Compatibility NOT Guaranteed

by Jean Houston Shore, CSP, CPA, MBA
Copyright 2007

"By investigating our organizations' cultures and rediscovering our own personal values and beliefs, we set a course for achieving not just compatibility but synergy."

Thumbing through a software catalog recently, I was surprised to see the words “Compatibility not guaranteed” boldly emblazoned across the order form. I’m sure what that means is not "BUYER BEWARE!" but "BUYER BE AWARE." Well, at least they are being honest about it. Far too many times I’ve made a purchase of the latest in technology only to discover in the techno-fineprint that the purported wonderware never WAS supposed to work on my tired old machine. At least the catalog caution will make me consider my purchases more carefully — after all, I can’t take them back.

TOO BAD

Too bad employees don’t come with warning signs. In my work, I regularly see employees who are unhappy, unproductive and unable to figure out why. Sometimes the unhappiness is caused by someone using an outdated and ineffective management style, being unnecessarily demanding, or not communicating clearly enough. Other times the employee is in a job that’s too much for his/her current skill level. Often, the employee does not feel that his/her work is valued by others. But sometimes, when all is said and done, we find that we simply have a compatibility problem.

Today’s complex organizations are like personal computers in many ways. Our companies have unique operating environments; we call them organizational cultures. And just like your desktop system, the company operating environment is tweaked almost daily. New companies, new product offerings, new players or simply the old players in different roles — all of these things change a company’s culture. When changes occur, software designed to run in the old environment might just crash in the new one. Sometimes employees crash, too.


VALUES ARE THE ANSWER

Employees come to us with a set of personal values that they have developed over their lifetimes. These are the realities that are most important to them, and, over time, values drive employee behavior. As your company culture changes so too do the values that drive corporate behaviors. Realize then, that if employees are responding in ways strikingly different from the way you would like them to, you may be asking them to go against the very things of which they are made. Ultimately there are two options. Either your company changes its values to mesh with the employee’s system, or the employee chooses to move into a more compatible operating environment.

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