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Stomp the Elephant in the Office |
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Written by Editor
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Wednesday, 30 April 2008 |
The Virtual Book Review Network is pleased to interview Steven Vannoy and Craig Ross, authors of Stomp the Elephant in the Office
If the atmosphere in your office is so toxic it feels like a 1,000 pound elephant has taken up residence, know this: you can evict that elephant, get more accomplished and be excited about your job once more. All the steps and strategies to permanently banish the elephant in the workplace – the poor behaviors, attitudes and dysfunctional actions that stop people from getting things done – are outlined in Stomp the Elephant in the Office.
 Stomp the Elephant in the Office
Craig Ross is President of Pathways to Leadership, Inc. and leads the development of Pathways programs and facilitates internationally. His background in education and coaching lends itself to his responsibilities in program development and facilitator training.
LAUREN SMITH: What inspired you to take what you do at Pathways to Leadership and turn it into a book?
The inspiration for the title came from our client-partners. There’s a myth, Lauren, that work has to be a drag; that we have to continuously search for methods to motivate uninspired employees; that results can only improve incrementally. It doesn’t have to be that way! Yet people, leaders at every level, have accepted it as the norm. That’s the elephant: toxic attitudes, poor behaviors – in other words, culture – that everyone is aware of but no one is doing anything about.
Proof that few people are doing anything about it: 66% of corporate strategies are never executed (Ernst and Young); 72% of the work force is disengaged (Gallup). In nearly 85 percent of companies, employees’ morale sharply declines after their first six months, and continues to deteriorate in the years that follow (Sirota, Mischkind and Meltzer). We could go on. There’s a growing band of leaders who are not buying into the myth anymore. They’re using the tools we talk about in the book to stomp the elephant and change how work is getting done. And in the process, they’re changing the lives of those around them.
LAUREN SMITH: Are dysfunctional workplace cultures a bigger problem now as compared to past decades? If so, why?
You could say they are a bigger problem now – and it’s primarily because we as a society are so much more “aware” than we used to be. One person shared, “My father said he used to go to work and he had to ‘hang up his human-ness’ as he went into the office. And then he’d put his ‘human-ness’ back on when he left.”
Many people weren’t even aware that they should, could – and were entitled to – enjoy their job.
So dysfunctional workplaces are a bigger problem now because people want more. They want better. And the few organizations that figure out how to stomp the elephant and deliver that are winning.
LAUREN SMITH: How do I know if there’s an elephant in my office?
Do toxic attitudes or poor behaviors (blame, negativity, cynicism, office politics, etc.) exist at your workplace? Are less than 100% of people attending meetings engaged in what’s happening? Is the organization losing the ‘discretionary efforts’ from those on the team? Do employees wake up in the morning and not want to come to work (or dread the week ahead on Sunday evening)? And are there employees who can’t find balance in their life?
If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions – and nothing is being done to effectively deal with those issues – you’ve got some elephant stomping to do.
LAUREN SMITH: How do I get the elephant out of my office?
1. Build the awareness of all involved.
2. Create a common language for people to talk about the elephants – the undesired behaviors or attitudes – in a healthy, productive way.
3. Provide people with simple tools that allow them to be accountable to themselves and others.
4. Align your efforts with the objectives of the company and individuals.
5. And celebrate your progress like crazy!
LAUREN SMITH: "Culture" seems a bit soft for today's executive ...what are they giving up by focusing on this piece, and why can't the HR department simply handle it?
We love this question! “Culture” was labeled as soft by our father’s generation. And no one goes to college and majors in “culture.” Yet, if you’ve got more than one person in a room, you’ve got culture. So ironically, it’s the mother of all strategies: when you get culture right, you get your business right. And that’s why it’s the biggest elephant: because people don’t know how to do it or they want HR to do it. When the truth is: we’re all killing or building the culture we’re in with every action we take.
In a strange way, it’s too simple for some people to understand. Those who do understand it, and have the tools to do something about it, create change everywhere they go.
LAUREN SMITH: What are the biggest mistakes managers make regarding the workplace culture?
You actually answered this question in your question above.
• Mistake number one: they think others are responsible for their culture.
• Mistake number two: they try to ‘fix’ other people instead of themselves. (Can you tell when other people are trying to fix you? Not much fun.)
• And mistake number three: they think that culture is a one-time event. “Let’s send everyone to culture training so we can check that off our list.”
The facts: culture is happening every moment of every day. If you don’t become the architect of your culture, it will collapse on everything you want to achieve.
LAUREN SMITH: What’s the most important thing employees should do to improve their office/workplace culture?
In addition to the five steps outlined above, we’d add this vital action: focus on where you ARE seeing people build the culture. Our society has trained us to attend to where poor results are not taking place…and thus, the average manager perpetuates the poor results. These people major in mediocrity. Major in brilliance instead.
LAUREN SMITH: What concepts outlined in Stomp the Elephant in the Office apply to life outside of work?
Every single word of it does, and here’s why: leadership and culture are about human behaviors and how we impact those behaviors. If you live with humans at home, the tools apply.
LAUREN SMITH: Do you believe, in today’s Blackberry-addicted, 24/7 culture, that there can be work-life balance?
Unquestionably yes! And within the first fifty pages of Stomp the Elephant in the Office we show how leaders are achieving fantastic work-life balance. And here’s a clue – it goes way beyond simply trying to create ‘quality’ in the time we have with loved ones. It has much more to do with what you’re bringing to work!
LAUREN SMITH: Is there anything we haven’t covered that you would like to include?
Only this, Lauren. There is something within each person: the desire to make a difference. Sadly, our society is set up – businesses are run – in a way that diminishes and even kills that desire. This is the greatest loss humanity will ever know. Stomp the Elephant in the Office is about rekindling that desire and equipping people with the ability to do just that: make a difference – for themselves, their colleagues, their organizations, their families, and their community. Imagine what we lose if people don’t act on this desire to make a difference?
Now imagine if they do.
LAUREN SMITH: Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview!
Thank you, Lauren. And happy elephant stomping!
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 April 2008 )
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