Power

The inside story of powerhouses

“You need Power, only when you want to do something harmful, otherwise Love is enough to get everything done.” – Charlie Chaplin

If learning organizations have not yet found out the truth in the statement and ways to bring that out into application, they need to think again; for then it means they are not intelligent enough despite their growth and profit. There often seems to be an unrecorded mismatch in the vision and mission laid in black and white and the ones that are put into practice. My heart goes out to those who are now facing the menace of power; who are at the receiving end and now undergoing the crises of humiliation, insinuation, candidature and character assassination by the unfortunate administrators, who are now busy using power the way Chaplin has apprehended. There does not seem to be any functional ombudsman to defend the defenseless; the so-called black sheep and bad apples.

But can managers or administrators be blamed I wonder. Organizations do have the belief system that if managers are unable to find bad employees, they are NOT doing their job. If any organization has a policy of taking measures against people found guilty of somethings, say, sexual harassment, then the managers have to anyhow find out people guilty, so they start head-hunting. Their success depends on someone's disaster. Organizations benefit in checking that criteria and showcasing that to their clients. The business world seems to be happy with the findings and these are considered, registered, recorded as true. Likewise, we look for under-performers, people with bad behavior, and have them sadly authenticated by a foolproof machine called 'everybody'; there are so and so who also think that the bad person is bad. If you look deep and make your research on these bad people, you will see that most of them lack interpersonal skills; this fault of theirs makes them defenseless. The workforce is even alerted during induction the danger of lacking in interpersonal skills; they openly say that during layoffs and 'anything other disaster, these people will be cleared, much like those Sultans clearing places of worship by exercising 'power'. What is more shocking is the unwritten definition of interpersonal skills, it means that you need to say or do things that every Tom, Dick and Harry is doing, and if you are unable to be friends with them, even if they are doing something distasteful, you are a black sheep; you have to take part in discussions you might find shallow. If a group of translators is bent upon slowing down the work under the excuse of ensuring 100% quality, (ha ha ha), and spend long hours in cafeterias and other sit-outs, you also have to do just that because that is considered as life skills. And if by mistake you tell those 'everybody' that you think it is not the right thing to do, you will very soon have issues with them, with each one of them, you are pointed out as a naysayer, not included in meetings, and no sooner than you realize, you become a black sheep. The workforce will pin you down as a poor performer, and anything worse than you can actually imagine.

And finally, no one is happy; the very successful and the least, because both are victims of power.

What is the way out

It is pointless to talk about this because layoff or firing is considered as part of a growing process. The belief system is 'hey it's natural', 'it happens in all organizations'; layoff is never considered as a shame, a scar, a failure of Learning organizations. Negative policies that create negative atmosphere (because both, victims and victors are affected) can be certainly changed if organizations think it is really worthwhile to change. A poor performer can be channeled into other departments is just one way out; I am sure if creative brains do the brainstorming then not having layoffs may soon be considered a reality, and a yardstick for best employer or a great place to work, where organizations and those poor managers (I can completely empathize with those who go into severe depression as also with those who take pride being thoughtless) may not have to use power and still can satisfy their clients without affecting the quality of work of their respective team members. This needs creative and out-of-the-box thinking.

In the words of Shaw, 'Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power'; the probe, if at all, is not to find out who the fool here is, the one who fires or the one who is fired; but to find out a way in which firing ceases to exist, to create an engrossing, encouraging, research-oriented atmosphere where working becomes the key, the basis of life-skill, where inclusiveness is even extended to those with challenging interpersonal skills, where organizations may not have to use power at all.