COLUMN
JeroninioFranciscoTorquatoAlmeida
GREAT ORGANISATION @
LEARNING(GO@L)
T
WO YEARS AGO, while
speaking at a HR/ OD
conference in London,
I explained to the HR/
OD-community why Best/Great-
places-to-work in may be a flawed
concept. A HR-Director of a Fortune
100 company stood up and said,
“Jerry, we are in GPW-rating, so what
makes you say that?” I said, “Ma’am,
let me explain with some hard-data
and research, but before that let’s
learn from this light-hearted joke”.
One day Hari Sadu (for the
uninitiated, Hari is an obnoxious
manager, who was the poster-boy for
the TV commercial of India’s biggest
job-portal www.naukri.com. I played
the video at the event. In the video,
Hari’s direct-reportee conveys to a
restaurant reservation-executive the
spelling of Hari’s name as “H for Hit-
ler, A for Arrogant, R for Rascal, I for
Idiot and S for Scoundrel, A for Ass_ _
_ e, etc)”. Hari is hit by a bus.
He dies and arrives at the gates
of Heaven and Hell. God and Satan
who are both in the welcoming
committee, greet him. Hari, who
has made people’s lives miserable
as a boss for years, feels he will end
up in Hell, He is shocked when the
welcoming-committee tells him,
“You have a One-Day-Trial-Offer in
each place before you choose your
permanent abode.”
Hari chooses Hell first. The doors
open and he steps into a beautiful
luxury resort. There are a variety of
music concerts happening. Everyone
is partying and having fun. Hari has
great fun and enjoys dancing and
Satan.
singing with everyone. Once his 24
hours are over, Satan escorts him to
the gate and bids him adieu.
Now it’s time to spend a day in
Heaven, where Hari meets all won-
derful, harmonious, peace-loving
people who enjoy gardening, soft
music, leisure, family time, learning
and knowledge-sharing and pleasant
conversations. Before Hari realises it,
the trial-period in Heaven is over and
God leads him out.
It’s Hari’s moment of choice and he
has to decide where to stay perma-
nently. Hari thinks for some time and
replies, “Well, I never thought I’d say
this, I mean, Heaven has been really
great, but I think I had a better time
in Hell.”
Satan is overjoyed, but God nudges
Hari to think again and reminds him
it’s a permanent decision now and it’s
a one-way entry. Hari is unyielding
about his choice, so Satan guides him
back to Hell and says, “Open-Sesame”.
The gates open and Hari steps in with
28 | BW BUSINESSWORLD | 13-26 April 2019
Now, Hari finds himself in a
forsaken, wasteland which is stink-
ing, miserable, hot with putrid smells
and sees everyone around, suffering
in misery and pain. The Devil puts
his arm around Hari, who stammers,
“I don’t understand. Yesterday I was
here and everyone
was partying. What
happened today?”
Satan leers at Hari
and says, “Yesterday
was the enticing
Great-Places-To-
Work recruitment-
process, now you’re
my employee and
I am your man-
ager. WELCOME TO
HELL!”
I further explained
to the gathering
of HR/OD heads,
“Technically NO-
PLACE can be great to work in!
Why? Simply because people join a
place but work for a MANAGER! If
you compare Great-Places-To-Work
ratings with employee-comments on
Glassdoor, it’s contradictory. When
we check the REAL REASONS for
leaving, as independent HR-OD
coaches-consultants, months after
they have left and settled in other jobs,
we are often told that they could not
cope with the unreasonable whims
and demands of managers. (Note: In
exit-interviews, conducted by HR-
Heads in the full-and-final settlement
days, most employees fudge the real-
reason, because they are fearful of not
being paid their salaries and dread
retribution from their managers/or-
ganisation).
Most people join an organisation
but work for a manager. Most manag-
ers have mindsets to “juice out” the
employee by efficiently micro-man-
aging them to get quarterly-annual
results. They do not focus on devel-
oping, empowering and listening to important. is not about some minor promotion
their DIRECT-REPORTEES. To use lMy associates or fellow employ- and salary hikes. Growth is about
my favourite metaphor: Managers ees are committed to doing quality helping people to learn and unleash
are busy squeezing employees like work. their true potential to become who
lemons to get the juice out. l I have a best friend at work. they can become. If organisations
Now hard-data-research shows lIn the last six months, someone help employees to learn and unleash-
mediocre-managers of this ilk create a at work has talked to me about my their-potential, then engagement,
toxic-work-culture. Research over the progress. innovation, inclusion, ownership, per-
years has proven that over 85 per cent lThis last year, I have had opportu- formance and happiness-quotient of
of people hate (notice the emotion – nities at work to learn and grow. employees shall rise and organisation-
not dislike – but hate) their jobs. This Pay attention to all the points in productivity will increase.
is the Gallup-study-2017. bold. Except for point 12 (besides Peter Drucker said, “culture eats
The number of global-employees points in bold) all other points are di- strategy for breakfast”. Great leaders
described by Gallup as “emotionally- rectly related to Managers who ignore transform toxic cultures by empower-
disconnected-disengaged from work- these actions. CEOs/ HR-OD-Heads/ ing, involving, listening, appreciating,
places” was only slightly better in 2017 Leadership committees of organisa- challenging, supporting, mentoring
(85 per cent) than four-years-ago (87 tions that have a workforce even as and coaching people potential. They
per cent). In 2013, Forbes magazine small as 500 people, cannot control/ value hard work, honesty, integrity,
reported that “work is more a source influence managers’ behaviours with commitment and create a collective
of frustration than team-vision rooted in
fulfilment for nearly 90 shared-values.
per cent of the world’s- Great leaders transform toxic cultures Rather than have
workers”. Research also by empowering, involving, listening, efficient managers,
suggests that over 95 appreciating, challenging, supporting, organisations should
per cent of people leave coach/mentor people
their manager, not mentoring and coaching people to be great-leaders who
organisations. potential. They value hard work, focus on unleashing-
To determine a honesty, integrity, commitment and human-potential. For
worker’s “engagement” this, organisations
level, Gallup asks par- create a collective team-vision should focus on mak-
ticipants to essentially ing workplaces “great
respond as “true” or “false” to the fol- their teammates. organisations @ learning -go@l,
lowing 12 statements: Truth be told, making an organi- where people learn and grow through
l I know what is expected of me at sation a Great-Place-To-Work in is continuous improvement and a
work in the vicious-circle-of-concern for culture-of-learning. This is what Peter
lI have the material and equipment I CEOs/ HR-OD-Heads/Leadership wrote in his book, The 5th Discipline.
need to do my work right. committees of Organisations. Toxic My talk/insights were appreciated
lAt work, I have the opportunity to culture makes people sick, stifles at the HR-OD conference in London.
do what I do best every day. potential, innovation and entrepre- This inspired me to work on creating
l In the last seven days, I have neur-mindset, make projects fail The-Go@L fellowship, ratings and
received recognition or praise for and makes people feel like miserable awards for the HR-OD community
doing good work. employees who choose to quit. in India. In alliance with the Learn-
l My supervisor, or someone at Toxic environments are created by ing & Development Global Network,
work, seems to care about me as a short-sighted managers and there is Tangram Research & Consulting, HR
person. no way an organisation can control networks and several HR-OD profes-
l There is someone at work who that. Today disengagement has a sionals from global organisations, we
encourages my development. high-cost (billions of dollars) of low- will be launching this annual-initia-
l At work, my opinions seem to trust for organisations globally. tive soon.
count. Organisations should focus on
l The mission or purpose of my point #12, which is directly in their The author is an inspirational ora-
company makes me feel my job is virtuous-circle-of-influence. Growth tor and missionary entrepreneur

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