My stumblings - are they a pawn or a player?

Are they an employee or a teammate?

Are they a resource or a partner?

Are they a pawn or a player?

Are they children or adults?

These questions of the innate motivation of teammates (or employee) has been studied for decades.

Notably in the 1960s, MIT professor Douglas MacGregor wrote a paper on this discussing “Theory X and Theory Y”

 Theory X = employees are lazy and need monitoring

 Theory Y = employees are capable of self-motivation & self-control

The conclusion from MacGregor’s paper showed that better results were found when people were treated with respect. No surprise.

How we think about our team affects how we treat our team. How we treat our team affects how they behave and ultimately perform. It’s no surprise when you treat people like children they act like children.

I’ve been trying to do a better job on the words I use because it affects our psychology and how we view and believe in our team. Many of the natural phrases and words come from the  beginning of the Industrial Age when the ratchet of the Industrial Revolution was really starting to crank.  The industrial complex was started with manipulation and squeezing as much production as possible from a factory. The industrial complex is infused into many of the words we use potentially giving us the wrong assumptions about the magnificent people we have the privilege of working with on a daily basis.

When I think about the word employee, it makes me think of a transaction. Deposit the coin and the output gets done. No emotions, no problems, get it done. I think there’s more to our team than this… I think they need and expect more.

When I think about the word teammate, it makes me think of the relationship which is so much more than just compensation. Teammate gives permission to a larger conversation of the human experience. Business is about the conversation.

I believe we are no longer in the Industrial Age. We are in the Information Age where most companies

are still using the language and organizing their work in the Industrial Age: Command & Control.

The leaders who adapt and find the new path will FLOURISH and so will the rest of the TEAM.

I don’t have a blue print. I certainly don’t have the answers. But I do know we are path finders. We aren’t hear to simply turn the ratchet of capitalism. The path includes using language which honors our team and embedding assumptions in our relationship with our team that starts with a wager of trust. I’ll continue to be working on the language I use in day to day conversations to help influence my choices & my behaviors to honor the TEAM!