(The Container Effect... page 2 of 3)

The Values Misnomer
Companies issue value and mission statements pro-forma. Businesses have their credos posted throughout their organizations. Words such as profit, speed, growth, efficiency, customer service and shareholder return are sprinkled liberally throughout. While these are all important business goals, they are not values. When individuals accept these words as guiding principles, a fundamental disconnect begins to develop between what they know intuitively and what they want to believe for the sake of the company.

When this happens, the Container Effect has taken hold. Individuals within the workplace container begin to suppress their own values and adopt those of the organization. While this may appear on the surface to be a good thing, it actually has dire consequences for the organization. Without a clear sense of self, individuals eventually begin to feel disconnected, unfulfilled and wanting. Often, they may not know why.

As leaders, executives need to recognize this reality and reconnect their businesses to a deeper sense of purpose. The best way to start is by redefining corporate "values" from profits, speed and efficiency to more essential and compelling beliefs such as responsibility, respect, and freedom.

Values reflect the heart and soul of a business. To the extent that values are based on compelling fundamental truths, the business can connect to a higher purpose and make a meaningful difference.
 

A Historical Perspective
The workplace as we know it today did not exist before the Industrial Revolution. For the most part, work before that time was done individually or in small groups focused on the manual tasks required to survive. In pursuits as diverse as farming, medicine, teaching, and haberdashery, people defined and carried out their work based on their own sense of what was right.

During the Industrial Revolution, work became organized around mechanical processes. The use of complex equipment led to the need for production lines and standardized work activity. Shaped by externally imposed procedures, the guiding values of the workplace container began to migrate toward the organization and away from the individual.

In time, the new workplace container - the organization - became increasingly sophisticated.  It developed a multitude of mechanisms to reinforce its walls. Incentive and stock option plans. Performance based pay. Perks tied to job level. Self-created "benefits" designed to draw people deeper into the workplace container. The more they were drawn in, the more they envisioned a pay-off of security, wealth and well-being.

This mindset lasted until the early '90s. Since then, mergers, downsizing, cost-cutting and other corporate actions have eroded this implicit sense of well-being. For many people, September 11th further lifted the lid off the container.

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