So little, so much

Shorthand

Have you heard of an ‘ick’? In case you haven’t, it’s a marvellous piece of shorthand that describes a flip from initial attraction to revulsion.

In a relationship, it might be discovering that your object of attraction doesn’t use pillowcases or sheets (a true one that a friend related), or brushes their teeth while sitting on the toilet. From its inception in an episode of Sex and the City some 20 years ago, an ‘ick’ has become meme-worthy in its own right.

The point is that a single, very short word, can signify so much.

One of my clients uses the shorthand term ‘molasses’ to describe any of the myriad factors that gum up their basic organisational processes. Recruitment takes forever, travel permissions require four signatures, procurement and contracting is byzantine.

The value of such shorthand is that it enables large groups of people to signal a complex social idea in just a word. The best of these (like ‘ick’ and ‘molasses’) do more than just channel complaints; they open up conversations between people who have had different experiences, but want to find common ground.

Question: What useful shorthand terms do you use (or need) in your organisation?

Divide and conquer

This week I’ve been at a consultants’ conference in the US, where the country’s racial history is never far away. One colleague told us about her mother, who’s African American, and was raised in the South during the?Jim Crow?era.

As a somewhat rebellious young girl in the 1930s, she sneaked out at night, under cover of darkness, to the local park. Her reason? To drink from the ‘Whites Only’ water fountain in the local park.

But why?

To see if the water tasted different from the coloured drinking fountain.

Think about that for a moment. A young girl has no reference point for the origin of racism. She learned that night that the labelling is simply there to exclude her; it doesn’t signify any difference in the actual product.

You might think, “Oh, but that doesn’t happen anymore”.

Not those deliberately divisive laws exactly, but an unconscious exclusionary bias still persists in some organisational policies.

One of my hospital clients has ‘doctors only’ car parks nearest the main entrance - for nothing other than status reasons. Seemingly minor, but what’s the cultural effect of privileging one class of employees?

Question: Are there rules in your organisation based on bias, that act against you?

Protection

Another US story that fascinated me was told by a fellow consultant who became obsessed with a town that had a remarkable feature, the almost complete absence of heart disease.

Roseto, in Pennsylvania, is a small town settled almost exclusively by Italian migrants in the early 1900s. A study conducted in the 1970s found that no men under 55 had any evidence of heart disease. Above 65, the rate of heart attacks was half the national average. And, death rates from all causes, were 35% lower than anywhere else.

Can you guess where I’m going with this?

If you think it’s because of their ‘Mediterranean diet’, think again. This was a poor community who had no money for fish, olive oil and nuts; they ate high-fat sausages and meatballs with pasta. They drank (a lot), and in keeping with the times, smoked (a lot).

The so-called?Roseto Effect?was, rather, believed to be the product of a lack of stress, largely because of protective factors linked to social cohesion. People had hard lives (nobody was well-off; most men worked in mines) but everyone had a role in the town, and everyone was connected to others, with houses packed closely together, to enable frequent contact.

Over time, the population dispersed, and adopted more affluent lifestyles, and with this came a normalising of the heart disease rates. Today, the town is no different to any other in the USA.

Question: What protective factors can you reinforce — or introduce — in your organisation to build mental health and psychological resilience?

I’m back in Australia from Monday, but the internet gods have got this to you while I’m away. I’d love to know you’re reading, of course, so please click the ‘heart’ below. And, send on to anyone you know who’ll enjoy reading the 5MSM insights.

Until next Friday, enjoy looking out for shorthand in daily life,

Andrew