ARTICLE V: “STRUCTURE AND PEOPLE IS A SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP…OR ELSE”

Structure and People is a Symbiotic Relationship…or Else
Kill Your Victim Program Before It Kills You, Your Company, Your Life!

This article will address business systems and people. Systems are agreements. A person’s participation in an agreement depends upon his/her integrity. Now, I say agreements because all systems, even as simple as the dinosaur time clock Fred Flinstone used, are only as functional as the people who use them. At quitting time, Fred knew to put his rock-slab time card in the mouth of the dinosaur to punch out. This was the agreement he made with his manager, and this is an expectation his manager, well, manages. See, if your system is off, your people will be off. If your people are off it does not matter how technically savvy or fine-tuned your system is; it simply will not work. What do you think would happen if Fred didn’t use the time clock? His manager (or the dinosaur) would understandably correct him, and realign his behavior to the agreement. Simple, right? Yet, this is the action many mangers and business owners fail to be accountable to: confronting a person whose behavior is out of alignment with an agreement, so that alignment is achieved to the benefit of both the individual and the organization.

If you have not created a symbiotic relationship between systems and people (one empowers the other), then your results will be upset, breakdown, and problems that sabotage your success. Is this how you choose to manage your business? I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, “no way, not me. Why would I sabotage my success, or the success of my business! That’s crazy”. Well, then I ask you this:

Do you struggle with driving performance?
Do you struggle with retaining quality people?
Do you struggle with hiring the right people? Or finding the right people?
Do you struggle with meetings that create no result or take too long to get started?
Do you struggle with creating or managing the sales process?
Do you resent your employees/employer?

As I have mentioned in previous articles, we are all Programmed to operate in a particular way, and that Programming is dictating our results. Here, I assert that your Programming is limiting your capacity to collaborate and manage. The cost is that your entire team has no capacity to yield the results needed to drive the organization to success. To learn more about Programming, I encourage you to read previous articles. To create a life and a business beyond the limitations of your Program, call me.

If you are driving for success in your life, then certainly you want to avoid behaviors and decisions that will limit or sabotage your success. Yet, out of your commitment to create business results, you will be working with people who are Programmed. In this collaboration, and you will also be dealing with your own Programming. You will either find a way to transform your Programming, or you will subconsciously choose to be victimized by said Programming. As stated earlier, this article introduces the possibility to transform the Programming of both self and others by building systems, or agreements, that empower people to be accountable for themselves. When you are truly accountable to your designed Self (and not your operating from your Programmed Self), then you are able to hold others accountable to their agreements. Collaboration yields success when both Self and Others are aligned to the goals of the organization through their own integrity. Integrity ensures the agreements will be met, the systems will run smoothly. What results could your organization create when every person in the organization was aligned, like the spokes on a wheel all pointing to the same goal? What happens then is your business moves forward to achieve and surpass its goals.

By now, you may be eager to unlock the concept of Programming, and learn how to destroy it. First, I will re-frame the concept of Programming as it was introduced in previous articles:

Within any argument there are two sides. For example, is it Nurture or Nature that drives our behavior? Is it the thought or the emotion that comes first? These are great arguments that look at what creates our behavior. Is it cognitive or is it behavioral? Or, in your case as a mangers: is it the systems or the people that make my business successful? Consider this simplified illustration of Cognitive (thinking) versus Behavioral (actions) Personalities:

-The behaviorist tends to look for the type of treatment outcomes that are objectively measurable. This is a structure that manages or measures results. For example, a behaviorist manager would expect an employee to make a certain number of calls per day, and then track the employee’s performance by how many calls were made.
-The cognitive personality targets thoughts that affect our emotions and behaviors. Thus, the cognitive manager addresses the person’s thoughts and feelings. For example, this type of manager asks employees “what were you thinking and feelings before you hung up the phone without achieving a sale?”.
Clearly, you can see the value for both personalities, hence we have Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT. CBT address the symbiotic relationship between our thoughts, emotions and associated behavior/results; whereas one cannot exist without the other. It’s like that argument you know so well: the chick or the egg? Yeah, we’re not going to waste time arguing for the chicken or the egg now. Instead, let’s get to some tools you can use.

Within the intention to drive peak performance we need to understand the balance between the result (which as sourced through systems/agreements and are thus behavioral) and the person (thoughts/feelings, and thus cognitive). Too much focus on the person’s feelings may mean nothing gets done, while too much focus on results may disempower the person’s drive to perform within the system. The symbiotic relationship between systems that manage results and people operating those systems is the goal that all organizations are striving to establish. This is the conversation that Transformational Business Dynamics (TBD) brings to business managers, so that managers can maintain a balance that optimizes success for the organization. As we look deeper into the conversation, it becomes clear that people are Programmed and that Programming is not in alignment with our goal. Therefore we have to create the type of system that empowers the person and thus, the Organization.

Consider the classic example of the Visionary CEO. The CEO may not have the capacity to create the day-to-day results that are critical components to yielding “big picture” results. It is the Technician who excels are creating day-to-day success, yet perhaps does not have access to a big picture, future-thinking vision. Each is programmed to operate in the way that they are Programmed to operate. There is nothing wrong with this Programming. In fact, they can collaborate to yield great success for any organization. However, the bigger issue that we tackle in TBD is how to build the type of culture that stimulates both types; how to manage individuals effectively so as to achieve an empowering work force/team.

Creating a system for managers to address a person’s Programming (a.k.a. limiting capacity to perform) will empower the person to grow and the Organization to reach its objectives. The key is communication that confronts a lack of integrity. We generate this distinction fully in TBD. I’ll introduce you to the concept here:

Being is Results

Commitment to Being (person) + Integrity Results (systems)
Through this above system and consequent conversations, the person gets to look at who they are in the matter of their results. For example, “According to results, I was being someone who was avoiding or too aggressive.” Out of making this distinction, the person can begin to distinguish a way of being/behaving that is empowering for him and the results he chooses to create. By integrating daily practices that have people look at ‘who they are’ along with the ‘results they create,’ they can expand their capacity to be who they choose to be. They get to own their results. “I own this result” is the type of commitment that drives purpose, passion and the opportunity to mastering Self.

The result of creating a symbiotic relationship between people and systems is a transformational corporate culture driving breakthrough performance. This is the journey that TBD promises, and here are the results as reported by Graduates of TBD:

Graduate Reports: I am out of integrity. I did not send you my results that have been created. I recommit to sending you those right now. Thank you Coach
Add 3-4 more graduate quotes and list name, city, state).

Transformational Business Dynamics aligns the “self” with empowering choices that transforms the organization. TBD shows how authenticity, accountability and radical honesty moves people through limiting programmatic reactions to create a way of being that causes results. TBD sees the Self as the whole; the Self is the source that transforms the corporation. To accelerate the success of your organization, contact Coach Pete.