It’s Coming. Are You Ready?
As business leaders discuss and strategize economies and markets, process improvements, cost reduction, new technology and system efficiencies, one area seems largely unrecognized. That area is the vast energetic untapped potential that shows up every morning—the company employees.
First of all, the word employees can retire. It’s an old word for an old time. Laborers, workers, employees—all have had their day and that day is gone. No matter how far away we think we are from the grim industrial age of old, it’s legacy is sticky and can find its way into the present if we are not vigilant.
If you listen closely, you can hear the call of the canary in the coal mine. And, I encourage leaders to pay heed. Most of us feel the undulating movement of change below the very ground we work upon. Make no mistake, it is coming. With it, change that will feel very much imposed if not recognized sooner rather than later.
The dot com experience may have been the first dot on the emerging horizon. Twenty year olds flush with capital, creating organizations more closely resembling a playground than IBM. These new CEO’s hadn’t learned how to “traditionally” construct a business and so constructed something that felt good. Now, you may not agree with basketball courts and smoothie vendors on site, but something profoundly changed. Hmmm…work, enjoyable?
Companies burdened with strife, struggle and uber-structure were now being placed side by side with Google, Zappos, Whole Foods and Trader Joes. People began to see options. The traditional linear, nose-to-the-grindstone mentality was being challenged by this innovative, authentic, more aligned, passionate younger upstart.
Regardless of the zany aspects these new environments may possess, their most important triumph is that they are nurturing and unleashing human potential, day in, day out.
They are learning to tap into and revel in people power. It has always been there, showing up each day, but until quite recently—dormant.
Here’s the upshot, companies do not need to load themselves up with jungle gyms and Frisbee golf courses, but they would do well to learn how to generate and tap into the energy we all possess. Helping their people to wake up, engage and experience fulfillment through the work they do.
Ultimately, it requires inviting “human-ness” into the office and letting go of any idea of people as machines.
What would energize your team members? What are the first steps to putting this in place?”