Power is a Dirty Word
I read an article in The Australian newspaper today by Adam Creighton which spoke of culture in the workplace, specifically in the banking system, and how everyone is looking at their culture and how to improve it.
"Are you systematically improving your culture? Everywhere you look people are committed to it"
He goes on to ask "So why is cultural reform so popular? Culture is a nice thing to be committed to changing because it involves doing precisely nothing. No one actually, really wants to change anything."
In some ways I tend to agree. If you are seen to be doing something to "fix" your company culture, then that will suffice.
Maybe it isn't the company culture as such that needs fixing. The problems can be boiled down to a few words; power, greed and ego, the abuse of that and the forms that takes.
That pretty much sums up the problems on the political scene around the world as well as in the business world and even in a domestic familial and societal sense. Power, greed and ego are what drive much of the bad behaviour in society. Good leadership and strong relationships come with high emotional intelligence, defined as "the capacity to be aware of, control and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically". Power, greed and ego are not what we should be aiming for as a measure of success or prosperity. Demonstrate respect, trust and honesty and we go a long way to fixing the problem.
How we "fix" that, is the solution to all the problems of the world, which is a somewhat utopian aspiration. However, we are at least bringing these issues out in the open and putting them under public scrutiny. The more we talk about them, the more chance we have of curbing their hold in our behavioural make up.
Maybe there is hope yet that mankind won't destroy themselves and the planet.
How do you see the future?
Ros O'Connor
Thinking DNA - www.thinkingdna.com.au
human capital and innovation are the source of all long term economic success





No one person has all the answers. A collective of ideas will always have a better chance of success





