I watched Oliver Burkeman’s presentation on “Happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking”. Essentially, the main message that I took from Burkeman’s words is that the concept of ‘positive thinking’ contributes to problems at times vs. solutions, and these acts are intended to create. I was specifically interested in one of the stories that Burkeman shared about the stockbroker who was in the vicinity of Everest during a time when many hikers met their fate because they followed their guides despite the fact that they violated the “turnaround guidelines”. The stockbroker cited the comparison between that tragic situation, and something that typically happens in”Corporate America”. This completely resonated with me.
HR is not always one of the first departments to be looped into projects or initiatives. At least, that has been my experience. I’ve seen, time and time again, that we are called into a project sometimes a week before implementation and asked for guidance on how to communicate the initiative to our associates. As this is the first time that we are able to really review the initiative, it’s no surprise that we detect some “red flags” with regards to how it will impact our assoiates. For example, one project focused on a new mobile repair unit (MRU) that we were going to launch throughout the company to our customers. These MRU’s were trucks that were equipped with tools and technology that would allow our technicians to attend to broken down customers’ trucks and repair them on the road so the customer could be on their way. Fair enough. When we asked who would be operating these trucks, we were told that they would allow the current technicians to internally apply for the role, or they would fill it from the outside. When asked what the compensation would be, they responded with, “uh…the same as our technicians…why would they be paid any different???”. Clearly, they had not realized the importance of hazard based pay that should be applied to a role like this, or the fact that this would require more independent judgment and discretion, etc. So, here we come in the 11th hour…the big bad HR Department and throw all sorts of “did you think of this?”…”did you think of that?”… All of our concerns were extremely valid, and required much more thought and work before this should have been implemented. The Maintenance group agreed with our concerns, but “…respectfully…we are going to go live with this next week”. It amazes me the determination that I see in some people, despite having several warning signs flash in front of their faces. They will stick to their pride and lead others down the role of inevitable failure because of it.
I believe that this gets at what Burkeman was speaking about.