Workplaces riddled with conflict usually have personalities and assumptions that are ineffectively addressed, if addressed at all. It’s daunting for a change agent and most fail or give up. And the cancer just continues to grow.
Based on my personal experience as a struggling change agent in such environments, along with the lively and enlightening discussion in the MBA courses I facilitate, I’ve come to believe there are two best strategies to begin a shift from an emotionally unintelligent work environment to one that is emotionally intelligent.
First, leaders need to deal with the “personalities”. This is part of the accountability of their role. If a disruptive personality is vital to the organization’s mission, then the leader needs to be able to coach that individual into alignment with the overall mission. These individuals are usually self-interested and don’t care much about anything else. If these toxic personalities are not consistent contributors, leaders must have the means and support to manage them out. A third case is the work environment where employees cannot be terminated at will. In this situation, the leader is back to case one, and his or her role as a coach is much more difficult. But not impossible for an emotionally intelligent leader.
The second strategy in the use of process to foster team work, fairness, openness, respect, and service to others. These are characteristics of emotional intelligence and when they are a part of how things are done, the work environment becomes more emotionally intelligent (and less conflictive). For example, meetings have agendas and ground rules; communication is encouraged and disagreement is accepted, respected, without reprimand; performance is measured by quantitative and qualitative criteria; recognition is given for service to both the external and internal customer; and there are consequences for self-interested detours from process and the mission.
Seven years ago, I tweaked the Carnegie Mellon maturity model for an approach to transforming an organization’s culture, in this case for a client focused on operational excellence. This culture maturity model came to mind recently when I read an article about how Toyota changed the union culture at the NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA, when it assumed management of the former GM operation as part of the joint venture. Toyota management’s approach was to imbed the change they wanted to achieve in the processes for how work got done and measured. Over time (and it was months, not years), workers began to recognize and embrace the opportunities afforded by accountability for the work they did and its impact on others and the mission. Once they mastered the processes, they began to look for ways to improve them. This movement is reflected by the culture maturity model. NUMMI workers became fully engaged. The environment became one of team work, fairness, openness, respect and service, with Toyota’s focus being on quality. Again, all artifacts and values of an emotionally intelligent workplace.
I think it might be time to dust this puppy off!
