Paradigm Shifts is centered on uncovering the "undercover workplace" - the real behaviors, ideas, and actions within organizations that guide organizational experiences.
The undercover workplace functions very much like the undercover phenomenon in larger society that keeps people programmed into certain behaviors and ways of thinking. These are what keep us stuck, or moving backwards- which is what seems to be happening now socially and politically.
What we're facing now is peeling back the layers of our culture, our ways of being and thinking that keep us in the same cycles we claim to fight against. We're seeing the underlying values of people and organizations rise to the surface. The hard part to acknowledge for many is that they've always been there- just well hidden under decades and decades of social engineering, manipulation, and programming.
Before we can devise solutions that truly work toward progress, we'll have to unpack and acknowledge things that we haven't been able to.
We can't continue to normalize destructive behaviors
We can't continue to turn the other cheek to sociopathic and psychopathic behaviors because there are perceived benefits (for you or for certain groups of people you benefit from)
We can't continue to deny that the perception of how things work that we've been given is not actually how organizations (and society) actually work.
The reason it's been hard for us to solve organizational and societal problems is that we're trying to solve symptoms- the causes of which are hidden from the everyday person's perception of what's really happening.
Tough Things we Need to Begin to Acknowledge
Let's think through this together. If we really begin to dissect our reality, we'll find that as a society (and also within organizations) we have been socialized to:
Resist having direct, candid conversations
Avoid/escape accountability
Demonize people who try to help
Blindly trust figures of authority
Not care about problems we feel do not directly impact us
Expect a higher standard of behavior and obedience from others than we do ourselves
Use dishonesty at our discretion and to our benefit; even when we feel others shouldn't
Resist looking deeper into issues- we're told it's "too hard", that it's a waste of time, or that we're being "difficult" when doing so. These social ostracizations prevent people from ever really figuring out what's happening and keep us complacent with the current state.
So, Where Do We Start?
A good place to start is to think about it from the organizational perspective. If you think about your place of work, what happens there, patterns of behavior in the people you work with- do you see the above behaviors? Do you see those in yourself?
For those of us who want change, we first have to analyze within ourselves the following:
How do we uphold harmful societal beliefs and practices?
Do we feel that people who try to fix things or who call out manipulation and issues are really "the problem"?
Are you more comfortable believing a problem doesn't exist or blaming someone else to avoid doing anything about it?
Are we aware of the false realities around us? If not, why? Are we avoidant, or simply unaware?
How can we solve problems we are unable to acknowledge?
Are we quick to hold others accountable, but slow to hold ourselves accountable? Why?
It will take work- and often we look externally to fix systems and other people before working on fixing ourselves and our communities. Yes, systems are broken, and yes there are accountabilities organizational leaders, politicians, and others who drive society have.
However, continuing to attempt to force them to change, versus changing ourselves, will always be a losing battle. They've benefited for so long doing exactly what they're doing. In order to interrupt this, we'll need to be the ones to change.
What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear more ideas in the comments!
Hi! I'm Nicole, an organizational consultant and personal coach, who is passionate about inspiring the changes our society needs for all to thrive. Using lessons learned from my own experiences and challenges, I hope to help people within organizations by creating mentally, socially, and emotionally healthy workplaces for all. Check out the other resources on this site for more ways to do just that!
Follow Icola Consulting on LinkedIN for more content!
Comentarios