Fear of the unknown

Immigration seems to be a popular topic today. Fear mongers get elected by those voters who consume their message of fear- without having ever actually seen a foreigner. Closer to home, in the world of work, employees fear what happens when their organizations buy other companies, or are in the process of getting bought; team members fear their units being merged with other units – in other words – there is enough fear to go around. 

How we can help people to deal with this? 

At itim International, we have a simple message – visualize where the biggest differences are likely to occur and why. In other words create understanding for the relative differences.

On a national level, we all deal with the same six basic dilemmas in life;

1. Relationship to power
2. Relationship to the group
3. Sources of motivation
4. Relationship to uncertainty
5. Relationship to time
6. Relationship to happiness

– only our solutions differ. When comparing one group of people with another group and making policies aimed at groups – our politicians could do a better job by minimizing the fear of the unknown – simply by making the unknown more known and creating understanding. 

The same goes for the concept of fear within organizations – make visible in which parts of the organization there is fear and why. Fear and related distrust have serious economic consequences (let alone the ethical component of using fear for means of political gain). Understanding won′t on its self solve your problems - but solving things without actually understanding what you are actually solving (fighting symptoms instead of the root cause) only leads to you running around in circles....

Want to know more about how certain societies deal with the same dilemmas you face? Why not start here: https://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html