Technology and terminology change faster than attitudes and behaviours. This creates a pull and push, where technology tries to pull the people to follow its changes, but the attitude and behaviour which is more mental pulls one back to things known and felt comfortable with in the past. The management tries to push people towards technology. This creates an unbalance.
We need to look into the digital transformation of an enterprise in light of the above statement. People must understand that digital transformation is not using digital products to run an enterprise. It is about making people feel at home with the change in the process due to digital inputs.
It is interesting to note that the reluctance to change is not because of a lack of knowledge and skills, it is because of the lack of psychological safety net and lack of confidence that people feel, when they move into the realm of practically unknown activities, despite the theoretical knowledge. The fear of consequences of a wrong move by the employee stops the employee from going whole-hearted into digital transformation. We, the entrepreneurs, the board and senior management, really don’t see the full importance of psychology in management. The people, including 100% of the employees, are looking for care and mental safety whenever they need to be innovative. One can not bring innovation by following rules and regulations, processes and policy. People have to be left free to play around with their creativity even in the most mundane of affairs. Otherwise, monotony sets in and creativity are lost.
It is the duty of the management to let people feel mentally free to take chances for the betterment of the enterprise. Management cannot keep on doubting the talent as well as the integrity of the employees as far as marching towards the vision is concerned. One of the mistakes of the board and the top management, in my opinion, is to not keep on enforcing the vision and the mission of the company to the people of the enterprise but to expect them to work towards achieving those. One does not work on something on which there is no focus. Very rarely have I seen the board and the top management asking questions about deviations from the mission and vision. Most of the deviations under focus are either financial, production, personnel and quality. The encircling theme of vision is lost and hence departments work as stand-alone functionaries. This dissipates the energy of one and all and the resultant vector direction may not be the most optimum.
Why the company exists, needs to be remembered by each and every employee of the company, so that their work and actions give them a sense of achievement in walking towards the company goals. And this brings us to a very important point that the company goals MUST be aligned with the vision and mission of the company. How many of us do that consciously? It is time to reflect on our own shortcomings rather than that of the employees.
Let us work on #makingworkplaceshappier.