Work as a Social Environment vs Work as a Productive Environment

Blog

This is the blog for The Pease Group.

Work as a Social Environment vs Work as a Productive Environment

Paul Pease - Friday, October 30, 2009

It’s uncanny how large business organizations have the ability to beat employee excellence into compliant, blind, mind-numbing submission. It’s equally uncanny how organizations can reward mediocrity, poor performance, and bad behavior because they don’t want to confront the issue for fear of hurting the perpetrator’s feelings.

The net result is an organization that can’t grow in a growing economy and whithers during a bad economy. It seems that most organizations are willing to die for their concern of the workplace as a social environment rather than thrive as a productive environment. Your thoughts?

Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Comments

Peter Z commented on 02-Nov-2009 04:43 AM

The social aspect is encouraged in most work environments as a means to make the workplace more enjoyable. When the workplace is a monotonous nose to the grindstone place, most people do not perform well over a long period of time. However when the coffee hour breaks and water cooler talks turn into the predominant communication methods, there is a problem. Setting performance measures in place that place accountability and move the company forward toward the quarterly or yearly objective should allow for periodic social interaction, yet keep the employees focused and productive. The key is periodic objective measurement and quickly recognizing, then resolving any bad habits that form.

Robert Stohlman commented on 03-Nov-2009 05:44 AM

I think that this speaks more to the lack of real "LEADERSHIP" in the workplace today. In most corporate cultures, both large and small, real and creative thinking and decisiveness are frowned upon. Everyone is afraid to put themselves out there so they cannot be hurt by the predatory purveyors of mediocrity (The PPMs). These PPMs will do anything to protect their position within the power structure of an organization by stifling change that might unseat them from their position at the table. These are the first people to think of reasons "not" to do something creative. They are the first ones to use statements like; we tried that before and it didn't work, no one else is doing that, etc. Those folks that are beneath them (in the chain of command) are rewarded for mediocrity and stasis, and punished for creativity and decisiveness. Therefore " organizations can reward mediocrity, poor performance, and bad behavior". The old go along to get along.

Mary commented on 27-Apr-2010 02:53 PM

Yes, I think at times we forget why we are at work. We get paid to be productive, not to chit chat. We need a balance of an enjoyable environment but we need to set an expectation and keep people accoautable to this expectation. Is it worth all of us being out of work instead of handling those who are highly unproductive? No, we're at work to be productive.

Tom Peters and Alan Weiss on Customer Driven Organizations

Paul Pease - Friday, April 09, 2010

Is your organization customer-driven, or driven from the top-down? Here are quotes from two business books, “In Search of Excellence” (Tom Peters, Robert Waterman, Harper-Row, 1982) and “Best Laid Plans” (Alan Weiss, Las Brisas, 1990) Read more

Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Sales 2.0: The Next Silver Bullet in Sales Management

Paul Pease - Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Sales 2.0. That’s the latest buzzword for sales management. It’s the next silver bullet. It’s going to solve all of our problems we have managing and directing a sales force. Or will it? Read more

Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

The Pease Group

Making Excellence a Habit

We Can Help You Solve Sales Management Challenges

Recent Posts

Tags

Archive

Blog