The smell of the place

By Crista Henggeler, May 19th, 2016

 

When it comes to the conversation about how we can engage people especially during tough times and change, we ever so often discuss
a number of measures that could help to revitalise people.
Most of these measures have one commonality: They aim to change
the people.

 

 

I am a firm believer that people don't want to change. They develop. What does that mean?

 

Transformation is innate and has direction. The ever ongoing development lies in our nature. As you are reading these lines,
the cells in your body renew, form new tissues and repair organs. These processes happen autonomously and leave no traces visible to the eye. More apparent, however, are the transformations that happen outside of our bodies: We see the traces of time,
a sign that we are developing. And this development is our purpose in life: It has direction, it is incremental.
And it is the fundament to deal with whatever life brings us.

 

Change is external and is directionless. Change is equally permanent, but less incremental, it can go all ways.
And it seems that today most of the reorganisations that companies face seem to leave the affected with a lack of direction.
Also, these changes are forced from outside onto people: We aim to convince them that this program results in streamlined processes, better performance, more transparency. Unfortunately, people are tired of change. They have seen to many not
resulting in what was foreseen, loosing colleagues along the way, missing a sense of purpose.

 

So what is the vitamin or even the pain killer to help organisations revitalise their people?
We talk culture. We talk engagement. But there are so many expressions in the jungle of cracking people's behaviour –
what do we really mean be them? The best description I heard in a long time is 'The smell of the place' that Prof. Sumantra Ghoshal used in this speech. His belief is that it's not about changing people – it's about changing the context we put the people in.
The smell of the place.

 

In today's corporate cultures, there is a sticky and tiring smell. We create constraints, ask for compliance, use control and
contracts to do so. Prof. Ghoshal uses the analogy of a hot and humid city like Calcutta in Summer, an environment that makes
him tired. Instead of strengthening people's entrepreneurial spirit, we seem to have created these Downtown Calcutta smells
in many of our organisations. Especially now that we are in economically conservative times, we even have to manage our people more closely. Really?

 

Instead, we could create the freshness of the forest in Fontainebleu, where Prof. Ghoshal used to teach. Every walk that he has taken resulted in energy and new ideas, in drive and connection. So it is not about changing who we are, but the context we live in. And what can create such a smell of freshness in today's work environment? With stretch, self-discipline, support, and trust,
he suggests. Stretch stands for ambitious but reachable goals that we can achieve with personal commitment and self-discipline, because we see value in it. And instead of contracts and control, we create an atmosphere of trust and support.

 

We see new organisations that induced such values into their corporations. With great results.
We work with clients who flattened their hierarchies and decentralised processes to give back responsibility. With new drive.

And what is the ingredient that your organisation would benefit the most?