Finally, remember to create a high intensity culture that makes a difference. Half-measures do not lead to any results. The true promise of a culture, argues influential venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, is to “be provocative enough to change what people do every day.”

Business – what goes on inside?

Input + Process = Output i.e. every business takes inputs from environment, adds value (through knowledge/skills) and converts the inputs into output in the form of useful products or services for customers. This is a continuous process across industries across the globe.

Well, we all know that the environment is dynamic. There is constant evolution in inputs available in the environment. There are also new Skills, knowledge & technology emerging in the market place continuously resulting in enhancement in processes. Customers’ preferences keep changing and they have new options available. In fact, there is a constant inflow of new customers and outflow of existing customers from the marketplace resulting in demand for new and better outputs. So, in the modern times it is not enough to acquire one-time knowledge, build a channel and establish business if you wish to run an organization that lives long.

If business has to thrive or at least live long enough in this dynamic world, it is imperative that the business keeps continuously upgrading skills/knowledge. The upgraded skills help business entities to continuously evolve along with or ahead of the evolution of inputs, process and outputs in the industry.

This process of upgradation is possible when the organization keeps learning continuously regarding the possible/necessary improvements constantly happening in the environment in which it operates. Organizations which master the aspect of continuous learning and adapt to the changes would continue to stay relevant. Else, the fittest survive and the rest go extinct. We all know several examples of even the mightiest of Organizations and Organisms gone extinct since they failed to learn & adapt.

This is where the concept of ‘Learning Organization’ gets into the picture.

By definition, A learning organization is one in which people continuously absorb knowledge by design through external & internal sources and continuously put the knowledge to use for progression of the organization.

Building a Learning Organization

Learning as Cultural aspect. It is not enough for just a few people to learn in order to build a learning organization. Continuous Learning should be a widely practiced behavioral aspect at all levels in the organization. Culture is a great tool to promote any behavior widely across an organization. Leaders need to find ways to promote continuous learning as a cultural aspect. People should be helped to understand that gone are the times where one would acquire a skill and make a living based on the skill until retirement. Several of yesteryear’s sought after skills are redundant today and same is going to be the case with today’s saleable skills.

The purpose of promoting Continuous Learning as cultural aspect is to create the desire in individuals to practice Continuous learning as a virtue. The fact that Learning can be fun and can enhance the excitement of work-life should be leveraged.

Art of Learning. Once the desire to Learn Continuously is created at an organizational level, it is important to provide avenues for learning.

Curiosity and Learning come naturally to kids. Several adults may have lost the ability to be curious and the aptitude to learn continuously. Though the desire to learn has been created, they are likely to do better with some help, at least until the initial inertia is overcome.

Leaders need to act as the guiding light of Learning by communicating the vision and the future focus areas of the organization. Workforce should be guided on the What aspect of learning. They should be communicated with the short and long term vision of the organization, the possible current and future trends in the marketplace and what could be the focus areas of learning. This is the point at which vision meets strategy and gets converted into efforts.

Once the What aspect has been clarified to the workforce, the Where aspect needs to be addressed. Employees need to be provided with avenues where they can access the knowledge. Some of the avenues of learning could be benchmarking with Competitors, learning from best practices of diverse industries, close knit relations with educational institutes where research on relevant topics happens, analysis of past successes/failures, cross-functional projects within the organization, internet-based learning, etc., apart from the already widely prevalent forms such as Class Room Training, Outbound camps, Corporate trainers, Seminars, etc.

Individual Knowledge = Organizational Knowledge? Learning which is stored in the form of memory or data in the mind of an individual cannot yet be termed as Organizational Learning. It can be called organizational knowledge after it is shared with other relevant persons and can be used for future references or can be put readily to use for organizational progress. Leaders need to devise methods for this happen. Some of the ways this can be made possible are knowledge sharing sessions at periodic intervals, revising Standard Operating Processes using the acquired knowledge, revisiting existing processes, continuous improvement programs/projects, etc. Such measures also reduce the ill-effects of indispensability of individuals in the organization.

Learning + Practice = New Skill. It is commonly known that knowledge which is put to practice and repeated use gets converted into skill. In a learning organization, new knowledge is acquired continuously creating the opportunity to create new skills. It is the responsibility of Managers to identify such windows of opportunities and take advantage of the new skills. For example, when Apple Inc. acquired the skill to marry aesthetic sense with utility aspect of computers, it created a competitive edge and the company managed to make the best out of the skill. An entire BPO industry has emerged based on the above principle.

Knowledge Put to Use. Knowledge acquisition or Continuous Learning Process is not an end in itself. The end objective is to use the knowledge to keep and maintain the organization in a progressive trajectory. In order for the last mile to be conquered in the process of building a Learning organization, Leaders need to find suitable methods to bring the learning to life. Innovation drives with specific timelines, new product/service developments, Customer Experience Enhancement Programs etc. are some ways to ensure the learning culminates into Competitive advantage/business gains for the organization. Developing new and data based approaches to Organizational problem solving at Team levels is another important way of putting the learning to practical use. Learning organizations prefer to work with data rather than hunch or gut-feeling based decision making.

P-D-C-A. Continuous Learning process needs continuous improvement as well. Once the process of building a Learning Organization is plotted and put to action, periodical measurement of progress is imperative for success. Deming’s continuous improvement cycle is a great guiding factor to ensure progress is measured and necessary corrective action is put in place. Remember, only that which can be measured can be managed.

Emotion Vs Emotion

By the time Kumar reached office, he was late by 30 minutes and Ezaz was waiting for him. Kumar leads HRD of the organization while Ezaz heads Finance. “One more of my team members has resigned this morning. How am I going to handle the audit now? You could not even fill the vacancy created by the exit of David four months ago.” Angrily asked Ezaz as he entered Kumar’s cabin which is just next to his.

“That’s for you to figure out. That’s precisely what you are being paid for” retorted Kumar, still trying to switch his laptop on. This response really got into the nerves of Ezaz and he yelled “this arrogance of HR department is exactly the root cause of most of the problems here…I am not going to tolerate this anymore” This ensued into a bitter argument between Ezaz and Kumar, including blaming each other’s subordinates and it was audible to their team members sitting outside the cabins.

While they reconciled later and took damage control measures, this incident disturbed the harmony between the two teams. Little did Ezaz know that Kumar had narrowly missed an accident while driving to office. Kumar’s nerves have not yet settled by the time he reached office. Kumar being in fury, in spite of knowing fully well regarding an upcoming audit, could not understand Ezaz’s worries and anger. Handling the audit with one team member completely gone and another half-gone was an uphill task.

Had at least one of them shown awareness of the rising impulses and handled the discussion without anger or had a scheduled and well-prepared discussion at a later time, this could have been avoided. In some similar cases though, the spats are not verbal but transform into silent battles of ego and are not mended for great lengths of time. Quite often, they lead to ‘office politics’. If colleagues can be empathetic to one another, work places would be much better and consequentially more successful. This is just one example depicting the need for a higher state of emotional intelligence at workplace. Emotional intelligence, as the name suggests, is about being intelligent with Emotions. What is intelligence and what is emotion?

Thoughts about Feelings

Intelligence simply put, is the ability to absorb relevant information from various sources, process it and derive meaningful output. Emotion is relatively hard to define and is explained as a feeling or a cluster of feelings and the related psychological and biological states. It relates to instinctive or intuitive feelings as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge. There are two processes our brain hosts – thinking and feeling. While thinking dwells on intelligence, feelings relate to emotional triggers in the mind and are derived more from instincts.

Thinking and Feeling are strongly intertwined and the richness of each depends on the strength of the other. If you can really think (or analyse) about the feelings of yours and the others around you, you would be able to understand them well and make appropriate choices. Emotional Intelligence simply is the ability to spot and understand information related to the emotions of self as well as others, think (process the information) and act appropriately for the best possible outcome.

Following are some interesting facts regarding thoughts and emotions:

• Emotions precede thoughts. Our emotional reactions occur first in response to an event, much faster than our thoughts. It almost is like lightning that precedes thunder. In many cases we first develop feeling of like/ dislike towards things or individuals and then think to justify.
• Thoughts seek to reason whereas Emotions stem from instincts or a blend of instincts and are seldom logical.
• Emotions in raw state are far more overpowering and can push us into action even before we consciously understand the event and draw a reasoned conclusion.
• Emotions have physiological repercussions whereas thoughts necessarily need not lead to physiological responses.

Life minus Emotions = Void

Imagine a life without emotions. Throughout our life, we crave for giving and receiving love, affection, admiration and other such emotions that can culminate into happiness. As Humans, we constantly strive to build and sustain happiness in life. We are, but emotional beings. Without emotions, life would be empty…how much ever intelligence one may possess it becomes irrelevant if the ability to feel /experience emotions is missing. Developing intelligence in handling emotions well enriches the fabric of life.

Emotional Intelligence Recipe – Five Ingredients

The five building blocks of emotional intelligence are:

Self-Awareness is knowing what’s happening within oneself. It is about the ability to recognize the feelings within self as they originate and put a name to the feeling. Words are powerful in shaping our thoughts and feelings. Putting a name helps us develop right feeling/thought about the feeling. Self-awareness is the very first step in the path of self-development.

Self-Regulation is the ability to handle feelings so that they are appropriate and not becoming a slave of feelings. It is about the ability to not live in denial.

Internal Motivation is the ability to cultivate the right mindset and emotional state in the journey towards a goal. Being overwhelmed by initial success or getting bogged down by hurdles can derail the journey itself.

Empathy is the ability to identify with or understand the perspectives and motivations of others and to comprehend their emotional state. Individuals, who are good at empathy quickly spot opportunities to make others feel good, understand their motivation hotspots and can use them effectively.

Social Skills/Relationship Management: Skill in managing emotions in others. Not manipulation. These are social stars. They are generally good communicators, interactive and are good at building and managing relationships.

Emotions @ work

Emotions can energize or de-energize thoughts. Say, you believe that doing a particular task would fetch you recognition and reward. The belief results in a feeling of motivation and helps in completing the task better and faster. If you believe (even if it is a wrong notion) that the credit of your achievement would not be given to you or would be stolen by someone else, it would result in a feeling of demotivation and thereby lack of interest in performing the task. In both the cases, the task and ability of the individual is the same. It’s just the feeling of motivation or demotivation which influences the result, irrespective of whether the feeling originated from the right perception or not. An emotionally intelligent manager would be able to identify the feelings and the undercurrents involved and manage people and work in an effective manner and can build happier & highly effective teams.

HRM @ Emotional Intelligence – Cultivating EI

HR Department would expectedly be the custodian of cultivating EI in organizations, in partnership with other business leaders. Some of the ways that can be adopted are:

• Awareness sessions on EI. EI has only gained partial awareness among general public. The very awareness of EI and consciousness of the concept would lead to a certain degree of improvement. It would help if awareness sessions are conducted as a series of interventions rather than as onetime event.
• Building self-awareness – Various tools are available online and with EI experts to measure the EI in each individual. Providing access to such tools is an effective way of building self-awareness. Among other options available are 360 degree feedback exercises regarding EI.
• Visual Displays and Literature can help EI constantly exist in the realm of consciousness of associates and thereby result in improvement. Individual journals may be provided where employees can write their observations regarding their own EI during each day. This helps individuals study themselves, draw patterns in their own behavior, make corrective action plan and implement.
• Recognition to employees who are role models of EI can also be an effective approach. Idolize them so that others emulate them.

Cultivating EI would bring calm to associates’ thinking and can enrich quality of their thoughts. They can be more objective in thinking without being influenced by individual biases. The benefits to both, the individuals and the organization are many and obvious.

History of Human Evolution and History of Change – a closer look would reveal that the two have been strongly interwoven for all known time. Change has picked pace and thrived after Human Beings started to dominate. It would be very pertinent to say that Human beings started to dominate and thrive on Planet Earth once the human race learnt to initiate and adapt to change — The Art of Change.

Medieval and Modern History witnessed the relationship between change and Human Race getting thicker and better. Incremental change gave way to disruptive change. Ever since Industrial Revolution took place, Countries and societies that have pioneered and embraced change dominated the rest of the world. The remaining Countries and societies across the world were ruled by these pioneering countries and eventually adopted the same change.

For the current and last few generations, change has been a part of everyday life. Did we resist? No. We embraced change. We changed the way we buy, we communicate, we travel, we entertain ourselves and what not? Have we as a species undergone any mass change management programs and courses to traverse through all these changes? No. We have been welcoming of all these changes.

Why as employees we are unwilling to accept change while as Human Beings we have been welcoming of change? Is Change Management the best way to navigate through change in an organization? Can we find a better approach?

The answers to these questions lie in adopting Change Embracement as an approach with Change Management as a sub-process. Let’s see what this means.

Change Management Conventional Change Management in corporate world has majorly been as follows:

• Top Management identifies a particular change initiative as a solution to a specific organizational problem
• Top Management expects that stakeholders (mostly employees) would be resistant to change and tackles the resistance by convincing stakeholders about the necessity/advantages of the change initiative — typically called Change Management.
• People assigned with the task would organize and implement the initiative in a coordinated and organized manner.

The brighter side of change management is the way change is organized as a process, coordinated with stake holders and followed through until successful conclusion. The flipside is it takes a top-down approach with Management first zeroing up on a change initiative followed by trying to sell the idea to employees to ensure they do not resist and then going through the next steps of implementing the change initiative. Firstly, this does nothing about pioneering change. This approach is more like a person trying to woo another into a short term romantic relationship. In the current age where information is as pervasive as air, the stake holders can easily see through these wooing efforts. The result is that evidence indicates only 30% success in all of change management initiatives in corporate world.

What we propose here is a shift in going about change. All of history suggests that initiators of change thrive, those who adapt to change survive and the rest perish. Hence it would be a smarter idea to become an organization that is exploring and initiating change rather than being someone who goes about change reluctantly or even worse, do not change. In order to be among those who thrive, we need to build organizations that constantly invent or explore opportunities to change and then embrace it at an organizational level and not just at Top Management level. History of Human Evolution and History of Change – a closer look would reveal that the two have been strongly interwoven for all known time. Change has picked pace and thrived after Human Beings started to dominate. It would be very pertinent to say that Human beings started to dominate and thrive on Planet Earth once the human race learnt to initiate and adapt to change — The Art of Change.

Medieval and Modern History witnessed the relationship between change and Human Race getting thicker and better. Incremental change gave way to disruptive change. Ever since Industrial Revolution took place, Countries and societies that have pioneered and embraced change dominated the rest of the world. The remaining Countries and societies across the world were ruled by these pioneering countries and eventually adopted the same change.

For the current and last few generations, change has been a part of everyday life. Did we resist? No. We embraced change. We changed the way we buy, we communicate, we travel, we entertain ourselves and what not? Have we as a species undergone any mass change management programs and courses to traverse through all these changes? No. We have been welcoming of all these changes.

Why as employees we are unwilling to accept change while as Human Beings we have been welcoming of change? Is Change Management the best way to navigate through change in an organization? Can we find a better approach?

The answers to these questions lie in adopting Change Embracement as an approach with Change Management as a sub-process. Let’s see what this means.

Change Management Conventional Change Management in corporate world has majorly been as follows:

• Top Management identifies a particular change initiative as a solution to a specific organizational problem
• Top Management expects that stakeholders (mostly employees) would be resistant to change and tackles the resistance by convincing stakeholders about the necessity/advantages of the change initiative — typically called Change Management.
• People assigned with the task would organize and implement the initiative in a coordinated and organized manner.

The brighter side of change management is the way change is organized as a process, coordinated with stake holders and followed through until successful conclusion. The flipside is it takes a top-down approach with Management first zeroing up on a change initiative followed by trying to sell the idea to employees to ensure they do not resist and then going through the next steps of implementing the change initiative. Firstly, this does nothing about pioneering change. This approach is more like a person trying to woo another into a short term romantic relationship. In the current age where information is as pervasive as air, the stake holders can easily see through these wooing efforts. The result is that evidence indicates only 30% success in all of change management initiatives in corporate world.

What we propose here is a shift in going about change. All of history suggests that initiators of change thrive, those who adapt to change survive and the rest perish. Hence it would be a smarter idea to become an organization that is exploring and initiating change rather than being someone who goes about change reluctantly or even worse, do not change. In order to be among those who thrive, we need to build organizations that constantly invent or explore opportunities to change and then embrace it at an organizational level and not just at Top Management level. Components of Change Embracement:

Change-ready Culture: Build an organization where stakeholders are proactive with respect to change or rather create change for the better. Following are some of the steps to keep in mind while trying to build a Change Embracement Culture.

• Change-readiness should be built-in as one of the core values as that’s the cornerstone to progress in the current times. In order for this to be accepted, the organization should build a safety-net wherein members of the organization who get adversely affected by Change are not just seen as collateral damage.
• The organization should build an environment of trust where people are confident that though they may lose turf sometimes as a result of a new way of doing things or doing new things, they would be adequately taken care of. This dispels any doubts and kills reluctance to change thereby eliminating the need to woo or trick employees into accepting change.
• The organization needs to create and publicize success stories of people who have embraced change and made progress.
• This should be built to an extent where Change is looked at as an opportunity rather than as a threat.

Associates vs with Management: In organizations where Change Embracement is built as a cultural aspect, initiation of change or identification of opportunities for progressive change can come from anyone and any corner. Unlike a traditional organization where change is Top driven and Management views employees as set of people who need to be tackled with, organizations with a change embracement approach create more opportunities for progressive change. Progressive Change is allowed to be conceived at any level and associates themselves have an opportunity to initiate and propose change. Progressive change becomes a way of approaching work rather than a transactional affair between management and associates. This kills any possibility of associates vs management situation and rather facilitates associates with management situations. This makes such organizations more likely to be pioneers of change than followers of change. In such organizations, change is a way of day-to-day life…. be it frequent but minor incremental changes which improve a process one step at a time or a break-through change that creates a plunge into the future for the whole organization, they kill stagnancy and cause progression. All such initiatives are welcomed.

Change-agility Competency: While the cultural aspect is being built, it is also important to build change-agility as a competence at individual levels. While change-ready culture builds enthusiasm around change embracement and an environment of trust at organizational level, building the required competencies to ensure success at individual levels builds platform for Success. This is similar to Macro-Economic Management & Micro-Economic Management. Change agility is all about the ability to think through the impact of Change till a granular level, adapt self and help the surroundings adapt to change in an astute manner.

Change- Management Skill: Having made the field ready for deploying change, now we go back to our good old concepts related to Change Management of Organizing, coordinating, informing and implementing change. Change Management now takes the form of a skill which is less complex and can be drawn into a set of sequential steps which can be walked through with higher ease. The difference is that this is now purely administrative in nature and requires very less work around convincing reluctant employees to change. The organization is change-ready at a cultural level, people are competent at implementing change and hence change management is very likely to be a walk in the park with enhanced chances of success. History of Human Evolution and History of Change – a closer look would reveal that the two have been strongly interwoven for all known time. Change has picked pace and thrived after Human Beings started to dominate. It would be very pertinent to say that Human beings started to dominate and thrive on Planet Earth once the human race learnt to initiate and adapt to change — The Art of Change.

Medieval and Modern History witnessed the relationship between change and Human Race getting thicker and better. Incremental change gave way to disruptive change. Ever since Industrial Revolution took place, Countries and societies that have pioneered and embraced change dominated the rest of the world. The remaining Countries and societies across the world were ruled by these pioneering countries and eventually adopted the same change.

For the current and last few generations, change has been a part of everyday life. Did we resist? No. We embraced change. We changed the way we buy, we communicate, we travel, we entertain ourselves and what not? Have we as a species undergone any mass change management programs and courses to traverse through all these changes? No. We have been welcoming of all these changes.

Why as employees we are unwilling to accept change while as Human Beings we have been welcoming of change? Is Change Management the best way to navigate through change in an organization? Can we find a better approach?

The answers to these questions lie in adopting Change Embracement as an approach with Change Management as a sub-process. Let’s see what this means.

Change Management Conventional Change Management in corporate world has majorly been as follows:

• Top Management identifies a particular change initiative as a solution to a specific organizational problem
• Top Management expects that stakeholders (mostly employees) would be resistant to change and tackles the resistance by convincing stakeholders about the necessity/advantages of the change initiative — typically called Change Management.
• People assigned with the task would organize and implement the initiative in a coordinated and organized manner.

The brighter side of change management is the way change is organized as a process, coordinated with stake holders and followed through until successful conclusion. The flipside is it takes a top-down approach with Management first zeroing up on a change initiative followed by trying to sell the idea to employees to ensure they do not resist and then going through the next steps of implementing the change initiative. Firstly, this does nothing about pioneering change. This approach is more like a person trying to woo another into a short term romantic relationship. In the current age where information is as pervasive as air, the stake holders can easily see through these wooing efforts. The result is that evidence indicates only 30% success in all of change management initiatives in corporate world.

What we propose here is a shift in going about change. All of history suggests that initiators of change thrive, those who adapt to change survive and the rest perish. Hence it would be a smarter idea to become an organization that is exploring and initiating change rather than being someone who goes about change reluctantly or even worse, do not change. In order to be among those who thrive, we need to build organizations that constantly invent or explore opportunities to change and then embrace it at an organizational level and not just at Top Management level.

Components of Change Embracement:

Change-ready Culture: Build an organization where stakeholders are proactive with respect to change or rather create change for the better. Following are some of the steps to keep in mind while trying to build a Change Embracement Culture.

• Change-readiness should be built-in as one of the core values as that’s the cornerstone to progress in the current times. In order for this to be accepted, the organization should build a safety-net wherein members of the organization who get adversely affected by Change are not just seen as collateral damage.
• The organization should build an environment of trust where people are confident that though they may lose turf sometimes as a result of a new way of doing things or doing new things, they would be adequately taken care of. This dispels any doubts and kills reluctance to change thereby eliminating the need to woo or trick employees into accepting change.
• The organization needs to create and publicize success stories of people who have embraced change and made progress.
• This should be built to an extent where Change is looked at as an opportunity rather than as a threat.

Associates vs with Management: In organizations where Change Embracement is built as a cultural aspect, initiation of change or identification of opportunities for progressive change can come from anyone and any corner. Unlike a traditional organization where change is Top driven and Management views employees as set of people who need to be tackled with, organizations with a change embracement approach create more opportunities for progressive change. Progressive Change is allowed to be conceived at any level and associates themselves have an opportunity to initiate and propose change. Progressive change becomes a way of approaching work rather than a transactional affair between management and associates. This kills any possibility of associates vs management situation and rather facilitates associates with management situations. This makes such organizations more likely to be pioneers of change than followers of change. In such organizations, change is a way of day-to-day life…. be it frequent but minor incremental changes which improve a process one step at a time or a break-through change that creates a plunge into the future for the whole organization, they kill stagnancy and cause progression. All such initiatives are welcomed.

Change-agility Competency: While the cultural aspect is being built, it is also important to build change-agility as a competence at individual levels. While change-ready culture builds enthusiasm around change embracement and an environment of trust at organizational level, building the required competencies to ensure success at individual levels builds platform for Success. This is similar to Macro-Economic Management & Micro-Economic Management. Change agility is all about the ability to think through the impact of Change till a granular level, adapt self and help the surroundings adapt to change in an astute manner.

Change- Management Skill: Having made the field ready for deploying change, now we go back to our good old concepts related to Change Management of Organizing, coordinating, informing and implementing change. Change Management now takes the form of a skill which is less complex and can be drawn into a set of sequential steps which can be walked through with higher ease. The difference is that this is now purely administrative in nature and requires very less work around convincing reluctant employees to change. The organization is change-ready at a cultural level, people are competent at implementing change and hence change management is very likely to be a walk in the park with enhanced chances of success.

Components of Change Embracement:

Change-ready Culture: Build an organization where stakeholders are proactive with respect to change or rather create change for the better. Following are some of the steps to keep in mind while trying to build a Change Embracement Culture.

• Change-readiness should be built-in as one of the core values as that’s the cornerstone to progress in the current times. In order for this to be accepted, the organization should build a safety-net wherein members of the organization who get adversely affected by Change are not just seen as collateral damage.
• The organization should build an environment of trust where people are confident that though they may lose turf sometimes as a result of a new way of doing things or doing new things, they would be adequately taken care of. This dispels any doubts and kills reluctance to change thereby eliminating the need to woo or trick employees into accepting change.
• The organization needs to create and publicize success stories of people who have embraced change and made progress.
• This should be built to an extent where Change is looked at as an opportunity rather than as a threat.

Associates vs with Management: In organizations where Change Embracement is built as a cultural aspect, initiation of change or identification of opportunities for progressive change can come from anyone and any corner. Unlike a traditional organization where change is Top driven and Management views employees as set of people who need to be tackled with, organizations with a change embracement approach create more opportunities for progressive change. Progressive Change is allowed to be conceived at any level and associates themselves have an opportunity to initiate and propose change. Progressive change becomes a way of approaching work rather than a transactional affair between management and associates. This kills any possibility of associates vs management situation and rather facilitates associates with management situations. This makes such organizations more likely to be pioneers of change than followers of change. In such organizations, change is a way of day-to-day life…. be it frequent but minor incremental changes which improve a process one step at a time or a break-through change that creates a plunge into the future for the whole organization, they kill stagnancy and cause progression. All such initiatives are welcomed.

Change-agility Competency: While the cultural aspect is being built, it is also important to build change-agility as a competence at individual levels. While change-ready culture builds enthusiasm around change embracement and an environment of trust at organizational level, building the required competencies to ensure success at individual levels builds platform for Success. This is similar to Macro-Economic Management & Micro-Economic Management. Change agility is all about the ability to think through the impact of Change till a granular level, adapt self and help the surroundings adapt to change in an astute manner.

Change- Management Skill: Having made the field ready for deploying change, now we go back to our good old concepts related to Change Management of Organizing, coordinating, informing and implementing change. Change Management now takes the form of a skill which is less complex and can be drawn into a set of sequential steps which can be walked through with higher ease. The difference is that this is now purely administrative in nature and requires very less work around convincing reluctant employees to change. The organization is change-ready at a cultural level, people are competent at implementing change and hence change management is very likely to be a walk in the park with enhanced chances of success.

Lakshmi’s transition from ‘dependable’ to ‘unpredictable’ has been a puzzle to Rajeev, her immediate supervisor. Lakshmi was a ‘dependable’ Junior Manager at DBC Real Estate Company, taking care of client relations, reporting to Rajeev. She is a single mother taking care of two young kids and her ageing parents who live in the next town. As the pandemic struck, she had to start working from home, managing the kids who also were staying home and also had to tend to her parents who were at high risk of getting infected. She struggled to meet all the challenges in face of uncertainty at the work as the company’s business was struggling. In April, Rajeev wrote to Lakshmi along with all his team members regarding the 25% pay-cut the company decided to impose on all employees to keep business viable. All he got as a reply from Lakshmi was an impulsive resignation letter by email. Two months down the line, the company had lost majority of the clients Lakshmi was taking care of. Lakshmi at her end, is jobless, became temperamental and difficult to keep up with for her kids as well as parents, summarily ‘unpredictable’. When Rajeev bumped into Lakshmi at a supermarket the previous day, she seemed to be a very different person from the one he knew, a miserable version of her previous self.

According to a study conducted by the Institute of Health Metrics & Evaluation, 10.7 % of the world’s population suffers from one form of mental illness or the other, like Lakshmi. However less than half of them ever receive any form of treatment. The result is unhappy lives and agony undergone by such population. The financial loss is US $ 1 Trillion to the world economy, as estimated by the World Health Organization

Mental Health issues are real and more common than what we think. Fortunately these issues can be addressed by seeking help. Unfortunately, these issues are left unaddressed both by individuals as well as organizations. Less than half of the affected people receive treatment as revealed by studies. A WHO study has revealed that for every US $ 1 spent on mental well-being, the return is US $ 4 in the form of improved health & productivity. The actual spending on mental health is estimated by WHO to be US $ 2 per person per annum in low-medium income countries and US $ 50 in high income countries.

All the above-mentioned statistics are based on studies conducted well before the pandemic broke out. Now, add the mammoth impact of the Pandemic on Mental Health of people across the globe, as being predicted by experts. The following reasons have contributed immensely to an overall decline in mental well-being in the background of the pandemic:

• Psychological trauma as this is the first challenge of its kind in last 100 years to human race in tackling with a pandemic of such scale. High amount of information regarding the rapid increase in number of infected persons & deaths keeps getting posted very frequently, affecting psyche negatively.
• The lockdown has had a profound impact on the way of living leading to increased number of cases of domestic violence, divorces, depression etc.
• The current as well as the last few generations had never had to deal with uncertainty of this intensity and magnitude. The uncertainty extends to very basic functions of life such as health of self/health of loved ones/ job loss/ business loss/ salary cut etc.
• Work from Home has imposed itself upon people rather than being embraced. Extended & forced stay indoors with very limited options to venture out causes stress of its own kind.

Individuals, Organizations and Governments are the three key stakeholders of this issue and they can no longer afford to neglect mental health issues. At an individual level, we should understand that it is in the mind that we live. Our body is but a vehicle that hosts the mind, which is the driver. However great the vehicle is, if the driver is not in good condition, the ride cannot be enjoyed and the desired destinations also may not be reached. A bad driver can very quickly damage the vehicle as well. Fear of stigma which has been a major deterrent from seeking help, should be overcome.

The governments should ensure that the society as a whole does not transition from the current pandemic into another pandemic of mental health issues. In order to achieve this objective, Governments should increase the spending on mental health, raise awareness regarding mental health issues and help create a culture where social stigma does not exist regarding people who obtain treatment for mental health issues.

The role of Organizations, which is the primary focus point of this essay, is equally important in ensuring mental well-being of their associates. Organizations should bear in mind that the estimated US $ 1 Trillion adverse impact that Mental Health issues cause, is in reality borne by them. Organizations, albeit inadvertently are the both contributors as well as victims of the issue. The stress that is caused due to work and operational environment, even toxic Organizational Culture in certain cases contribute to the issue. Additionally, the business uncertainties, pressure to work from home which is an invasion of the private lives of the associates, etc enhance the probability of mental health issues arising.

Mental Health issues of associates could have an intangible, but significant impact on businesses. The competence, skill and intelligence of an organization is the sum total of the competence, skill and intelligence of its associates. While data related to the business of the organization lies in its computers, the intelligence to use the data for best business outcomes lies in the minds of employees. If the minds of some of the employees are corrupted by sickness, the overall intelligence diminishes leading to poor business outcomes. Business owners would be well aware of the fact that not all minds are immediately replaceable. If an associate quits because of mental health issues, the short and long term effects of the absence of that person and the impact on the morale of his/her colleagues are bound to be profound. Following are some of the findings that reveal how mental health issues have a direct impact on businesses:

• Depression affects individual’s ability to work physically by about 20% of the time and cognitive performance 35% of the time (CDC). However, only 40% of employees who have severe depression receive treatment and only 57% of employees who have mild depression receive treatment.
• In developed countries, an average of 35-45% of absenteeism is due to mental health problems (WHO).
• Mental health issues at workplace increase likelihood of workplace accidents. The damage to the reputation of the company or the employer branding adds salt to injury.
• Emotions are contagious. Mental Health issues of one associate have an impact on the morale and productivity of people working with the associate. It is a downward spiral until addressed in a positive manner.

Following are some of the preventive and corrective measures that Business Managers can put in place to tackle with the issue.

Preventive:

• The very fundamental requirement for mental well-being at workplace is a safe and healthy workplace and environment. Organizations and Regulatory authorities need to ensure that the workplace is free from Hazards, the job is designed not to induce stress and the environment is healthy and hygienic. Enforcing short breaks at regular intervals helps reduce the impact of stress caused due to repetition.
• Organizational Culture plays a major role in how employees fare at work from a mental health perspective. It is imperative for organizations to design and build positive and progressive cultures and not leave culture to chance.
• Communication: Organizational communication is a major source of assurance to employees and provides clarity. Lack of relevant know-how and information leads to speculation, rumors and anxiety. Frequent communication in the form of online Town hall Meetings is a good idea and does not cost money.
• Emotional Intelligence (EI) : Various studies have established the positive correlation between Emotional Intelligence and Happiness. EI and happiness build psychological resilience and improve interpersonal relationships enabling associates to cope up with the setbacks and challenges associated with the job and business. Organizations can choose to help associates enhance EI through awareness programs and practical exercises.
• Breaking the taboo related to mental health issues to enable associates to seek help. Creating a sense of security enables associates to come out in the open and seek medical care and resolve the issue rather than live with the issue. This could improve the reporting of this hugely under-reported problem.
• Several Organizations could do a lot better in the area of feedback receiving practices from associates. Employees should be encouraged to share their feedback and concerns without fear so that issues can be addressed quickly before they aggravate.
• Progressive Organizations work on improving the Happiness index among their associates. Happiness is the ingredient that provides the necessary resilience to tackle with day to day difficulties. Happy minds do not slip into depression and anxiety very quickly.

Corrective:

• Employee Assistance Programs: Across the world several organizations which provide Professional services at very reasonable costs, exist. Organizations can subscribe to such services so that employees could access these services while maintaining anonymity on phone and could proceed to seek personal counseling if required.
• Empanelment of Psychologists: Some progressive organizations have been empaneling psychologist’s services for visits and consultations by associates.
• Two of the dearest aspects of life for almost all human beings are work and family. There used to be a certain demarcation between family life and work life which kept getting blurred progressively with time. Currently we are at a juncture where work has penetrated into the living rooms practically eliminating the demarcation between family and work life. This provides a need as well as opportunity to involve Family Members while celebrating successes and more importantly while communicating about future of work, future plans of the organization etc. This helps associates to obtain better involvement and emotional companionship from family members in professional journey.
• In the current times, rather Corona Times, most businesses are reassessing their revenues and costs to preserve or enhance bottom-line to keep organizations thrive or at-least alive. The most common measures are to reduce costs. However, organizations should first explore opportunities to enhance existing streams of revenue as well as finding new streams of revenue. In situations where cutting costs is unavoidable, reducing spend on employees earnings and their well-being should be considered as the last option.

The action items proposed above are not all-exhaustive. There are several other avenues to address issues related to mental well-being. Individuals, Organizations and Governments are required to realize that Mental Health issues are real, acknowledge, destigmatize and work on solutions in order to surmount the issue before the situation of each victim becomes insurmountable.