Employees burn out and check out when their daily lives are about “Feeding the Machine”.
“The Machine” is a perfect metaphor for the way executives have been looking at business. Generating profit is what the machine is built to do. You see a machine finds efficiency in the perfect execution of order and in an effort to meet the demands of shareholders and our entrepreneurial aspirations; we’ve mechanized the process of business.
This model was ideal in the late 80’s and early 90’s when it allowed us to use technology as a means to capitalize on an emerging global market. However we are entering a tail spin where “The Machine” has created a sociological quandary in which the humanistic pieces are wound way too tight. Businesses are living, breathing entities... with an identity and a soul. Innately business... is about people and the lives that they lead. Individuals function most effectively when money isn’t even involved. The concept of profit is basically mechanical and remains an enigma to even the most motivated and successful VP who, like the janitor, is over-mortgaged and stressed with credit card dept.
Money and profit is a mechanistic concept perpetuated by those that operate the machine as a mechanism for power, and control. Although we remain under the ether and at the mercy of “The Matrix”... for the first time, we collectively comprehend that it truly exists. It is within this comprehension that a social change is taking place within the consciousness of the labor force.
A Sociological Quandary
We know we are stuck... in order to “live life” we have a two income family so that we can live in the neighborhood, drive the vehicles, belong to the social groups we desire and on Monday start our week, once again... feeding "The Machine." It’s a seemingly endless cycle that is eating away at the souls of Americans and they are starting to get fed up. They’re asking themselves the question... is this all there is to life? ...and deep down they recognize the answer... is NO.
Business is about profit. And while that remains a constant, it also remains a significant problem. What’s in it for me... employees ask?
I don't think that anyone questions the purpose behind any professional development program should be about acquiring the very skills that allow your team to produce more and better results... in other words... INCREASE PROFIT.
Yet so few organizations invest in "business design" training that allow the skills of their labor-force to go from theory to application. Some organizations get it... most do not. Through the development of better people comes better organizations... better business. We must become more mindful of the complexities of human development and how to infuse this into our corporate mandates of professional development training.
Better Business & Social Responsibility
Professional development is an awesome industry... evolving in its own right to a level of pushing individuals beyond "career success" to pursue and mature personally and spiritually as well.
In reality I see the "improvement movement" becoming a "spiritual movement". This makes sense because deep down each and everyone of us are spiritually starved; eventually realizing that life becomes a journey of defining for ourselves... this spiritual path. What would happen if organizations became a conduit for pursuing this path with intention?
The Global market place is an optimal space for small business to capitalize on this most authentic of human needs. Professional development is becoming a mandatory component of business success but my experiences dictates that small and big business is missing the fundamental opportunity within professional development training to ignite the lives and careers of their labor force. Passion and purpose is not only the missing component of most organizations(because they're mechanical)... it is also the missing component of our lives(because we are so influenced by the organizations within our lives).
There are two reasons this single distinction can revolutionize company culture... a culture poised for peak performance and profit.
These will be the discussion of tomorrow's post... until then... let your mind & heart explore the far reaching benefits of professional development to business, society, and the individual lives of those who live within them.
