In-depth Thinking
When you ask Kathleen Wiseman, business consultant and co-principal of Working Systems, about worker productivity, she will tell you that thinking about human work groups as human systems is a useful way of thinking. They are systems in that a shift or change in one individual or part of the unit leads to compensatory changes in other parts of the groups. Therefore, change is constant.
One measure of an efficient system is by the way it handles change. An efficient system makes the necessary changes to maintain stability and productivity, while diverting as few resources away from the tasks of the system. A less efficient system might become too rigid in the face of pressure to change or become too turbulent, spending resources haphazardly. It is a way of thinking that has allowed her to answer the question: What happens when good, sound people cross over the door to work and so many problems arise?
The search to learn more about human behavior and functioning as a non-mental health professional lead her to the Georgetown Family Center, a teaching and research facility dedicated to this, and where she is a long-time faculty member and the only MBA on staff.
Though her work at the center, Kathy became absolutely clear about what is going on when people walk through that door at work. It is something called emotional process. Simply put, emotional process is the underlying action-reaction process that goes on between people. And it has been her life-long goal to take the notion of emotional process out of the therapeutic world and bring it into the business world.
Kathy is extremely clear that this is not about therapy or being a behavioral scientist nor is it about diagnosing or fixing anybody. It is about how to present these particular ideas so anyone can grab on to them and use them in the workplace. In fact, she is a contributing editor to two books, The Emotional Side of Organizations and Understanding Organizations that do this very thing.
The notion of emotional process, for many, is a new way of thinking about functioning in the workplace. How could using this concept allow HR or managers to address issues of affiliation, retention, and mergers in a more effective way?
DT: AON Consulting released its performance pyramid of workplace practices to create a committed workforce. The five levels are: Safety and Security, Affiliation, Growth, and Work/Life Harmony. Using the systems concept of emotional process, how would you think about this recommendation?
KW: Individuality/togetherness is an emotional process way of describing these results, which are good but don't go far enough. We all join an organization to do more than we can do alone. We join with another person, with a group, with professional colleagues, with any system because we can go further with the group than we can with our own intellectual capital. In doing so, you are willing to give up part of your self and your self-need in order to be a part of something, because you know there is a trade off. People are monitoring this all the time--am I giving up the right amount for what I'm getting. This is a very subtle process. It is when you feel like you are giving up a lot of self and not getting the requisite return that things go off-people join labor unions, come out with all kinds of complaints about the company, often in the form of legal complaints.
Thinking about it along these lines gets to the underlying process that is at work. As a manager, you can ask, 'what do you think you give to this? What do you get back? Is it too much to give?' You have a way to talk about the process in a richer format that gives you more ideas about what you can do about it - more than 'are you being affiliated?'
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