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The first step is the right image of human beings

Despite the digital euphoria, we will not see that human labor will be extensively transferred into the cyberspace in a foreseeable future. This transfer into the computer is limited to the simple, repetitive tasks that you don’t want anybody to do for a living – preparing and kneading doughs early in the morning, welding and painting car parts, producing minerals from mines, performing chemical analyses, providing simple technical services, sending serial letters, etc. As long as it is not about specialized tasks that follow a clear process, the machines are not expected to develop the kind of common sense that is needed in social, sanitary, cultural, design and leadership professions (see more here: Melanie Mitchell, Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans). This means that we still have to deal for a while with the skillful structuring of work and interaction of people. In order to achieve this, you need the right image of human beings.

A big burden for the management in order to find clever cooperation models are the stereotypes, these by many used generalizations of single persons, which do not describe the individual objectively enough. They lead to assumptions that strongly influence our dealings with others as well as our various actions and decisions. In the sixties of the last century, McGregor described two basic types of man that show the effects.

Theory X

Theory X is the basis for a strict direction and control by management. The leadership is based on the following aspects. (1) The average person has an innate aversion to work and avoids it, if he can. (2) He must therefore be forced, controlled, managed and, where necessary, sanctioned in order to ensure that he adequately involves himself in achieving its organizational objectives. (3) The average person prefers to be guided, wants to avoid responsibility, has little commitment and above all wants security. On the basis of these assumptions, the following vicious circle (X) arises.

  1. The leaders derive from this the need for strict guidelines and regular monitoring of the employees.
  2. The employees fulfil the tasks as required. Decision-making authority and responsibility has the manager. Active thinking and arbitrary adjustments by the employees lead to conflicts and sanctions.
  3. Through the distribution of task, authority and responsibility, employees become averse to responsibility and risk and suppress any impetus to intervene actively – continue with (1).

The management feels vindicated by the reluctant behavior of the employees and strengthens the guidelines and controls. Repeated cycles increase the tensions. The end is predictable. The company freezes in a jumble of regulations, on a suppressed enthusiasm by small-scale management and the destroyed commitment of the employees.

Theory Y

Theory Y strives for the coordination of goals of the management and the employee. The following assumptions provide the basis for it. (1) The average person has no innate aversion to work. He sees it, depending on the conditions that can be influenced, as a source of satisfaction that is carried out voluntarily or as a source of punishment that has to be avoided as much as possible. (2) The human being guides and controls himself in the implementation of those goals, to which he has committed himself. (3) Commitment that directs one’s own towards common goals is rewarded by the satisfaction of the ego and self-realization. (4) The average person not only assumes responsibility, but seeks it – resistance arises from bad experiences. (5) Problem-solving expertise is not limited to the leaders, but is widely spread throughout the entire staff. (6) The skills of the staff shall be used as far as possible. Based on these assumptions, the following cycle (Y) evolves.

  1. The leaders offer the employees enough freedom to act and leave the control to them.
  2. This enables employees to determine their own engagement and leads to active participation in the search for solutions, decisions and continuous improvements.
  3. Task, authority and responsibility are in the hands of the employees, who are willing to take the initiative and to assume the responsibility for their doing – continue with (1).

In a repeated run, all participants get to know the opportunities and advantages – freed from control, the leaders can take care of removing road blocks and to provide strategic orientation; the employees learn to use the increased elbow space and expand their contribution as entrepreneurs in the company.

Bottom line: The VUCA world has accelerated to such an extent that the old leadership approaches are to slow. Despite this, the old leadership structures persist. Companies prefer to seek their salvation in a new office architecture, the introduction of playful practices and the demand for more employee commitment. The office plan dissolves the defined workplaces and creates adaptable working landscapes to which employees are exposed without preparation or acclimatization. Unreliable, rigid planning steps are replaced by agile procedures with Post-its and a large number of small events. The entrepreneurial tasks are expected from the employees – planning, decision-making and control competencies are now in their hands. The leaders lose their raison d’être, but retain their positions and the final decision. For everyone, this is an unusual situation that raises many questions: Why do we still need managers? How do we ensure cohesion and interaction within the company? How are decisions made for the benefit of the company? Who makes what contribution to the company’s success? How becomes performance rewarded? There is much more to consider. In order to exploit the capabilities of the participants, you cannot avoid replacing the ideals of the industrial age (i.e. division of labor; doing the right thing better and better; growth; reducing costs; etc.) with new approaches in favor of viability – i.e. using existing internal ingenuity; ensuring internal and external win-win; decisive generation of customer satisfaction; creating social value.
A decisive prerequisite for this is, as a first step, the right image of the human being.

Changes of times transform meaning

Looking back in history is convenient, because it can explain everything retrospectively. We are following a life and feel that it is conclusive. This is what makes biographies so exciting. The view behind the curtain provides explanations and makes actions comprehensible. We do not notice the careers of those, who have failed and got lost themselves in anonymity. The asthmatic child, who later finished his medical studies as a surgeon and was killed as a revolutionary in Bolivia, went through the ups and downs of life and eventually got branded as part of the worldwide memory. Ernesto went through the different phases of his life without the world being able to recognize his impact in the beginning. The same destiny is shared by those, we remember today: Jesus Christ, Publius Qunctilius Varus, Johannes Gutenberg, Leonardo da Vinci, Mao Zedong. And if they had not already died, today they would have to live with the image created by posterity. Changes of times transform meaning.

We see a more or less correctly described life of the heroes of history that ranges from meaninglessness to celebrity and is evaluated afterwards by history. Behind all judgments is a person, whose relevance changes over time – depending on the observer and its value system.

  • Before the history
    The time before its story begins is similar – kindergarten, school, university and/or profession. Everyone has its own character, sometimes more active or passive, sometimes extra- or introverted, sometimes suppressed or oppressive. Later, posterity looks at this time and interprets everyday behavior according to its significance in history – suddenly stubbornness and wild raving become the early revolutionary attitude. In retrospect, even people, who know it better, adopt this interpretation.
  • Invisible development
    At some point, a crossroad leads to one finding its vocation and to follow it. Some experience injustices and develop a shift of their mind with new values and bogeymen. Everything is still happening in secrecy. The encountered challenges are fought out internally and in the usual discussions. Not more or less, as it happens to everybody. The possibilities for action are so limited that one acts on a small scale and consciously does not sticks out yet. Viewed from the future, this consolidation of one’s own value system becomes the maturing period of the future revolutionary. Nothing happened yet.
  • Passionately put into action
    If coincidence leads you into the appropriate environment or makes you aware of something that is worth fighting for – now it starts. History begins. The first walking attempts and the first initiatives become known by the public. However, the activists develop by and by awareness for the attention, since they are so busy with their actions that they do not waste any thought on the story until they reach the tipping point. Public awareness is growing faster and faster. Now it should be designed. From the outside we do not notice the evolving propaganda. The human being is lost behind the announcements, because we are not getting unprepared private information. Now the public evaluates the protagonist according to historic criteria – for some as politician and for others as guerillero.
  • For ever history
    As soon as life is over and a certain time has gone by, the image becomes transfigured and the public interests determine, how the person has to be evaluated – a criminal for the opponents and a martyr for the followers. It is still the same person, who lived its life and now has no control over what follows. The image is turning according to the value systems and the general political situation. In some cases, the later-born try to make all traces of the protagonist disappear – the inscriptions of the Egyptians were removed and Stalin had the corresponding persons retouched out of photos. In other cases, the protagonists become heroes, who have done everything for the great cause. The changes of times alter the view of history.

Bottom line: A person is a person, is a person, … This also applies to those, who have significantly influenced the course of history. In the end, they loose control over their historical destiny. One moment an assassin and in the next a freedom fighter, who sacrificed itself for the cause. And if times continue to change, the heroes are again thrown off the pedestal, because the changes of times transform meaning – again and again.