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This Week's ERN
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interbiznet presents the Bugler |
| September 14, 2001 |
Beginning Again
Sumser looks at commitment to the next steps in the Electronic Recruiting News today.
Thinking Structure, Acting Detail
For employers and really any of us, to get reoriented to the business at hand and make decisions about how to help ourselves and employees, it may be most useful to take a few moments to figure out what the principles are that will guide our decisions and actions. I spoke with the first two people that came to my mind (when it actually stared working again) about what next.
Michael Kerr is a psychiatrist and the director of The Bowen Center for the Study for the Family in Washington, D.C. Kathy Wiseman is a business consultant, many of you may remember the interview I conducted with her last year. I chose these two people for very specific reasons - their ability to engage the thinking process in themselves and others, and their exquisite understanding of how humans function in systems and the forces at work in those systems. There are no pat answers in response to Tuesday's attack. Each and every one of us will react differently, in varying degrees and for varying durations. An understanding of the bigger picture can serve acting in the smaller one.
Dr. Kerr explained that there were two guiding principles at work for how he and his staff chose to proceed when they heard the news Tuesday morning - There is the recognition that 1. this event does have a deep impact, it cannot be ignored, and
2. staying calm and staying on the task at hand is key.
How do you deal constructively with people's emotionally reactivity - by acknowledging it and recognizing what is the most constructive way you can handle yourself when in the middle of it. A key piece also is the recognition that anxiety/stress/fear is highly contagious and do you have an understanding of how you pass it around to others (because, we all do). The media shows us scenes of people cheering in the streets over the destruction in this country - how do you not get angry? Maybe the better question to ask is how do you not just get angry in an unconstructive way.
A simple statement to make, a challenging task to undertake - it requires you to Work at it in real time.
Kathy Wiseman organized her thinking around the question: "What do you do in an organization where people are fearful?"
She would bring people together in small groups, 10 or 15, and have a leader present to speak factually and give people an opportunity to talk. Keep it based on their thinking, not on their emotional responses. Something important to pay attention to in a company is that when you have a group of people, not only just in tragedy and terror, they seem to want to flock together to get solace from one another. It is that same solace that can often escalate the fears.
Both Dr. Kerr and Kathy agree that this can be very difficult to do - How do you ask questions of a group of terrified people? It is a tone of asking questions, like "What do you think about this?" "What do you think brought this into play?" "Where do you think it will go?" "What do you think should be the responses?" This line of questioning is activating people's thoughtfulness so that they can cope. What you don't want to do is presume a level of helplessness. You are asking the same questions that they are asking themselves - what is this going to mean? And while there is a certain amount of unknown, you can say, "I don't know the answer." But, you do know what the answer is in relationship to your own firm. Go back to the values that are important to your organization. While it is important to pay attention to what is going on, you need to remember why you are here. This sets some boundaries around the anxiety, which can run freeform. There are 2 levels at work - one is of the general events, which sets the bar, the other is the company's response, that is, how will this affect us, such as business travel, or will you move out of a high-rise office building or a metropolitan area. Engage people about what they are thinking so they are not wallowing in their terror. Present a vision of the future for your organization and for the country - Governor Pataki and Mayor Guiliani are talking about building and rebuilding for the future.
If it is a company who has lost people, Kathy says in addition to critical incidents specialists, she would bring in past presidents and past executives of the company to be present. Their presence gives a sense of history, that this is an entity that has place over time - people come and go, people die, companies fold, but that there is a continuity to this firm. So by tapping into the company's geneology, it grounds the company in historical process. They would play the role of heading up smaller groups, talking about tragedies of a lesser nature in their own lives and how they dealt with them. Make it personal and fact based. This can create an extraordinary link between what has been, what is, and what will be.
A very interesting and creative idea is that Kathy would bring in suppliers, customers, and vendors, who are important to the firm, and have them take part in the discussions of how do you think this will change the world? The firm? In her thinking, this builds a network of people who are sharing in this and have a vested interest in the firm, and that is broader than the employee community.
You must absolutely ask what rumors have surfaced - get the rumors and speculation out in the open and do what you can to get the fact related to those. You may not be able to accomplish that, and people need to know that you couldn't. The information helps keep it in perspective.
Find out if there is anyone who would like to head a company effort for a blood drive or relief efforts but, it must be grounded in the group. The goal is to steer the group to the highest level of participation rather than the lowest.
There's a recognition of events, a personal presence of leaders, but there is still a business to run … people are to be held to the highest standard of performance. This will set a tone that you have given people the time and space to process this, and that you are back to business. You hold to a level of higher functioning, for too much attention to the mourning can hamper people. So, what is the reasonable expectation of amount of time to raise the bar on standards of performance? No one can predict that. But, what is known is the balance - using relationships to modify the terror, as a way of keeping people going when things are turned upside down. Too much focus on emotions will hamper productivity, yet, focus too much on productivity without dealing with the emotions hampers functioning.
So, how do you get to the balance? - ask them straight out. Just by asking the question - "When can we expect this group to be fully functioning and be above par like you always are?" - responsibility is put back on the group to get back on track.
The critical piece is that if you can do this, if you can address the situation is a less emotionally laden way, in a context of questions to people of not how are you feeling but what are you thinking, the business will get to fact-based decisionmaking and away from emotionally-based decisionmaking faster.
You also may want to take advantage of other ideas on employee assistance. Both CareerJournal.com and Electronic Recruiting Exchange have published on this topic.
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