Social Organism - as a form of effective team interaction. Part 2
Part 1 can be found by clicking on the link.
In this chapter, we start from the previously identified requirements for the functioning of a Social Organism, and design ways to implement them in the language of specific tasks, activities and actions. We will also determine the resources necessary for the practical achievement of our goals.
In fact, we will make an attempt to build a new social mechanism, by launching the course of which, we will reproduce a kind of new reality that allows us to immerse people in a new, comfortable World for them. It should be understood that when we generate the whole World, most likely, it changes something in ourselves.
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For convenience, let's go from the top down through the list of functions listed in section 6 of the previous chapter.
Exposure segment : Emotional MI p.
Expected result : reduction of the adaptation period of the new participant. Reducing the emotional load on him and the community, accelerating the receipt of positive results from him .
This function should first of all help the employee to feel that he didn’t just get to where he hadn’t been before, but to get exactly to the place where he just needed to be beforehand. At the same time, he should feel that he had been looking for him for a long time, yes, yes, he was looking for him, and finally he was found and everything immediately fell into place. But often a newcomer simply indicates his place and says: "Well, get to know here, if you have questions, ask your colleagues." At the same time, if in this group there exists a specially or spontaneously built Social Organism, then it is likely that he will pick up the recruit himself and perform the functions of adaptation. And if not, then the newcomer will have to get used to a new place for some time, experiencing discomfort, especially sensitive ones, and I can even fall into despair. Therefore, the more professionally this function is implemented in the community, the sooner the new employee will find his place in it, everything around him will acquire its meaning and he will begin to bring benefit and positive to the team.
I will describe a case from my practice. When I got into one big IT firm, in the first two days I wasn’t allowed to enter the territory where the rest of the staff worked. I just walked past them, looking from a distance at how people work and communicate. And I settled in the meeting room, in which I was visited by key employees responsible for different areas of activity: specialists in work with personnel, safety measures, quality management, and of course my new immediate supervisor. Everyone was very polite and courteous, there was a concern for me and the participation of all. I studied the regulations and standards of the organization, in which it was constantly emphasized that all these materials are unique and the company uses advanced technologies. Years later, I can analyze what effect, in my opinion, my employers wanted to achieve and formulate them in this article.
When a person enters a new team, it is desirable that he first, on an emotional level, plunge into the atmosphere of new and unusual sensations. He should not immediately drown in the whirlpool of information and emotions of new colleagues. On the contrary - it is necessary to create an environment where he himself will have to listen to the surrounding sounds (or silence), look into the new world around him, as if through a door crack. And behind this “door” for him there must be a very interesting and mysterious world, which does not frighten with its novelty, but intrigues. Perhaps he will try to imagine himself from this side in this situation and select for himself the optimal style of behavior in the team. These first impressions will remain in the mind for a long time and help at the initial stage not to notice the negative aspects that exist in almost any organization.
In order to implement this strategy in practice, it is necessary to introduce in the organization a regulation describing the rules for the presence of new employees in the first days at work. But this regulation should not just make the novice idle during the adaptation period. It is necessary to select a number of activities that will allow him, on the one hand, to familiarize himself with the documents governing the organization’s livelihoods, and, on the other hand, to observe how this life activity proceeds from the outside.
In this case, the function of the Social Organism will be supported by the administrative and management functions of the Organization.
Impact segment : Rational and Emotional world .
Expected result : reduction of the negative impact of the fact that a member has left the community. Support for functions previously performed by the retired participant, reducing the emotional load on the community .
As each participant, in this concept, becomes a part of the Social Organism, the organism must feel its loss. The greater the role assigned to the participant in the community, the more noticeable the resulting void will be. In order to minimize this influence, it is necessary to have a complete picture of the responsibilities that the retired person performed in the Social Organization and ensure their redistribution among the remaining participants. Sometimes it happens that the “orphaned” functions were so specifically tailored to a specific person that it is easier to define new areas of responsibility, replacing the old ones, allowing them to somehow “catch” them in the community. But for the privileges remaining out of work, you can not worry - most often they, without any problems, will be redistributed themselves.
Once again I want to emphasize that we are talking about the roles and functions of the Social Organism, and not the workforce of the Organization. It can be: “Organizer of birthdays and informal team building”, “Not indifferent to the mental state of colleagues”, “Defender of unfairly offended”, “Social controller”, etc. Therefore, when a participant leaves the group, it is impossible to order someone to perform his informal duties. Such functions most often take on the leaders (and where do without them). In this regard, the team must have a sufficient number of people able to take on new responsibilities and having the ability and desire to fulfill them. Otherwise, the architect of the Social Organism will have to load the “ownerless” responsibility on itself, sacrificing its main activity.
That is why taking new employees to the team, you must pay special attention not only to their professional qualities, but also to social activity. It is not very often possible to meet people combining in themselves both these qualities at the same time. Sometimes it is necessary, in favor of supporting a healthy lifestyle of a Social Organism, to sacrifice the quality of the training of a new employee, observing of course a reasonable compromise. That is, it is necessary to be aware of the real total value of a person for the organization. But by a strange coincidence, most often this value can be realized only when he leaves.
There was an illustrative example in my life when one of the employees who did not hold a high position and received frequent criticism of the quality of their work was nonetheless an informal instigator, the soul of the company. Thanks to him, the department reigned in a light, relaxed atmosphere, the staff joked, shared their impressions of the events that raged outside of work. At the same time, it cannot be said that the rest of the colleagues were simply passive observers, everyone tried to add their positive to the general mood. And when this employee was dismissed, the mental background of communication faded, the team members gradually closed in themselves and the work turned into ordinary gray everyday life. Over time, some of the employees moved to other departments, and some even left the organization. The team collapsed, and with it the working competence of the organization was partially lost.
Another important point to which you should pay attention is the stabilization of the psychological climate in the team, exposed to stress in a similar situation. The most positive emotions in this case will be the support of the decision of the “traitor” and respect for his desire to change his life, moving towards something new. But this should not look like encouragement or envy. Leaving friends is always more profitable.
Impact segment : Political world .
Expected result : the participants support and understand the community agreements on norms and forms of behavior, as well as views on fundamental values. The expected behavior of participants consistent with the interests of the community .
This is probably one of the key functions of a Social Organism, allowing it to exist. In one of the theoretical approaches to the formation of communities (the theory of exchange) [6] important conditions for the formation of groups are such conditions as: 1) Spatial proximity, 2) Interaction and 3) General installations. This section concerns the last point.
When it is required to organize the interaction of several people or groups of people within the framework of some kind of relations: production, contractual and even family relations, it is very useful to conclude a contract between the parties that will regulate these relations. Examples of such contracts may be: Labor Contract, Cooperation Agreement, Marriage Contract, etc.
Similarly, in order to build healthy relationships and qualitative interaction in the Social Organization, it is necessary to reach an agreement between its participants regarding goals, norms and forms of behavior, as well as views on fundamental values.
The presence in the community of Agreements on corporate ethics establishes unwritten rules of conduct for its members, and most importantly, they prompt the participants what is expected of them in various situations. This allows you to eliminate uncertainty, avoid conflicts and maintain an atmosphere of mutual understanding in the team. Compliance with these Agreements also helps community members adequately represent it in other social groups and organizations.
Therefore, if you really set out to create a well-coordinated, productive team, you need to pay special attention to the formation and inculcation in it of a common corporate code (contract).
Agreements may specify:
When certain behavioral patterns (manners) are actively promoted in the community, they gradually become a habit for the majority of participants. This is especially noticeable if such manners are held by members of the community who enjoy authority. Models of behavior beyond the scope of the Agreement, respectively, should be stopped. Therefore, for the proper implementation of the Agreement, it can be specified sanctions for non-compliance, up to exclusion from the community.
In fact, this function of the Social Organism is associated with the adjustment of social filters that suppress the undesirable representations of the community and exacerbate the desirable ones. In other words, the significance of the phenomena or the presence of features that negatively characterize the community itself or its interests can be diminished and hidden, while those beneficial to the community are exaggerated and put on display. Gradually, under the influence of such policies, values ​​promoted in the community will become true for its members.
I will give examples of using and ignoring this function. In one company in which I worked, the management decided to increase the working hours for managers from 8 to 9 and 10 hours, respectively, depending on the level of the position of the employee. This innovation was introduced without explanation of the reasons and various measures of motivation. It was simply that top management thought for themselves that they pay a lot of employees and therefore want to get great production results. Naturally, the result of this has not improved, but on the contrary: people began to get sick more, leave, work at their own personal affairs at work. The opposite example is when people in IT firms work on interesting projects after hours, including at night, in order to have time to deliver the result and not let down their team, team of partners and meet customer expectations. In this industry, this has become the norm: “Well, it’s still working around it!”.
To implement this function in the Social Organization, a Code of Corporate Ethics may be developed, the procedure for familiarizing participants with which is entrusted to the personnel service of the organization. Virtual or real community discussion platforms can also be used, in which moderators who follow communication policies participate. In this case, the function of the Social Organism will be supported by the administrative and management functions of the Organization.
Impact segment : Political and Emotional world .
Expected result : the generation of constructive, timely proposals to improve community life. Getting feedback on the functioning of the social organism .
Since everything around is constantly and dynamically changing, it is obvious that the Social Organism, in response to changes in the environment, must also change, if only to look constant. Consequently, someone must constantly monitor the situation around, evaluate the current “dislocation” of the Social Organism in the outside world and suggest ways to react to the events taking place.
Changes of different nature and orientation, most often, are perceived by different participants differently, respectively, accents and priorities are set differently. Therefore, the more opinions the participants take into account, the greater the effect can be achieved.
The best way to achieve a prompt and effective community response to changes occurring both inside and outside of it is to make the Social Body itself worry about change. That is, community members should be interested in constantly tracking “changing scenery”, which from their point of view, in one way or another, affect its livelihoods and respond promptly to innovations. How can this effect be achieved?
In the Heckmann and Oldham motivation model [7], important attention is paid to such characteristics as: “A sense of importance” and “A sense of responsibility”. If a person understands that his suggestions can improve the life of the whole community and will also be appreciated, he begins to feel the importance of his work (satisfies the need for recognition). And this in turn stimulates him to continue to take a proactive position and take responsibility. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly convey to the participants in the Social Organism the position of their involvement in the life and fate of the community, and even more importantly - to awaken responsibility for it, and its development.
On the other hand, participants should be clearly aware that the deterioration of the life processes of the social organism will also negatively affect their personal well-being.
It is good when, when performing this function between members of the community, a spark of rivalry slips.
As an example of stimulating this process in the Social organism, the following actions can be distinguished:
Many methodologies that use teamwork in IT projects use the practice of holding regular working meetings, at which all project participants discuss the composition of work planned for the near future, as well as how to implement them. In addition to the purely practical purpose of these meetings, they have a very large ideological component, which allows you to use all the above incentives.
In turn, changes in the Social Organism must become the engine of change in the Organization in which it functions.
If you read this article carefully enough, you may have noticed that the function in question sounds like a “discussion of changes”, and not just “making changes”. Why is it important? If you proclaim that any participant or group of participants can make changes to the rules of the social organism, then the stability of the political role of the community architect can be undermined. Therefore, it is important to maintain a balance: on the one hand, participants should feel their influence on the processes of community change, and on the other hand, its creator should not lose control.
Impact segment : Rational and Emotional world .
Expected result : the achievement of the maximum quality of cooperation in the community, contributing to the natural redistribution of areas of responsibility between its members .
Another useful function of the Social Organism is the redistribution of areas of responsibility between the participants. It is one of the ways to self-regulate the effectiveness of its existence.
If a community is organized in such a way that its members perceive the Social Organism as alive, and its livelihood is a single creative process for them, then a cooperative relationship inevitably arises in the team based on trust. For example, when one of the participants fails to cope with his duties due to the forced absence or complexity of tasks, or a large amount of activities, one of the colleagues takes on his duties and responsibilities, substituting his shoulder. The rational component of the relationship in this case fades into the background. With such cooperation, there may be a redistribution of responsibilities: the one who gets something better when replacing, continues to perform this function further. Thus, by natural selection, the most effective options for the distribution of responsibilities are sought.
But harmonious interaction between all members of the community can only be achieved if they recognize each other psychologically - as part of a unified Social Organism. It is this task that the architect of the Social Organism faces as fundamental.
Since in real life complete harmony often does not exist, one should take into account different gradations of the level of interaction in a team, depending on the participants' perception of each other. Below they are listed in decreasing order of quality:
Accordingly, the higher in the Social Organization, the level of cooperation between the participants, the greater the chances of achieving high-quality performance of the function in question.
To improve the quality of interaction between participants in a Social Organism, it is possible, for example, to promote the use of the universal rule of mutual exchange in a team [8]. This is a fairly common concept in psychology. Its essence lies in the need to call a colleague a sense of duty. For example, giving him some gift or performing some kind of service. The response takes place at an unconscious level. That is, if someone from the community brought, for example, livers and offered them to everyone, more often the next time someone else will treat everyone with something else. And this in turn will cause a sense of duty (in the good sense of the word) and rally the team at a subconscious level.
Impact segment : Rational world .
Expected result : increased responsibility and interest of participants for obtaining the best result by all members of the community .
This function is no longer aimed at maintaining the Social Organism itself, but at enhancing the effectiveness of the Organization within which it operates. Its essence is that the participants are interested not only in the performance of their own duties, but also in the qualitative performance of their duties by their colleagues.
In the organization itself, this function can be achieved by introducing the practice of collective responsibility for the result. For example, by encouraging all employees, only if the total result of joint activities is achieved.Or the punishment of the whole team in the event of an error of one of its members. But such effects rather do not unite colleagues, and make them quietly hate each other. We, we will remind, consider the Social Organism, and in it methods, obviously, should differ.
In order to increase the value of joint activities for each participant in the community, it is necessary to create an atmosphere as favorable as possible for the manifestation of mutual assistance and empathy for the common result. And the greater the role of the Social Organism in the life of each participant, the easier it is to find a motivation for this, moreover, different from the banal monetary reward.
The theory [7] advises as measures of influence on the participants, to maintain this function in the group, to use the following directions:
In communities for the realization of this function, the use of rituals is often actively practiced. In this context, I am not talking about religious rituals, but about certain collective rituals that contribute to raising the emotional mood of the collective. For example: if tasks are successfully completed, all members of the community clap each other and praise themselves. Such cults go back to primitive society and hide the ambivalence of the phenomenon: “Symbol and ritual are at the top, and in the depth, irrational and unconscious”, see [9]. But the use of such methods strongly depends on the mentality and level of rational intelligence of community members. Personally, watching such phenomena, I recall a scene from the movie “Nameless Star”, in which high school students repeat in chorus like a mantra: “To schoolgirls of younger and especially high schools,it is strictly forbidden to appear at the station in the afternoon or evening, but especially during the hours when the diesel electric train passes Bucharest - Sinai .. "
In practice, as an example of ways to stimulate group responsibility for the result, we can advise:
All these activities in one way or another are aimed at team building.
In fairness, it should be noted that, in terms of the concept of cohesion, it is necessary to take into account not only the advantages, but also the disadvantages of this phenomenon. The biggest positive effect is that the most cohesive teams, as a rule, are the most effective. Also, as a positive point, one should highlight the high adaptability of such a community to survival, predictable behavior, reduction of interpersonal problems. The negative sides can be considered: reduced controllability from the point of view of management and reduced competition within the team. And the main factor orchestrating positive and negative impact is the influence of the leader (s) in this community. Thus, on the one hand, a cohesive community can ease the burden on the manager, taking on part of his duties and responsibilities,smooth out his lack of certain competencies and capabilities. But on the other hand, it can deprive it of its levers of influence and control over the processes taking place in the Social Organization. In this case, the community architect can simply become a passive observer.
Impact segment : Emotional world .
Expected result : a decrease in the level of conflict in the team, increasing healthy competition .
Conflicts that arise in the social environment are often associated with the participants' dissatisfaction or the mismatch of their expectations - the realities of harsh reality [10]. In order to develop strategies to counter these phenomena, it is necessary to clearly understand the reasons that influence their occurrence. Most often, dissatisfaction can be caused by an imbalance in:
The most effective way to resolve conflicts, as you know, is to prevent them at the stage of generation. Therefore, the Social Organism, as well as possible, is suitable for the role of an information platform - a horn, for identifying negative moods and problems of participants. This allows you to localize the possible causes of conflict in the early stages and in time to stop them. And the function “3. Report to all participants of the Social Organism - the relevant rules ”, considered above, should in this case play the role of arbitrator in resolving disputes.
For example, consider the situation when an attempt to defend their opinion by a community member may turn into a protracted dispute and further into a conflict. In my practice, there was a case when the usual discussions of working moments between two colleagues turned into very heated debates, shouts, nerves, and almost to “hand-to-hand” each time. At the same time, they were friends and the rest of the time, when they did not argue, they got along well with each other. This situation did not arise in one day, a month or even a year. This was born gradually and began with absolutely constructive discussions, and it came to the conclusion that people from neighboring departments ran together to separate the debaters. Gradually, it became a habit and became commonplace. Therefore, in order to prevent such situations, it is desirable to formulate in the collective a standard of behavior (tradition) of participation in discussions and discussions,as well as promote methods of civilized communication.
Consequently, if for making a decision on eliminating the causes of a conflict, the rules and standards that are not sufficiently established in the Social Organization, then the function “4. Encouraging participants to discuss changes in the rules of the functioning of a social organism. ” Community members must work together to develop additional rules and standards that will help resolve conflicts and avoid the occurrence of such conflicts in the future.
In this way, the social organism can self-regulate and supplement or change the code of rules and standards.
But it is worth remembering that in such a self-regulating community there may be stagnation and a decrease in external competitiveness, especially at the developmental stage of the organization - “Aristocraticism” according to I. Adizes [4]. In this case, healthy conflicts can revive competition in the Social Organism and contribute to its development.
Impact segment : Rational and Emotional world .
Expected result : an increase in the residence time of participants in the community, improvement of their emotional state .
First of all, it is necessary to determine the motives that can make the participants' stay in the Social Organization quite attractive for them. In most cases, the arguments of different participants will be the same. The only difference will be an assessment of their priorities and degree of influence.
Since we are focusing on the social and ethical aspects of the community, we exclude monetary consideration from consideration. From what we have already discussed in the previous sections, we can distinguish:
All these preferences are purely personal, and therefore it is necessary to determine the most optimal set of motivations for the team as a whole, the development of which should be given special attention. By regulating this set, one can control the development of the community, attracting potentially useful participants to it or reducing its attractiveness to undesirable ones.
If we reject demagogy and look at this topic from a practical point of view, then it can be stated that attractiveness for a person is mostly an illusion. And often a person gets more satisfaction from illusions than from things that have a purely practical value for him. Given the above, as measures of motivation can be identified such as such actions as:
And even if one is not completely biased, it should be noted that one gradually gets used to comfort, privileges and even attention. And over time, it stops working as before, it no longer serves as an important incentive for it. And to rethink again the priorities of his motivation, a person can only after he loses this comfort. Such is the nature of man. In practice, this “disease” is treated by shaking. In order not to bring it to relapse, it is necessary to periodically tone up team members, for example, additional difficulties.
The final part of the article can be found here.
[1] . , . , 2014.
[2] . . , , : , , 2012.
[3] . , , , 3- ., , 2012.
[4] . , , : , , 2014.
[5] . , , : , 2011.
[6] . , , : -, 2002.
[7] . .X., : , , 2009.
[8] . , , , 2016.
[9] . , , : . , 2012.
[10] V. V. Ponomarenko, Conflict Management, Olympus, 2008.
[11] G. Simmel, Selected. Problems of Sociology, Moscow; St. Petersburg: University Book, Center for Humanitarian Initiatives, 2015.
III Mechanisms of building a social organism
Take the blue pill - and the tale is over.
You will wake up in your bed and believe that it was a dream.
Take the red pill and enter the wonderland.
I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole is.
Morpheus (Film "The Matrix")
In this chapter, we start from the previously identified requirements for the functioning of a Social Organism, and design ways to implement them in the language of specific tasks, activities and actions. We will also determine the resources necessary for the practical achievement of our goals.
In fact, we will make an attempt to build a new social mechanism, by launching the course of which, we will reproduce a kind of new reality that allows us to immerse people in a new, comfortable World for them. It should be understood that when we generate the whole World, most likely, it changes something in ourselves.
')
For convenience, let's go from the top down through the list of functions listed in section 6 of the previous chapter.
1. Adaptation of new participants to the habitat.
Exposure segment : Emotional MI p.
Expected result : reduction of the adaptation period of the new participant. Reducing the emotional load on him and the community, accelerating the receipt of positive results from him .
This function should first of all help the employee to feel that he didn’t just get to where he hadn’t been before, but to get exactly to the place where he just needed to be beforehand. At the same time, he should feel that he had been looking for him for a long time, yes, yes, he was looking for him, and finally he was found and everything immediately fell into place. But often a newcomer simply indicates his place and says: "Well, get to know here, if you have questions, ask your colleagues." At the same time, if in this group there exists a specially or spontaneously built Social Organism, then it is likely that he will pick up the recruit himself and perform the functions of adaptation. And if not, then the newcomer will have to get used to a new place for some time, experiencing discomfort, especially sensitive ones, and I can even fall into despair. Therefore, the more professionally this function is implemented in the community, the sooner the new employee will find his place in it, everything around him will acquire its meaning and he will begin to bring benefit and positive to the team.
I will describe a case from my practice. When I got into one big IT firm, in the first two days I wasn’t allowed to enter the territory where the rest of the staff worked. I just walked past them, looking from a distance at how people work and communicate. And I settled in the meeting room, in which I was visited by key employees responsible for different areas of activity: specialists in work with personnel, safety measures, quality management, and of course my new immediate supervisor. Everyone was very polite and courteous, there was a concern for me and the participation of all. I studied the regulations and standards of the organization, in which it was constantly emphasized that all these materials are unique and the company uses advanced technologies. Years later, I can analyze what effect, in my opinion, my employers wanted to achieve and formulate them in this article.
When a person enters a new team, it is desirable that he first, on an emotional level, plunge into the atmosphere of new and unusual sensations. He should not immediately drown in the whirlpool of information and emotions of new colleagues. On the contrary - it is necessary to create an environment where he himself will have to listen to the surrounding sounds (or silence), look into the new world around him, as if through a door crack. And behind this “door” for him there must be a very interesting and mysterious world, which does not frighten with its novelty, but intrigues. Perhaps he will try to imagine himself from this side in this situation and select for himself the optimal style of behavior in the team. These first impressions will remain in the mind for a long time and help at the initial stage not to notice the negative aspects that exist in almost any organization.
In order to implement this strategy in practice, it is necessary to introduce in the organization a regulation describing the rules for the presence of new employees in the first days at work. But this regulation should not just make the novice idle during the adaptation period. It is necessary to select a number of activities that will allow him, on the one hand, to familiarize himself with the documents governing the organization’s livelihoods, and, on the other hand, to observe how this life activity proceeds from the outside.
In this case, the function of the Social Organism will be supported by the administrative and management functions of the Organization.
2. Reducing the Stress of a Social Organism when a participant leaves
Impact segment : Rational and Emotional world .
Expected result : reduction of the negative impact of the fact that a member has left the community. Support for functions previously performed by the retired participant, reducing the emotional load on the community .
As each participant, in this concept, becomes a part of the Social Organism, the organism must feel its loss. The greater the role assigned to the participant in the community, the more noticeable the resulting void will be. In order to minimize this influence, it is necessary to have a complete picture of the responsibilities that the retired person performed in the Social Organization and ensure their redistribution among the remaining participants. Sometimes it happens that the “orphaned” functions were so specifically tailored to a specific person that it is easier to define new areas of responsibility, replacing the old ones, allowing them to somehow “catch” them in the community. But for the privileges remaining out of work, you can not worry - most often they, without any problems, will be redistributed themselves.
Once again I want to emphasize that we are talking about the roles and functions of the Social Organism, and not the workforce of the Organization. It can be: “Organizer of birthdays and informal team building”, “Not indifferent to the mental state of colleagues”, “Defender of unfairly offended”, “Social controller”, etc. Therefore, when a participant leaves the group, it is impossible to order someone to perform his informal duties. Such functions most often take on the leaders (and where do without them). In this regard, the team must have a sufficient number of people able to take on new responsibilities and having the ability and desire to fulfill them. Otherwise, the architect of the Social Organism will have to load the “ownerless” responsibility on itself, sacrificing its main activity.
That is why taking new employees to the team, you must pay special attention not only to their professional qualities, but also to social activity. It is not very often possible to meet people combining in themselves both these qualities at the same time. Sometimes it is necessary, in favor of supporting a healthy lifestyle of a Social Organism, to sacrifice the quality of the training of a new employee, observing of course a reasonable compromise. That is, it is necessary to be aware of the real total value of a person for the organization. But by a strange coincidence, most often this value can be realized only when he leaves.
There was an illustrative example in my life when one of the employees who did not hold a high position and received frequent criticism of the quality of their work was nonetheless an informal instigator, the soul of the company. Thanks to him, the department reigned in a light, relaxed atmosphere, the staff joked, shared their impressions of the events that raged outside of work. At the same time, it cannot be said that the rest of the colleagues were simply passive observers, everyone tried to add their positive to the general mood. And when this employee was dismissed, the mental background of communication faded, the team members gradually closed in themselves and the work turned into ordinary gray everyday life. Over time, some of the employees moved to other departments, and some even left the organization. The team collapsed, and with it the working competence of the organization was partially lost.
Another important point to which you should pay attention is the stabilization of the psychological climate in the team, exposed to stress in a similar situation. The most positive emotions in this case will be the support of the decision of the “traitor” and respect for his desire to change his life, moving towards something new. But this should not look like encouragement or envy. Leaving friends is always more profitable.
3. Report to all participants of the Social Organism - current rules, standards and conditions for its functioning
Impact segment : Political world .
Expected result : the participants support and understand the community agreements on norms and forms of behavior, as well as views on fundamental values. The expected behavior of participants consistent with the interests of the community .
This is probably one of the key functions of a Social Organism, allowing it to exist. In one of the theoretical approaches to the formation of communities (the theory of exchange) [6] important conditions for the formation of groups are such conditions as: 1) Spatial proximity, 2) Interaction and 3) General installations. This section concerns the last point.
When it is required to organize the interaction of several people or groups of people within the framework of some kind of relations: production, contractual and even family relations, it is very useful to conclude a contract between the parties that will regulate these relations. Examples of such contracts may be: Labor Contract, Cooperation Agreement, Marriage Contract, etc.
Similarly, in order to build healthy relationships and qualitative interaction in the Social Organization, it is necessary to reach an agreement between its participants regarding goals, norms and forms of behavior, as well as views on fundamental values.
The presence in the community of Agreements on corporate ethics establishes unwritten rules of conduct for its members, and most importantly, they prompt the participants what is expected of them in various situations. This allows you to eliminate uncertainty, avoid conflicts and maintain an atmosphere of mutual understanding in the team. Compliance with these Agreements also helps community members adequately represent it in other social groups and organizations.
Therefore, if you really set out to create a well-coordinated, productive team, you need to pay special attention to the formation and inculcation in it of a common corporate code (contract).
Agreements may specify:
- Standards of conduct - a set of behaviors recommended to community members in different situations. (Sector of the Rational World);
- Social values ​​- reference ideas approved by the majority: good, justice, patriotism, etc. (Sector of the Emotional World);
- Principles are particularly important unshakable beliefs that define the specific boundaries established for the community. (Sector of the Political World);
When certain behavioral patterns (manners) are actively promoted in the community, they gradually become a habit for the majority of participants. This is especially noticeable if such manners are held by members of the community who enjoy authority. Models of behavior beyond the scope of the Agreement, respectively, should be stopped. Therefore, for the proper implementation of the Agreement, it can be specified sanctions for non-compliance, up to exclusion from the community.
In fact, this function of the Social Organism is associated with the adjustment of social filters that suppress the undesirable representations of the community and exacerbate the desirable ones. In other words, the significance of the phenomena or the presence of features that negatively characterize the community itself or its interests can be diminished and hidden, while those beneficial to the community are exaggerated and put on display. Gradually, under the influence of such policies, values ​​promoted in the community will become true for its members.
I will give examples of using and ignoring this function. In one company in which I worked, the management decided to increase the working hours for managers from 8 to 9 and 10 hours, respectively, depending on the level of the position of the employee. This innovation was introduced without explanation of the reasons and various measures of motivation. It was simply that top management thought for themselves that they pay a lot of employees and therefore want to get great production results. Naturally, the result of this has not improved, but on the contrary: people began to get sick more, leave, work at their own personal affairs at work. The opposite example is when people in IT firms work on interesting projects after hours, including at night, in order to have time to deliver the result and not let down their team, team of partners and meet customer expectations. In this industry, this has become the norm: “Well, it’s still working around it!”.
To implement this function in the Social Organization, a Code of Corporate Ethics may be developed, the procedure for familiarizing participants with which is entrusted to the personnel service of the organization. Virtual or real community discussion platforms can also be used, in which moderators who follow communication policies participate. In this case, the function of the Social Organism will be supported by the administrative and management functions of the Organization.
4. Encouraging participants to discuss changes in the rules for the functioning of a Social Organism that help it develop
Impact segment : Political and Emotional world .
Expected result : the generation of constructive, timely proposals to improve community life. Getting feedback on the functioning of the social organism .
Since everything around is constantly and dynamically changing, it is obvious that the Social Organism, in response to changes in the environment, must also change, if only to look constant. Consequently, someone must constantly monitor the situation around, evaluate the current “dislocation” of the Social Organism in the outside world and suggest ways to react to the events taking place.
Changes of different nature and orientation, most often, are perceived by different participants differently, respectively, accents and priorities are set differently. Therefore, the more opinions the participants take into account, the greater the effect can be achieved.
The best way to achieve a prompt and effective community response to changes occurring both inside and outside of it is to make the Social Body itself worry about change. That is, community members should be interested in constantly tracking “changing scenery”, which from their point of view, in one way or another, affect its livelihoods and respond promptly to innovations. How can this effect be achieved?
In the Heckmann and Oldham motivation model [7], important attention is paid to such characteristics as: “A sense of importance” and “A sense of responsibility”. If a person understands that his suggestions can improve the life of the whole community and will also be appreciated, he begins to feel the importance of his work (satisfies the need for recognition). And this in turn stimulates him to continue to take a proactive position and take responsibility. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly convey to the participants in the Social Organism the position of their involvement in the life and fate of the community, and even more importantly - to awaken responsibility for it, and its development.
On the other hand, participants should be clearly aware that the deterioration of the life processes of the social organism will also negatively affect their personal well-being.
It is good when, when performing this function between members of the community, a spark of rivalry slips.
As an example of stimulating this process in the Social organism, the following actions can be distinguished:
- The inclusion of participants in decision-making processes (even if everything has already been decided);
- Organization of joint discussions of problems and achievements of the community;
- Organization of discussions on the future of the community and its members;
- Informing the participants about everything happening in the community in order to make them feel that they are somehow involved in the processes taking place in it;
Many methodologies that use teamwork in IT projects use the practice of holding regular working meetings, at which all project participants discuss the composition of work planned for the near future, as well as how to implement them. In addition to the purely practical purpose of these meetings, they have a very large ideological component, which allows you to use all the above incentives.
In turn, changes in the Social Organism must become the engine of change in the Organization in which it functions.
If you read this article carefully enough, you may have noticed that the function in question sounds like a “discussion of changes”, and not just “making changes”. Why is it important? If you proclaim that any participant or group of participants can make changes to the rules of the social organism, then the stability of the political role of the community architect can be undermined. Therefore, it is important to maintain a balance: on the one hand, participants should feel their influence on the processes of community change, and on the other hand, its creator should not lose control.
5. Redistribution of areas of responsibility between the participants to increase the potential of the community.
Impact segment : Rational and Emotional world .
Expected result : the achievement of the maximum quality of cooperation in the community, contributing to the natural redistribution of areas of responsibility between its members .
Another useful function of the Social Organism is the redistribution of areas of responsibility between the participants. It is one of the ways to self-regulate the effectiveness of its existence.
If a community is organized in such a way that its members perceive the Social Organism as alive, and its livelihood is a single creative process for them, then a cooperative relationship inevitably arises in the team based on trust. For example, when one of the participants fails to cope with his duties due to the forced absence or complexity of tasks, or a large amount of activities, one of the colleagues takes on his duties and responsibilities, substituting his shoulder. The rational component of the relationship in this case fades into the background. With such cooperation, there may be a redistribution of responsibilities: the one who gets something better when replacing, continues to perform this function further. Thus, by natural selection, the most effective options for the distribution of responsibilities are sought.
But harmonious interaction between all members of the community can only be achieved if they recognize each other psychologically - as part of a unified Social Organism. It is this task that the architect of the Social Organism faces as fundamental.
Since in real life complete harmony often does not exist, one should take into account different gradations of the level of interaction in a team, depending on the participants' perception of each other. Below they are listed in decreasing order of quality:
- “Friendly cooperation”, mutual aid based on complete trust;
- “Friendly rivalry” in certain areas within the framework of positive interaction;
- “Formal cooperation” with de facto neutrality;
- “Rivalry in the framework of formal cooperation” with mutual distrust;
- “Rivalry with a negative attitude towards each other” in the framework of common activities and mutual dependence (cooperation of antagonists);
- “Targeting individual goals” even when working together;
Accordingly, the higher in the Social Organization, the level of cooperation between the participants, the greater the chances of achieving high-quality performance of the function in question.
To improve the quality of interaction between participants in a Social Organism, it is possible, for example, to promote the use of the universal rule of mutual exchange in a team [8]. This is a fairly common concept in psychology. Its essence lies in the need to call a colleague a sense of duty. For example, giving him some gift or performing some kind of service. The response takes place at an unconscious level. That is, if someone from the community brought, for example, livers and offered them to everyone, more often the next time someone else will treat everyone with something else. And this in turn will cause a sense of duty (in the good sense of the word) and rally the team at a subconscious level.
6. Ensuring the interest of all participants of the Social Organism in obtaining the best result from joint activities.
Impact segment : Rational world .
Expected result : increased responsibility and interest of participants for obtaining the best result by all members of the community .
This function is no longer aimed at maintaining the Social Organism itself, but at enhancing the effectiveness of the Organization within which it operates. Its essence is that the participants are interested not only in the performance of their own duties, but also in the qualitative performance of their duties by their colleagues.
In the organization itself, this function can be achieved by introducing the practice of collective responsibility for the result. For example, by encouraging all employees, only if the total result of joint activities is achieved.Or the punishment of the whole team in the event of an error of one of its members. But such effects rather do not unite colleagues, and make them quietly hate each other. We, we will remind, consider the Social Organism, and in it methods, obviously, should differ.
In order to increase the value of joint activities for each participant in the community, it is necessary to create an atmosphere as favorable as possible for the manifestation of mutual assistance and empathy for the common result. And the greater the role of the Social Organism in the life of each participant, the easier it is to find a motivation for this, moreover, different from the banal monetary reward.
The theory [7] advises as measures of influence on the participants, to maintain this function in the group, to use the following directions:
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In communities for the realization of this function, the use of rituals is often actively practiced. In this context, I am not talking about religious rituals, but about certain collective rituals that contribute to raising the emotional mood of the collective. For example: if tasks are successfully completed, all members of the community clap each other and praise themselves. Such cults go back to primitive society and hide the ambivalence of the phenomenon: “Symbol and ritual are at the top, and in the depth, irrational and unconscious”, see [9]. But the use of such methods strongly depends on the mentality and level of rational intelligence of community members. Personally, watching such phenomena, I recall a scene from the movie “Nameless Star”, in which high school students repeat in chorus like a mantra: “To schoolgirls of younger and especially high schools,it is strictly forbidden to appear at the station in the afternoon or evening, but especially during the hours when the diesel electric train passes Bucharest - Sinai .. "
In practice, as an example of ways to stimulate group responsibility for the result, we can advise:
- Organize co-education, and use mentoring practices.
- Publicly praise the participants for their contribution to the community;
- Organize joint discussions of relationships between members in the community;
- Use the “Storefronts of Success” (“Hall of Fame”) to mark the participants who are most active in achieving the common goals of the community;
- Conduct informal team building.
All these activities in one way or another are aimed at team building.
In fairness, it should be noted that, in terms of the concept of cohesion, it is necessary to take into account not only the advantages, but also the disadvantages of this phenomenon. The biggest positive effect is that the most cohesive teams, as a rule, are the most effective. Also, as a positive point, one should highlight the high adaptability of such a community to survival, predictable behavior, reduction of interpersonal problems. The negative sides can be considered: reduced controllability from the point of view of management and reduced competition within the team. And the main factor orchestrating positive and negative impact is the influence of the leader (s) in this community. Thus, on the one hand, a cohesive community can ease the burden on the manager, taking on part of his duties and responsibilities,smooth out his lack of certain competencies and capabilities. But on the other hand, it can deprive it of its levers of influence and control over the processes taking place in the Social Organization. In this case, the community architect can simply become a passive observer.
7. Suppression of conflicts in the environment, support for healthy competition
Impact segment : Emotional world .
Expected result : a decrease in the level of conflict in the team, increasing healthy competition .
Conflicts that arise in the social environment are often associated with the participants' dissatisfaction or the mismatch of their expectations - the realities of harsh reality [10]. In order to develop strategies to counter these phenomena, it is necessary to clearly understand the reasons that influence their occurrence. Most often, dissatisfaction can be caused by an imbalance in:
- Physical needs (poor workplace equipment, poor material remuneration, etc.);
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The most effective way to resolve conflicts, as you know, is to prevent them at the stage of generation. Therefore, the Social Organism, as well as possible, is suitable for the role of an information platform - a horn, for identifying negative moods and problems of participants. This allows you to localize the possible causes of conflict in the early stages and in time to stop them. And the function “3. Report to all participants of the Social Organism - the relevant rules ”, considered above, should in this case play the role of arbitrator in resolving disputes.
For example, consider the situation when an attempt to defend their opinion by a community member may turn into a protracted dispute and further into a conflict. In my practice, there was a case when the usual discussions of working moments between two colleagues turned into very heated debates, shouts, nerves, and almost to “hand-to-hand” each time. At the same time, they were friends and the rest of the time, when they did not argue, they got along well with each other. This situation did not arise in one day, a month or even a year. This was born gradually and began with absolutely constructive discussions, and it came to the conclusion that people from neighboring departments ran together to separate the debaters. Gradually, it became a habit and became commonplace. Therefore, in order to prevent such situations, it is desirable to formulate in the collective a standard of behavior (tradition) of participation in discussions and discussions,as well as promote methods of civilized communication.
Consequently, if for making a decision on eliminating the causes of a conflict, the rules and standards that are not sufficiently established in the Social Organization, then the function “4. Encouraging participants to discuss changes in the rules of the functioning of a social organism. ” Community members must work together to develop additional rules and standards that will help resolve conflicts and avoid the occurrence of such conflicts in the future.
In this way, the social organism can self-regulate and supplement or change the code of rules and standards.
But it is worth remembering that in such a self-regulating community there may be stagnation and a decrease in external competitiveness, especially at the developmental stage of the organization - “Aristocraticism” according to I. Adizes [4]. In this case, healthy conflicts can revive competition in the Social Organism and contribute to its development.
8. Increasing the attractiveness of the participants stay in the Social Organization.
Impact segment : Rational and Emotional world .
Expected result : an increase in the residence time of participants in the community, improvement of their emotional state .
First of all, it is necessary to determine the motives that can make the participants' stay in the Social Organization quite attractive for them. In most cases, the arguments of different participants will be the same. The only difference will be an assessment of their priorities and degree of influence.
Since we are focusing on the social and ethical aspects of the community, we exclude monetary consideration from consideration. From what we have already discussed in the previous sections, we can distinguish:
- Comfort, providing physical needs (equipment of the workplace, areas of communication and recreation, etc.);
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All these preferences are purely personal, and therefore it is necessary to determine the most optimal set of motivations for the team as a whole, the development of which should be given special attention. By regulating this set, one can control the development of the community, attracting potentially useful participants to it or reducing its attractiveness to undesirable ones.
If we reject demagogy and look at this topic from a practical point of view, then it can be stated that attractiveness for a person is mostly an illusion. And often a person gets more satisfaction from illusions than from things that have a purely practical value for him. Given the above, as measures of motivation can be identified such as such actions as:
- Congratulations of the participants on important events in their lives;
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And even if one is not completely biased, it should be noted that one gradually gets used to comfort, privileges and even attention. And over time, it stops working as before, it no longer serves as an important incentive for it. And to rethink again the priorities of his motivation, a person can only after he loses this comfort. Such is the nature of man. In practice, this “disease” is treated by shaking. In order not to bring it to relapse, it is necessary to periodically tone up team members, for example, additional difficulties.
The final part of the article can be found here.
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[2] . . , , : , , 2012.
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[6] . , , : -, 2002.
[7] . .X., : , , 2009.
[8] . , , , 2016.
[9] . , , : . , 2012.
[10] V. V. Ponomarenko, Conflict Management, Olympus, 2008.
[11] G. Simmel, Selected. Problems of Sociology, Moscow; St. Petersburg: University Book, Center for Humanitarian Initiatives, 2015.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/335590/
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