Head Tale

A couple recent conversations got me thinking about the idea that “Work is 80% Relationships” and the vital importance of soft skills.

* A long time ago, the best manager we ever had at RPL talked to me about how the fact that her and another manager were really good friends outside of work and that made it much easier for them to disagree and even argue fiercely at work because they had a level of trust with each other which allowed them to understand that work was not personal.

I found a clip of them going to work one day:

* Another colleague told me about how they wrote a pre-screen question that is overtly about a person’s technical skills (“An elderly patron needs help with a computer problem.”) but the covert purpose is to assess the potential employee’s soft skills – how do they say they would interact with the non-tech savvy person?  How would they “translate” their knowledge in a way the person could understand?  How could they help the person learn some basics so they feel empowered?

* I guess I’ve also been thinking about how I literally spent the first week in my Organization Development role in HR at RPL in change management sessions that involved all staff as we moved towards a major reorganization and also towards a province-wide library system.

I don’t have it now but one slide the consultant showed in her presentation stayed with me to this day:

? Employees will embrace change where their input is included.
? Employees will support change where their input is considered.
? Employees will resist change that is imposed.

This seems like common sense but I’ve seen dozens of examples over the years where managers or directors impose change simply because they think they know best or they have their own agenda (and no trust to be honest about the real reasons for making changes.)

What gets missed is the damage that imposed decisions make to organizations in terms of trust, morale and loyalty.