Psychology of Performance – 29: Clash of Cultures on Transition

When an organization moves from a “Go-Go” phase to the next level, “Adolescence” (Adizes, 1999), the founder is faced with new organizational challenges. In the Go-Go phase the organization was making money, had few administrative departments, had few polices or formalized strategies in place, and had little management structure with defined accountabilities and authority. During the transition it is not uncommon for the founder to disengage then re-engage and disrupt the transition plan and team. This may be due to a number of factors from a need to be in control, disagreement with the policies and procedures being put in place, and regression, to the “that is not how we got where we are” syndrome, anxiety, distrust, and a sense of uncertainty about the future.

The impact on organizational performance and individual performance can be significant. First, the organization will be less profitable as it moves into adolescence almost by definition. The reason is that administrative staff such as HR, mid-level management, and other support staff are being added to move to the next level, and therefore, profitability percentages will drop. Second, the organization may drop in other areas of performance such as customer service and responsiveness because this value and behavior now needs to be systemized and made scalable where before it used to reside in individual staff and in the group norms as a smaller organization. Productivity definitions may change during this transition. When the organization was smaller, productivity could be measured by a few variables rather than a multivariate approach. As the organization gets larger, a multivariate model may emerge.

Individual performance can also be negatively impacted during this transition. Staff who had the skills to perform successfully in a smaller organization may not have the skills to perform in the larger organization. Changing them out or redefining their roles may result in stress for all involved as they were valued employees and now they may not be perceived that way by the new management. New employees may start under-performing as well because they came in full of hope and high expectations and then experience an organization that is giving mixed messages. The psychological impact of this is that these employees may start to be discouraged; feel helpless, angry, anxious, or depressed; lose focus; or engage in counterproductive communication and behavior, among many other negative psychological states.

As your organization goes through transitions like this, it will be helpful to keep these elements in mind when you encounter performance problems. Having a testable hypothesis is the first step to managing the changes.

Have a day filled with equanimity,

Robert A. Mines, Ph.D.
CEO & Psychologist

Reference
Adizes, Ichak. (1999). Managing Corporate Lifecycles. Santa Barbara, CA: Adizes Institute.

A Cluttered Home Leads to a Cluttered Mind

Think of your messy house as a metaphor for the state of your emotional health.  Mess and clutter often lead us to feeling stressed or panicked.  At the very least, looking at the buildup of stuff can sap your energy after a long day at work, with the kids, running errands, etc.  A clean and organized home can lift your mood and keep you on track towards meeting your life goals.

Most people’s reactions to a messy home go one of two ways.  Either they attack the entire mess with gusto or they simply sink to the couch – defeated, exhausted, and irritated with themselves for letting it get this far out of control.

Instead of finding yourself defeated, focus on taking steps towards a clean and organized home. Break down your area into quadrants (or rooms if they are manageable enough).  Taking small steps vs. larger ones will help you get an area clean and keep it that way.

Create a schedule of tasks.  There will be tasks you do daily, like hanging up your clothes or putting dirty dishes in the sink or dishwasher.  Other tasks will be more sporadic but need to be included on the list.  Listing out your activities will help you plan cleaning around your life but will also help hold you accountable for your space.  As an added bonus you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment every time you check something off your list!  Following your list on a daily basis will help you create more permanent good habits that will make keeping your home clean a breeze.

Simple Storage and Organization Solutions

• The office supply store is your best friend.
• Drawer organizers aren’t just for work.  Use them to create order out of a drawer of random kitchen utensils.  Use them in the bathroom to organize hair ties, makeup, and other miscellaneous items that often end up at the back of the drawer.
• Put your mail in one place.  Pick up an inexpensive paper holder to categorize bills, catalogues, personal correspondence, and things to file.
• Use clear bins to hold things that usually create clutter.  Cluster batteries, lightbulbs, and other house supplies in one drawer.  Use another to hold ipods, headphones, extension cords, chargers, and other electronics that aren’t used on a daily basis.
• Label your shoe boxes if you keep them so you always know what you have.
• Specify a box for wrapping paper, ribbon, tissue paper, boxes, and cards so you always have a go-to place for gift needs.

Safeguarding Your Home

The following articles from Reader’s Digest offer an interesting look at tips for safeguarding your home:

13 Things a Burglar Won’t Tell You

8 More Things a Burglar Won’t Tell You

~MINES HealthPsych Team

Protecting Valuable Records

Visit our Website Past Newsletters Protecting Valuable Records June 6, 2011   I think it was around 1997, and it was Christmas time. My Dad told my sister and I to go wrap Grandma’s present in the garage. The box was about 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide and what seemed like 1,000 pounds. After trying to turn it several times, we gave up and decided that this present would have one side left unwrapped. We couldn’t help but wonder why on Earth my 5-foot-tall Grandma was getting a present that weighed more than she did. What was this hunk of steel? My Dad explained to us that this was a safe that would protect all of Grandma’s important belongings if there happened to be a fire at her home. Just like my Dad to be practical and this may have been the most sentimental, practical gift he had ever given; after all, it would be holding her sentiments! Ever since that day, I occasionally wonder what I would grab if a fire was threatening to engulf my possessions. I don’t have a fireproof safe but I have put all of my important documents in one area to quickly grab in case of an emergency. This week’s communication gives you a checklist of valuable records that you may want to gather in one place for safe keeping. Please join us for June’s theme, “Household Help,” and explore ways to keep your home safe and manageable. Read more on this topic here… Britney Kirsch Account Manager

Overcoming Addiction

Overcoming any addiction is often a life-long journey filled with as many peaks as there are valleys.  Getting support from your family, friends, and treatment providers is an important part of maintaining sobriety.  If you are looking for additional support check out these free resources at http://store.samhsa.gov/home .  As always, we’re here to help.

~The HealthPsych Team

Healthy Decision Making

Healthy Decision Making.  This phrase can encompass different meanings to different people.  Most view this phrase as a representation of their eating habits – making the healthy choice to skip the dessert after dinner or to make sure they eat a healthy breakfast every day.  But have you ever thought of applying healthy decision making to other aspects of your life besides diet and exercise?  Making healthy choices can include stress management, finding balance between work and your personal life, or making decisions that have a positive impact on you and/or your loved ones.

One way to apply healthy decision making is to practice being responsive instead of reactive when making decisions.  Often times when we make decisions, we are impulsive (reactive) in our actions without thinking about the implications.  When we make decisions based on immediate gratification or intense emotions, we often don’t get the desired results we’re looking for.  Think of the times in your life when you have made a decision based on immediate need and regretted it afterwards, like eating that second piece of pie only to end up with a terrible stomachache or having a bad day at work only to come home and take it out on your spouse or partner.   When we give ourselves the opportunity to be thoughtful with our decisions and actions, we are being responsive.  Being responsive allows us to make wiser decisions with a more ideal outcome.

Next time you need to make a “healthy” decision, try out these helpful tips:

• Give yourself the opportunity to think about your choices.  Thinking allows us to break away from the intensity of emotions allowing us to make better choices.

• When your emotions are high, take a few moments to take some deep breaths.  Deep breathing allows the mind to slow down and for emotions to cool.

• Don’t beat yourself up.  If you make an impulsive decision, recognize it, think about a different choice you could have made, and then move on.

We’re not perfect but if you practice healthy decision making, you’ll find yourself feeling better each day leading you to a more fulfilled life!

~The HealthPsych Team

Worry Free Finances

“If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.“
- Benjamin Franklin

This is the time of year when many people resolve to turn over a “new leaf” and make important changes in their lives.  For a lot of us, that includes changing the way we manage our money.  With the over-spending that tends to occur around the holidays, it’s easy to decide to make a budget – but the hard part is sticking to it.  Below are some online tools to help you do just that.

www.mint.com

www.kiplinger.com/tools/budget

www.mvelopes.com

www.budgettracker.com

If you feel like you would benefit from more personalized help getting started, you may consider checking with the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org ) for accredited financial consultants in your area.

Happy New Year!

~The HealthPsych Team

Psychology of Performance – 20 – Early Attachment and Adult Performance Implications

Our early attachments to our primary caregivers may have significant implications for our ability to perform throughout our lives. The good news is that there are mindfulness techniques that can help integrate the information and energy associated with the various attachment categories so that as adults our performance does not have to be limited by the early learning associated with these attachments.

Siegel &  Hartzell, M.Ed., (2003, p.102-112) in their book, Parenting from the Inside Out, describe four patterns of attachment derived from the work of researchers such as Mary Ainsworth, Mary Main, and Erik Hesse, among others. As infants we most likely have one of the following patterns (which can vary by caregiver): Secure, Insecure-Avoidant, Insecure-Anxious/Ambivalent, or Insecure-Disorganized.

Secure attachments are described as having a parental interactive pattern characterized by the parent being emotionally available, perceptive, and responsive. The child sees the parent as being a source of comfort during times of distress, a safe haven, being available, and a secure base. This creates a sense of well being from which the child can go into the world to “explore and make new connections with others” (p.104).

Insecure-Avoidant patterns are associated with parents who are emotionally unavailable, imperceptive, unresponsive, and rejecting. These children avoid closeness and emotional connections to the parent (p.104).

Insecure-Ambivalent patterns are described as having parents who are inconsistently available, perceptive, and responsive and intrusive. The child cannot depend on the parent for attunement and connection. The child develops a sense of anxiety and uncertainty about whether they can depend on their parents (p.105).

Insecure-Disorganization patterns are created by parents who are frightening, frightened, chaotic, disorienting, and alarming to the child. This pattern is often associated with abuse. This creates a situation in which abuse is incompatible with a sense of security. The child develops coping responses that lead to difficulties in regulating emotions, trouble in social communication, difficulties with academic reasoning tasks, a tendency toward interpersonal violence, and a predisposition to dissociation – a process in which normally integrated cognition becomes fragmented (p. 106).

The good news is that for those with insecure attachments there are mindfulness techniques described in Siegel’s book, Mindsight, that can help the individual integrate the insecure attachment memories, patterns, and information in a manner that frees them up from “automatically or habitually” engaging in the pattern in their adult relationships.

The implications of early attachment for the psychology of performance are significant. Secure attachments allow for a base of security which in adulthood can manifest in collaborative interactions in the business environment, for example. The social psychology of group performance is enhanced when members can communicate directly and problem solve from a position of trust. Contrast this with an avoidant attachment pattern in which a team member has a fundamental approach to relationships that is one of distrust and self-reliance. This team member is there in name only and will be perceived as not cooperating, being a maverick, and “not playing well in the sand box.” The anxious attachment style may show up as an accommodating or pleasing style. This person sacrifices their own opinions so as to fit in, may frequently be checking in with the “boss” for approval and reassurance. The group loses this person’s gifts as the person may give in rather than be proactive on a decision point. The disorganized attachment style may contribute to significant disruption in a work group or team’s performance because the person will become overwhelmed during a conflict with either a chaotic or rigid response, either of which can disrupt the flow of energy and information needed for higher performance.

The culture of an organization often is set by the leader of the organization. Part of the definition of culture is the shared set of assumptions as to how we do business. From this, it is possible to see how the impact of the leader’s attachment could influence the culture of the organization. For example, if the leader has an anxious attachment, the organization may have a strong press to accommodate customers, resulting in a high emphasis on customer service which could range from being useful to problematic if taken to a dysfunctional level.

Have a day filled with mindful integration,

Robert A. Mines, Ph.D.
CEO & Psychologist

10 Challenges for your New Year

How to make 2011 a successful year for you and your employees

Dr. David Javitch wrote a wonderful article published at Entrepreneur.com that I would like to share.  As resolutions/goals are a popular topic at years end, his highlights can give a a great foundation for setting goals relative to your employees.

For example, he mentions that cross training employees can help motivate them and allow them to assist collegues in completing new tasks.  Their value and and responsibility will naturally increase while motivating them.

You can find the entire article and the other tips here.

Posted by Ian Holtz, Manager at MINES and Associates.

Being Single and Satisfied

Being Single…

A common question when chatting causally with someone is “are you dating?”  When the answer is no, people often apologize like being single is such an awful thing.  The fact is when you are single you have the freedom to explore a variety of activities and indulge in your every whim.  Friendships strengthen.  And the idea of compromise takes a back seat.  Being single doesn’t have to be a woe-is-me state of mind, rather a lifestyle choice that has just as many advantages and disadvantages as being in a relationship!

Looking for things to do around town try meetup.com, a great resource for things to do locally!

~Health Psychology Team

Psychology of Performance – 17 Mirror Neurons

In his book The Mindful Therapist, Dr. Dan Siegel discusses the role of mirror neurons in actions that have a perceived intention behind them. He stated that the mirror neurons function as a bridge between sensory input and motor output that allows us to mirror the behavior we see someone else enact (p.36).  Practically this means that when we see someone drinking from a glass, the mirror neurons become activated (firing off electrical currents called an action potential). If we were to drink from the same glass, the same specific neurons that fired when we saw someone else drinking also become activated. Dr. Siegel said “We see a behavior and get ready to imitate it,” (p.36).

The implications of this line of research are significant for performance. For example, if you watch a movie with alcohol being consumed and you are in recovery, now you have internal neuronal firing similar to drinking the alcohol yourself. Now you have to override the neuronal firing with “white-knuckling it,” or better yet with mindful awareness, or you will increase your probabilities of a relapse.

The upside of this research is that seeing others perform a behavior successfully – mentally rehearsing the image – would theoretically strengthen the neuronal firing and increase the probabilities that you will execute the behavior successfully. This concept is foundational to performance coaching. As coaches, therapists, and bosses we need to think about our current training techniques and how they incorporate watching, rehearsing, and doing as part of the sequence.

Have a day filled with Mindfulness,

Robert A. Mines, Ph.D.

CEO & Psychologist

MINES and Associates