Organisational Development – what is actually my Job?
It’s hard to find a profession in which people don't complain that there is less and less time for their “actual job” due to the many secondary tasks: constantly sitting in meetings, having discussions, filling out forms – just listening to them gives you an impression of what it feels like to be dying of suffocation.
Sometimes, however, there is a view of one's job that falls short. Something like a hermit’s version of the self-image: I draw the border of the social system at myself. But that doesn't work: people from different disciplines are not employed so that they all specialize autonomously and autistically. Then you end up with the Monthy Python discipline “hundred-meter dash for people without a sense of direction”. In organizations, this leads to constant frustration, individually and collectively, performance suffers, as does the general climate. Dead end.
The hermit’s self-image is based on a misconception. As if it were not part of the job to consider the networking with other jobs and to make a contribution to the whole. But it is.
As an alternative, I suggest that a “job” should basically be seen as something that consists of two parts: the core task on the one hand, and a part that is called “helping each other” on the other.
No matter how tedious a particular job may be: you are helping someone with it, you are creating value for someone (ideally you even know who) – perhaps even for the customer. And before all the doctors throw the Hippocratic oath to the wind and go for my throat: I'm not saying that the feeling of pointlessness of administrative tasks is always unfounded, I'm just saying it needs to be examined carefully. If an activity does not actually generate any reasonable added value, it should be deleted, period. But if it does, be happy and content: helping someone is a good thing.
I'm serious: with a change of perspective like this, the meaningfulness of some activities increases dramatically, not to mention the opportunity to develop a feeling of working together on something bigger.
I am often skeptical about the concept of “reframing” because it sometimes sounds as if it can be done in two seconds and everything is so easy. But with a serious focus on meaning, usefulness, added value, and goodwill towards colleagues, I believe that a reinterpretation could actually fundamentally change a lot of things.
Now, employees are not the only ones who make mistakes in their thinking. These are also made by line managers, just in a different way: they are clearly of the opinion that networking activities are part of the job. But they seem to believe that they don't require any time. Or they just pretend, which is difficult to distinguish from the outside. It's fatal in both cases: magical thinking among managers doesn't exactly inspire confidence in their powers of judgment, nor does denying reality. And it is obvious and perhaps even the smartest thing for employees to choose core activities rather than networking when they are short of time. You can't blame them for that.
A question for line managers: Do you organize resource planning in such a way that all time is already taken up with core tasks? Or do you not organize it at all and just shovel it in (magical thinking II: “it will work out somehow”)? Then I have to tell you that there's a good chance you'll drive the organization to the wall, and the people in it along with it, because nothing survives very long in wear-and-tear mode.
So, here’s the management summary: recognize that you are helping each other. Eliminate what doesn't help anyone. And plan in such a way that there remains time to help.
