The silent epidemic

There is a silent epidemic in Australian workplaces that is both contagious and insidious. We work under duress. I am not talking about resilience in the face of hardship ... I am talking about people being unfulfilled in their work.

Ever sat through a two day strategic planning program and looked back at your efforts and thought ‘That's awesome! We can't fail.' Then a few months on you wondered what the heck went wrong ...

Put simply, business and strategic planning never have, and never will, ensure successful achievement of goals alone. Sure, it is vitally important to be clear about which direction you are heading, but the most important element is rarely considered within this process: the human element.

Individual goals and values will trump your organisational goals and values every single time. That's a fact. To achieve the holy grail of employee engagement you need both business strategy and personal fulfillment. Corporate Anthropologist and International Expert on workplace culture Michael Henderson says that Australians are a hardy lot when it comes to putting up with a poor workplace culture.

‘Aussies have an inherently high work ethic which means they will often achieve targets even though their heart might not be fully in it. The survival mindset in Australian workers is phenomenal.' Whilst this sounds good on the surface, eventually this good employee cohort will leave, and the huge problem is they will take intellectual property, experience, and even customers with them.

So ask yourself, are we achieving our targets? But more importantly, are we achieving them the right way? There is too much at stake to ignore the epidemic.

Warm wishes,
Darren and Alison


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