By Abel Pagaling
Are you familiar with these comments?
“I stopped telling my husband to do things in the house because he’ll just forget or get upset when I push him on it.”
“The meeting was a waste of time. We discussed the wrong issues. No one is interested about the right issues because no one is willing to challenge the boss.”
“If I speak up about it, I might be seen as confrontational or negative and I might lose out on my pay raise or promotion.”
“I don’t want to tell dad about my mistakes because he’ll get upset.”
When I hear people say this, I automatically think that there is an “Openness” problem.
What is an openness problem?
That’s when people are afraid to speak up because they fear the punitive consequences if they address difficult issues.
It’s when companies and governments silence their people because it threatens to expose their weaknesses and shortcomings.
It’s when a child, a wife, or a husband is afraid to bring mistakes out in the open for fear of consequences.
Sadly, many of us have been trapped in this cycle of lack of openness. Growing up we are taught to comply and not to question. To play nice and not cause any trouble. Or to do what we are told and follow orders in the name of compliance, obedience, and the fear that something will be taken away if we question our established practices.
However, for a person, community, or organization to truly grow, we have to practice OPENNESS: the ability to freely speak our mind on the things that we know are important without fear of punitive consequences.
I call this the OPENNESS ADVANTAGE. Here are my reasons why:
- Openness allows innovation to happen quickly. It is a competitive advantage.
- Openness values and respect others. It is a human advantage.
- Openness strengthens trust. It is a community advantage.
Openness allows innovation to happen quickly. It is a competitive advantage.
Five years ago I started a workforce management team in one of the largest home and auto insurer in Canada. Our mandate was to ensure we have the right people, at the right place, at the right time so we can give the best service to our customers.
For a team of 4 people to successfully coordinate 4 offices in 3 time zones to respond to thousands of inquiries each month was a big undertaking. But through openness my team learned and understood our challenges quickly. We continually met our mandate, and implemented several key changes to ensure great customer experience for both our external clients and employees.
Was it easy? No. It was tough work. We had to be very innovative to be relevant, or we would lose our team. For a competitive person such as myself, this was not an option. I relied heavily on the spirit of openness so we could produce results and move forward. The outcome? We always had a good picture of our environment and the challenges we were faced with. The best part is that my team gave me options that I can use at my disposal. I made sure that they could speak what’s on their mind. And my team consistently delivered results.
I’ve since moved on to form a new team within the same company. My mandate is to build a business intelligence team that will mine data and workflows and bring new insights on how we operate. Is this going to be easy? Absolutely not. Is it doable? With an openness culture in my team, absolutely yes!
Openness values and respect others. It is a human advantage.
The worst thing we can ever do to another human being is to make them feel less valued. If you’re an employee and your boss dismisses your input all the time even when there’s merit to what you are saying, you will probably feel insecure and less valued sooner or later. Chances are you won’t want to contribute your absolute best in such a work environment. You might even consider leaving the company.
If you’re a manager, a boss or own a business and have staff who report to you, keep this saying in mind:
“People join an organization, but they leave because of bad bosses.”
When people join an organization, they believe they have what it takes to succeed. But when they leave the organization, a good percentage of the time they leave because they believe their boss doesn’t see the potential in them.
Each one of us want to contribute something significant to our society, to our community, or to our family. Openness allows us to work together so everyone is given a chance to contribute.
Openness is a human advantage because it enables us to tap into what we are passionate about, and redirect that passion into something creative and beneficial. Take openness away and we destroy our chance to turn our ideas into reality.
Openness strengthens trust. It is a community advantage.
When there’s openness, we create trust. Trust says we might not see eye to eye all the time, but I know you have my best interest in mind and I have your best interest in mind.
In a community where we practice openness, we can debate and dialogue freely about things that matter. We deal with issues quickly. We learn the skill to question each other without provocation or planting ill feelings towards each other. And when we do this we are strengthening the trust in our community. We are saying that we care.
The news is filled with stories of countries falling apart because of lack of trust.
In the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, lack of openness created many social and economic challenges.
I can say that this is only because people have failed to practice openness, to really talk about issues that matter so they can find solutions to move forward.
In a world moving at a very fast pace, where global competition for innovation and talent continue to increase, where we see people in many parts of the world suffer, and where we see an increasing number of social issues within our communities, I believe that openness is our key advantage. It is a competitive, human, and community advantage.
But Openness doesn’t happen by itself. We must create the environment for it.
To see its benefits, we must allow for it to happen. Individually, we must exercise openness.
So let me ask you this: What important issues have you talked about lately?
About the author
Abel Pagaling is the TFCC Communication Lead. He manages a team of business analysts with a major Canadian insurance company. He is also an entrepreneur, a writer, a community servant, and a motivational speaker. He is passionate about personal development and leadership.
Email: abel.pagaling@gmail.com
Twitter: @abel_pagaling
Facebook: www.facebook.com/abelpagaling1
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