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| Illustration: Makers Company |
As engagement levels at organisations remain challenging, Professor Rob Goffee of London Business School asks a pertinent question: why should anyone work here? He tells Reflect how organisations can become more authentic by using the DREAMS model
Gareth Jones and myself wrote a book called Why Should Anyone Be Led By You? which had a central recommendation: be yourself more, with skill. We asked what is different about you as a leader that will lift, inspire and motivate others. Executives who we worked with liked this idea, but many of them turned round and said, “I’ll be more authentic if I work in an authentic organisation.” The more people who said this to us, the more we paid attention: what did they mean when they talked about an ‘authentic organisation’?
As it turns out, it is a question for our times. Trust levels in organisations are falling; the journey from Enron to VW is a long one, and don’t get me started on Fifa. Across the world, engagement levels are low and nowhere near where employers would like them to be. I believe we are falling out of love with organisations, but at the same time, expectations are rising, some of which can be attributed to Generation Y, who want more from organisations. Many also believe we are moving towards a knowledge economy, and in that kind of economy you will have organisations full of ‘clevers’ – talented, skilled professionals who are often a source of significant added-value to organisations, but who may prove difficult to lead. It’s a deadly combination: the clever factor together with generational shifts, as well as technological changes, increased levels of mobility, and demand for organisations to be accountable and transparent.
For our latest book Why Should Anyone Work Here?, Gareth and I asked people to describe their ideal organisation, and why they are working there. Of course, for many people the answer is simply to earn a living, but increasingly the most talented people are driven by choice, rather than constraints. Employees referred to roughly six things: I want to work somewhere I can be myself; I want to know what is going on within the organisation; I want to develop and become more skilled; I want to work somewhere I’m proud of; I want my job to be meaningful; and I want to work somewhere where I’m not drowning in bureaucracy.
We developed the DREAMS model, which stands for difference, radical honesty, extra value, authenticity, meaning and simple rules. In a way the model is quite obvious. Do you want to work somewhere you must conform to? Where no one tells you what’s going on? Where you don’t get developed? Somewhere you don’t believe in, the work is meaningless and it’s full of silly rules? But if it is so obvious, then why are more companies not doing it? Organisations often apply a band-aid to deeper problems, and they are grappling with fairly big issues, such as the tendency of modern capitalism to focus on short-term results as well as increasing bureaucracy as organisations expand. But we are on the edge of shifting from a world where employees have to fit into an organisation to one where the organisation needs to fit employees.
This was feature I wrote for Reflect, the business magazine of Swiss-based financial Equatex. Launched last year, the magazine is a quarterly, 20-page broadsheet, consisting of five in-depth long-form features, all collaboratively written by White Light Media with an expert from a specific field. The world is awash with information and as a result, there is a growing demand for packages of carefully selected ‘brain food’ that people can dip into for relevant and intelligent content. As well as ghost-writing features, I edit and project manage the magazine.
Read the rest of the feature at www.equatex.com/en/article/the-organisation-of-your-dreams/
