I’ve just been MC at a big event for a local authority that wants its 700 care staff and managers to involve citizens more in everyday tasks.
The way I see it, it’s about going “back to basics” — and about relating to the way society develops in a human way, when we sometimes get caught up in following processes and protocols.
I believe in the good of involving citizens who need care and treatment — those who can, and want to, be involved. It’s simply the sign of a healthy view of people.
The balance between loyalty and honesty
I believe in the balance between being loyal to a work process and, at the same time, making sure the process doesn’t take us too far from what the task is basically about. We have to be honest — not just loyal — when we take on the challenges.
The challenge arises when we act as cogs in a machine — where we just tell the customer, the citizen or the patient what can and can’t be done, instead of finding a creative way to solve the task or the challenge.
From a distance, we can see something’s wrong
What’s interesting is that the people who are no longer part of the machine can clearly see that something is badly wrong. When I meet them and ask why they didn’t do anything, the answers are usually:
- “It wouldn’t have made any difference.”
- “It was something we were told to do.”
- “I didn’t dare.”
If you work in an organisation that, more and more often, tells customers, citizens or patients that it can’t be done, then maybe it’s time
for you to stand up, take real responsibility and act.
Talk to your colleagues, and if the team and your immediate manager agree, I think it should be raised with management as a proposed solution for how you can improve by going a little “back to basics”.
Nothing to lose
It’s not about turning back time, but about making sure the “old” values and virtues fit into new systems. Whether or not management follows your proposal to the letter, you can only win — because it’s vitamins for the soul, and for your happiness at work, to know you came forward with a solution rather than sitting frustrated and grumbling.
The Czech Republic’s former president Václav Havel wrote in his 1978 essay The Power of the Powerless that it is evident…
“…that a single, seemingly powerless person who dares to shout the words of truth, who stands behind them with heart and soul, and pays the price for stepping forward, has surprisingly more strength than thousands of anonymous voters.”
