When is it worker dissent?

Zachary Aldwin Milkshake in the Boardroom
Johannesburg called my name last week, and I had to respond by spending a couple of days dealing with our southern neighbours.
One of the great things about being there is the opportunity to shop for things at roughly one third of the price that is being charged in this country.
In one instance I bought an item for US$5 in one chain store yet the same product costs over US$15 in the same chain store here. I know that I can find clothes that fit, longs that are made to measure not just at the waist but the leg as well.  I don’t want to dwell too much on the difference in prices and ease of shopping down there, suffice to say that we have a long way to go to match them.

That said they do not have it all together either. I spent what little shopping time I could squeeze in wandering around malls and jumping into department stores that I knew could meet my needs.

In one of the shops I was greeted by the most boring sour-faced employees you could imagine. Everyone was trudging through the daily grind, smileless, humourless and with about as much emotion as a damp handkerchief.

Few people bothered to attend to my needs voluntarily and I had to hunt down the staff to help me find what I needed. When they did help I was left with the feeling that they thought they were doing me a favour rather than actually serving me.

Granted this sort of mediocre service was not totally everywhere, and my little snapshot experiences may have just caught them on a bad day. Still it was a little monotonous. While at the airport I picked up a copy of “The Accidental Creative” by Todd Henry.

I make a habit of buying a new book every time I travel (it is not the only time I buy books, but it does ensure that I am intentional about increasing my knowledge).

This new 2013 edition is proving to be one of the better reads of the year, easy to understand, practical, and dealing with real issues that we face. I want to share this portion of the preface. There is no formula for creativity, however, there is a pretty certain formula for mediocrity.
Simply stop doing the things that stretch you, stop asking questions, stop developing skills, and stop striving to discover your voice, and you will stumble upon mediocrity soon enough. It is a marvellous little bit of insight and it made me stop and think about whether I was not moving beyond mediocrity. Organisations, as Todd points out, naturally tend to stifle your creativity and this normally drives employees towards mediocrity. No organisation does this intentionally but unless you keep a lookout for it, it naturally creeps in.

It becomes easier to focus on the lowest common denominator all the time than allowing for fluctuations in productivity. One way mediocrity can sneak up is when companies forget to tell people the reason for what they do.

Instructions from management or leadership can often focus on the “how” or “what” rather than the “why”. Treating people like idiotic automatons without valuing their intelligence is demoralising. Treating adults like children who are expected to obey without question will probably generate the same amount of productivity as asking a 10-year old to clean their room.

Without understanding the “why” redundant processes flourish. For years patient numbers were written on the top corner of cards at doctor’s offices.

These numbers became the reference numbers on the automatic medical aid claim system, which facilitated easy follow-up of claims.
One day the automatic claim system was stopped. The doctor’s office stopped dealing with that medical aid.

The faithful secretary continued adding numbers to cards even though they were no longer of use. No one questioned this till years later. There was no “why” only a “how” to put numbers on a card’.

Not knowing the “why” limits our ability to ask questions about a faulty logic behind a process, especially when secondary processes are added later on. If people do not like a new system, not knowing the reasons for it will give them the freedom to fill in their own erroneous reasons without ever asking.

We are taught to never question authority. Quite frankly that is not wrong. Questioning authority leads to insubordination. However, we often forget that it is possible to ask questions of authority.

To ask for information of authority is not wrong, to ask for understanding is not rebellion.
As leaders we need to be sensitive enough to understand when we are being asked a question as opposed to being challenged in our authority.
Seek out the “why” and let us take another step towards stamping out the second rate from our businesses.

That way our businesses grow.

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