Silence and management - part 10

…text about Silence in organization continues - this is part 10.

4.5       New work

 

 

 

4.5.1          New way of working is still in its infancy

In every organization and actually in every situation there is also a lot of silence. This is because there is always a lot that could be shared or said but what remains unsaid and unshared. As we have talked in previous texts it is simply impossible to share everything, apparently sharing everything would stop everything.  Whereas sometimes fear in its different forms may cause that something is not said and silence prevails. Again there are situations and moments of frustration when someone has lost her/his enthusiasm to speak and share.

In addition to these three sources of silence, I wish to add one quarter to the silence pie. That part comes with the name “new work”. 

New work is something which does not exist yet, it is just developing.  The hallmark of new work is professional sharing. This means a mode of working where we think all the time what to share to others.  This means that we learn to see professional sharing as an integral and elementary part of our work. 

I use here the term professional sharing with a purpose. The word professional means that we do the sharing as intelligently and wisely as we can. So we are willing to continuously learn to understand better what to share, to whom to share and how to do the sharing. In professional sharing the goal is to increase to success potential of our organization.

It is proposed here that when the “new work” develops to its full potential it will mean a lot more sharing than what happens today. When looked from the perspective of a new work there is a lot of silence everywhere.  In order to illustrate this point it could be said that from the point of view of “new work” we may occupy the same building but we do not really work together. Hence the level of sharing to which we are used to today is actually full of silence.

 

SWOT to think

 

You think what you think, right? Wrong. As wise thinker you should think what you decide to think. In organizational context you certainly decide to think those things which are most relevant to success of your organization. On your free time you think what you wish to think, or perhaps you just give the thoughts to come to you, or perhaps you just rest. But that all interesting what happens in your free time is out of the scope of this blog.

 

 

 

 

Instead our topic is SWOT you decide to think when you operate on your professional mode. What to think is rather broad theme for a blog and therefore I thought that why not use good old SWOT framework in this new context. It helps us to focus on something essential.

 

How that SWOT fits into this picture of thinking? It brings up one angle which is important when you decide what to think. It helps you to see whether your thinking revolves around Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities or Threats. Let us be saved from an executive who would focus almost exclusively on Weaknesses (for those wishing a deeper taste of this are adviced to listen Pínk Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall: intro).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4SKL7f9n58

But similarly, let us be saved from an executive or, God mercy, from a board of directors who would live solely immersed into the beautiful world of endless opportunities. And what is said about focusing solely to W or O, goes similarly with a S and T as well.

 

So, what is point here? You need balance, you need to think, not just O but also S, W and T - right? That is right, that is one point, a relevant point I think. Hence, let us all remember the good old SWOT in our thinking.

 

Having said that I would like to sail back to a bit more troubled waters. Certainly to decide what to think is actually a very challenging task. Balanced use of SWOT is a good start, but perhaps just a star on a life long journey to know what to think.

 

 

At this point I would like to leave you with two thoughts, which on their part suggest that deciding what to think is really a complex task. First, how you decide to balance SWOT in your thinking, to you choose to stress equal amount of every corner or something else. I would imagine that as a leader who wish to create new and inspire people around you decide to be rather generous with O and S. That is just fine. Secondly, are you sure that you decide what you think? What was the most recent issue which thrusted into your mind but which you decide to leave aside or push away? And what was the latest thing which would have never occurred to you unless you had decided to dig it up?

 

Silence and management - part 9

…text about Silence in organization continues - this is part 9.


Change requires vision, energy and action, quite often change also requires voice: new ideas, astute observations and clearly stated facts which must be taken into account. Therefore it is problematic if there is silence where should be a lot of discussion. Understanding reasons of silence opens ways to create more discussion in the future. Let us not give a frustration a possibility to root itself into our organizations, uprooting frustration is everybody's business.

4.4      Frustration

Frustration means here a feeling that for some reason a person has reached a conclusion that it is not worthwhile to break to silence.

4.4.1 Speaking does not provide results

A person can end up choosing silence if s/he comes to conclusion that her/his efforts to raise issues for common discussion do not seem to provide results. Perhaps s/he feels that her/his openings are met with silence or that her/his efforts to change something have not provided results s/he would have liked to see happening.

In case one feels that s/he is being silenced that experience may evidently create even more silence in the future. At the same time we must notice that the experienced disappointment for not getting changes that someone may want is also a complex issue. Perhaps the desired changes are such which are feasible to achieve, then the disappointment of not getting desired changes could be justified. At the same token it is also possible to think that sometimes people wish changes which are very hard to make at least in the short run if not  ever. In both these cases there should be discussions in organizations that why some required changes may not be possible at the certain time, perhaps there are some justifications why even the in principle possible changes are not done at least now. As we can anticipate one problem here is silence, in other words in desired changes are not even discussed openly there is no way to handle these issues. Silence is prone to create more silence.

4.4.2 Lack of genuine interest

Sometimes one reason behind silence is that for some reason a person may have lost her/his genuine interest toward the development and success organization.  When this is a case a person may choose silence also in those occasions where s/he could instead share something valuable with others. Often silence is an easy solution, sharing would require much more, at least you would need to justify your point and make others listen. Sometimes you would have to compete with different views in order to get your voice heard. For someone who has lost her/his genuine interest, this may feel or too heavy burden and s/he just stays silent.

And also here one dictum of this paper rings true - silence create silence. A person who has assumed a silent role is assumed to remain silent by others. So, how s/he might gather the courage and energy to break silence and beat the expectations, not an easy task. In accounting so called zero based budgeting is something which has been proposed in situations where we just build on old expectations and practices without really stopping to evaluate what would be possible now. Could we apply something from zero based budgeting on human encounters, could we always be open for new realities, open that someone who has not been that active could become active today. At least we should check that our expectations towards anyone are not the ones which help the silence to linger.

 

4.4.3 Negative learning

Negative learning is a concept which I have first heard from professor Tapio Aittola, University of Jyväskylä. Negative learning refers to learning experiences which are very different than those experiences which are typically topics of general discussions. Negative learning  means that a person starts to see how difficult and sometimes practically impossible some things really are. S/he may have had, for instance, a basic idea that s/he would like to do something new, for instance s/he would like to change something in her/his organization. S/he may have an idea that when she focus on something and starts to understand it better s/he will learn new things and gradually s/he will be in a position from which s/he can make those planned changes.

However, sometimes it may happen that the world reserves negative learning experiences for any of us. This means that a person learns that for some reason it is far more difficult and perhaps impossible to make the changes s/he would like to make. Sometimes the world just is much more complex than the person had thought and therefore making changes becomes difficult. S/he may notice that s/he does not have the needed capabilities, energy or time to learn all that what would be needed in order to make changes. Sometimes there may some other reasons like political, cultural or some vested personal interests on status quo which make the changing impossible.

In sum, negative learning experiences may also lead to silence and the fewer efforts to make changes and develop new things. From the organizational perspective it might be desirable that people would not give up too easily when they encounter negative learning experiences. Quite often new openings feel at first impossible, and no one may believe that those ideas could be feasible but surprisingly they may turn into new opportunities after persistent effort.

 

Silence and management - series of blog texts

Silence and management - series of blog texts

Silence and management is a series of blog texts which examine issues relating to sharing and active collaboration within organization and in different networks.

Sharing and maximal use of social media tools throughout organizations is a vital topic in year 2014. Ability to share, connect and think together are crucial success factors for organizations and also for individuals. At the same time silence is also an unavoidable part of all organizational life. It is proposed here that deeper understanding of silence creates a more rounded understanding how sharing could be nurtured.

This blog starts by table of contents. Then there is a part which connects the table of contents to the published blogs. In this series already 8 texts have been published.

 

       Silence

Hot but quiet topic on the arena of management and control

1.    Hush, shh, … introduction

  1.1 Money, silence and accounting

  1.2 The level of silence as a success factor in organizations

2.    What is silence - three perspectives on silence

  2.1 Impressive nature makes us silent

  2.2 Silence which relates to crimes and wrong doings

  2.3 Silence which relates to internal wisdom

3.    Silence vs darkness
 
4.    Why people choose silence

  4.1 Silence - the whole picture

  4.2   The impossibility to share everything

    4.2.1 We simply cannot share everything

    4.2.2          Modes of communication we choose use, modes of communication we choose not to use

  4.3      Fear based reasons

    4.3.1.        Fears which relates to you (or to me, or to any individual personally)

       4.3.1.1. Fear of making fool of yourself

      4.3.1.2 Fear of getting more tasks

      4.3.1.3 Fear of becoming labeled “difficult”

    4.3.2          Fears which relate to others

      4.3.2.1. Fear of ruining positive atmosphere

      4.3.2.2 Fear that the connection with others fails

      4.3.2.3 Fear that sharing would ruin customer relationships

  4.4      Frustration

    4.4.1 Speaking does not provide results

    4.4.2 Lack of genuine interest

    4.4.3 Negative learning

   4.5       New work

    4.5.1          New way of working is still in its infancy

  4.6      Whistle blowing

5.         Discussion

Next time when you are just about to choose silence, please think again.

 

 

Table on contents and connection to published blogs.

 

Silence and management - part 1 (chapter 1-1.1)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/05/silence-and-management-part-1.html

Silence and management - part 2 (chapter 1.2)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/05/silence-and-management-part-2.html

Silence and management - part 3 (chapter 2-2.3)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/05/silence-and-management-part-3.html

Silence and management - part 4 (chapter 3)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/06/silence-and-management-part-4.html

Silence and management - part 5 (chapter 4-4.1)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/08/silence-and-management-part-5.html

Silence and management - part 6 (chapter 4.2-4.2.2)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/09/silence-and-management-part-6.html

Silence and management - part 7 (chapter 4.3-4.3.1.3)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/11/silence-and-management-part-7.html

Silence and management - part 8 (chapter 4.3.2-4.3.2.3)

http://arimanninen.blogspot.fi/2013/12/silence-and-management-part-8.html

 

This blog series continues with couple of more texts in 2014. Happy New Year.