For a while things seemed
to be going from bad to worse at Grangemouth. Depending on who you believe or
what you read, there were various parties to blame. However truth is rarely
black and white. Perhaps there is also another way of analysing the situation which
has lessons for companies across the globe.
I look at Grangemouth and I see a
classic ‘them and us’ culture. The question is where does this culture come
from? Often this sort of culture is entrenched in the organisation but it comes
from a set of unhealthy assumptions that will have existed for a long time.
If we look at
the social science research about human motivation and productivity at work -
how much is really achievable in a command and control structure? Whether you
like it or not, if you insist on putting in layers of ‘management’, you are putting
in place controls which stifle empowerment and extend your communication lines –
they ultimately make people remote from the company.
Why do we
empower? So we can raise human productivity but to do so properly we have to
believe that people are inherently trustworthy individuals who can manage
themselves. We have to start treating people like adults and sometimes the
adults need to accept they’re adults too. We need to get away from this ‘carrot
and stick’ (reward and punishment) approach to work because as Dan Pink tells
us, there is no greater amount of research built up over the course of decades
to show it just doesn’t work.
