Seek to discover your purpose and unleash your potential.
The future of work depends on us doing things differently we need to think beyond our perceived limitations if we want to thrive. The role of Human Resource professionals is to help organisations design a work place with the right structure, culture and ways of working to enable it to succeed and thrive. However they often get stuck in policing policies that were put in place to control the masses and keep the company compliant and safe from litigation only to keep them shackled and at risk of failure leading to reduced performance and the company failing. The culture that it leads to isn’t what the company needs but the fear the senior management have keeps them in the control state and doing things the way they have always been done, they have “learnt helplessness”.
Think about the time you have felt trapped in a job or relationship where you were apathetic or disengaged (you may be feeling it now). Then think back to when you began that relationship with the organisation or person, at the beginning you were excited to be with them, it was fun finding out about each other, figuring out what made them tick. Don’t you wish you could always feel like this, every single day. Look forward to going to work, enjoy spending time with your colleagues and feel satisfaction at the end of a days work?
Learning helplessness seems to happen to us all, I felt like this when I worked for a large UK supermarket. I joined as I graduate and was so excited to learn lots of new things and I did get some great management training from them. However by the time I left I was totally disengaged and fed up with the company, they offered a choice of shares or cash bonuses and, having listened to some older managers there who also hated their job but felt they couldn’t leave because they would lose the benefits the shares offered, I swore I’d never take a share option from them so when I could get out there I wouldn’t be trapped like the other managers.
So what is it that’s happening and how do we get from feeling excited and enthused about a company, to feeling totally fed up and disinterested. This ‘learned helplessness’ was discovered by Pavlov, you may have heard of Pavlov and his salivating dogs? Later in his career the lab where he had the dogs in cages flooded, and the dogs were trapped and couldn’t get out. After this event Pavlov found that these dogs were not reacting to experiments in the same way as other new dogs were, they would sit around and be completely disinterested in their surroundings, even electric shocks didn’t get them moving. They had ‘learned helplessness’, there are other experiments that have been carried out in the name of science which I’m not going to share as they are cruel, however they do support this ‘state’ of mind.
When I joined the supermarket I had lots of great ideas to change and improve things, however it was a very hierarchical organisation and only people in head office changed things and we needed to follow procedure. One of the ideas I put forward was allowing credit cards to be used at the checkouts, yes I know some of you may be shocked by the fact that this wasn’t always allowed but companies have to pay for having them and so they weren’t always accepted. The answer I received back was “if they can’t afford to pay for their shopping they can’t afford to shop with us!”. How arrogant and shocking is this? I couldn’t believe they thought like that. Of course this changed once they lost their top spot and everyone else allowed customers to pay with credit cards. After numerous times where I either got ideas shut down or I got in trouble for doing something ‘outside procedure’ even though it improved things I stopped bothering. I bet there are lots of times you can think of when you have suggested another way of doing things only to be shot down and shut down from doing anything. This is how we learn ‘helplessness’ and we become disengaged, disinterested and apathetic.
The good news is there is something we can do about it. Just follow this 3 step process to think beyond the perceived limitations you are in so you can thrive.
1 - Know your own purpose through identifying the impact you want to make, the values you will work with to make that impact and the driver to achieve it.
2 - Understand the mission of your team or organisation so that you know the big picture and why your team exists, how do they serve the customer.
3 - Explore with your manager what your unique contribution is to the team and how that impacts other teams or your customers.
This will start to unleash your ‘seeker system’ which is what we had when we first joined the organisation and we were learning about all the new things and ways of working. This will keep you focused on how you change the lives of your customers and will hopefully give you a sense of satisfaction in the way you spend 1/3 of your day. If you aren’t able to do this where you work or when you carry out the exercise you realise that the organisation is in direct conflict with your values or purpose then it is time to start either hatching an escape plan or looking outside the organisation to find your fulfilment and sense of purpose.
As children we constantly played and experimented with the world around us, pushing boundaries and discovering new ways of doing things. Sometimes we fell or failed but with the right support and encouragement we got back up again and tried again always seeking the next experience. However this natural curiosity is curbed early in order to make life easier for adults particularly in schools where there are class sizes of 30 children to keep focused, safe and drill information into so that they can be tested and perform well to make the teacher look good. Many organisations are an extension of this system but we can do things differently and if we are to keep up with the pace of change and innovation that is happening we need to be able to think past our perceived limitations, engage our seeker systems to thrive.
Go through and find your own purpose before talking to your boss by downloading and working through my worksheet or if you manage a team and want to do things differently then give me a call for a free consultation to find out how on 0423 360507.
