Industrial Action is about so much more than money

Having just spent another couple of weeks in America visiting some incredible clients, I am always surprised by the gap in performance improvement knowledge between the USA and Europe, particularly when it comes to Human and Organisational Performance (HOP, HPI, etc); and boy, are we missing out!

Particularly given the current socio-economic challenges (occupation, education, income, wealth and where someone lives) we are facing in the UK right now!

Whilst I’ve been over here I have been keeping abreast of the industrial action situation which once again is threatening to create huge levels of disruption to our public services.

I do of course understand and empathise with all public service workers who are trying to secure decent rates of pay but I am much more interested in the arguments they present for better working conditions and that doesn’t seem to be making as many headlines as the ‘call for cash’.

Paradigm works with organisations to maximise the potential of their people and nowhere is this more needed right now than in the public service sector in the UK and across Europe.

Improvement starts with internalising and operationalising the 5 principles of Human and Organisational Performance:

1.?????Humans are fallible and even the best people make mistakes.

2.?????Error-likely situations are predictable, manageable and preventable.

3.?????Individual behaviour is influenced by organizational processes and values.

4.?????People achieve high levels of performance based largely on the encouragement and reinforcement received from leaders, peers and subordinates. ??

5.?????Events can be avoided by understanding the reasons mistakes occur and applying the lessons learned from the past events .

I would also make a case for a 6th Principle which is:

6.?????Learning from normal work helps us to prevent future unwanted outcomes.

Organisations who truly understand, respect and listen to their Workers are able to overcome mission-critical problems quickly and effectively because the answers come from within the organisation, not from outside. The folks who work in our organisations are all subject matter experts and they have a very different perspective on how things can be improved, if only Management would engage and listen.

Human and Organisational Performance provides the code for unlocking and maximising the potential of your people and it’s going largely unrecognised outside of the US.

We recently worked with a client who was experiencing difficulties in communicating with their heavily unionised workforce over the need to reduce shift durations which were putting their own people at risk through fatigue. We were able to help the union understand that this wasn’t a ‘cash grab’ by the employer but a genuine attempt to keep them safe and healthy. Two years in, those workers are not out of pocket, which was their greatest fear, and actually report feeling safer in carrying out the high risk work they do and healthier and able to spend more ‘awake’ time with their loved ones, instead of the constant fatigue and low energy. In turn the client has a more engaged workforce who are inherently safer, feel truly cared for and are more able to speak up when they are facing challenges on their jobs.

I believe NHS and other public-sector workers are cut from a separate cloth from the rest of us! What would drive a person to work crazy hours, risking their own health and wellbeing, taking abuse from their ‘customers’ for far less than the corporate world pays often mediocre workers. Why do they do it? Well, it’s not for the money, clearly!

Do they deserve a good salary to support a decent standard of living? Hell yes! But there is much more to recruiting and sustaining good people in the workplace than good money and setting them up for success goes way beyond salary and bonus.

My experience of workplaces and workforces all over the world tells me that people really thrive in organisations that treat them with respect and dignity, celebrate them for the incredible contribution they make and don’t immediately point the finger at them when things don’t go to plan; unsurprisingly these are the organisations that thrive too!

Listening to understand your people costs nothing but your time, and it is ALWAYS time well spent. Responding to their needs and seeing the World through their lens shows our people that we care for and value them.

I hope the UK government and the Trade Unions can find a mutually beneficial solution to the ‘cash’ problem but I know it is going to take much more than money to fix these broken institutions. It starts with courageous leaders listening, understanding and responding with care and humility and it never ends!