Statistics indicate that a lot of people are not happy to go to work. The working climate is becoming more and more difficult and many people are suffering from stress. Often, companies only look at the bottom line and not how the bottom line is achieved. The goal is more important than the path seems to be the motto. Fortunately, more and more companies are realizing that the human aspect cannot be neglected. The path (the present) is just as important, if not more, than the outcome (the future). If someone is doing their job with pleasure and as well as possible, then the right result is a logical consequence. It’s like with figure skating. You have to focus on what you have to do, on the exercise of the moment and not on the judgment of the jury.
Why are companies so concerned about the bottom line? People are evaluated by the result and therefore the focus is on the numbers instead of the flow. By focusing maniacally on the end result, you are not doing what you do with pleasure, in short, you are not in the flow of the present moment.
We should ask ourselves much more often why we are doing this or that. For example, providing people with better products by helping them in a way that they cannot do otherwise. What is the meaning of what we are doing? What makes us happy to do? What is our common vision? In the Netherlands, the country where I was born, 60% of companies go bankrupt due to a lack of shared vision, which leads to a lack of inspiration, motivation and creativity. The rules are often more important than the idea behind those rules. Not that the rules should not be there, but they should be in support, in joint agreement of a common vision and not the other way around.
In recent decades, work has become more and more specialised, at the expense of the overview, the common vision. Like a doctor who knows everything about the liver but because of this specialization does not realize that the liver is part of a whole; the whole body, including the mental aspect and nutrition.
Because the focus is primarily on results, the human aspect often fades away. It makes people frustrated. They are not having fun in their work. They are only doing their job because they have to. Doing something you don’t like and don’t support is stressful. Stress is the pressure, the resistance inside us to do something against our will. Managers then notice that the work is not going well and put even more pressure on the employee, so there is even less pleasure in working and always more pressure. A vicious circle. Apparently, it would take more than just outcome orientation. We need to feel that we are adding value to the whole. We need to feel that what we are doing makes sense, and that it is something that we fully support.
Fortunately, a change is noticeable in business. The human aspect is gaining more and more attention. Companies like Google, FedEx, Cadbury and SAS are already working hard on this. France is not lagging behind compared to other European countries. Yet I still see far too many changes that do not come from the heart but from the idea of boosting results. Recently I saw a notice from a well-known English entrepreneur who said that we have to like the people in our company so that they are useful for our company. I would like to say that we should not like people so that they do something for us. It is still a form of using people: what does it cost to respect people, to listen to them, without wanting to use them? No one wants to be used. We like to contribute to a common goal. What is the meaning of life if you do something that you know is useless or that you do not support? To work with passion, what we do must have meaning! The freedom to work is an important aspect in this regard. Motivate and inspire to achieve a wonderful result together.
© RW
