The model of manager, worker, director, shareholder worked really well (and made many obscenely wealthy). But things have changed, consciousness has changed, needs have changed, priorities have changed – so why not the corporation. Perhaps the challenge is not to help the corporation to ‘work’ better, but to find a new kind of corporation which is not an old model dolled up, but an authentic organisation which focuses on the people it attracts and is tuned to the subtle changes in mindset and nature and can organically adapt and grow to accomodate this.

The old mindset is to constantly ‘find the average’ – make everyone move up to the average, and if they’re really smart and bright then bring them down to the average. And then let’s find some really smart ‘tools’ so we can measure average and enforce average. And if everyone takes this model and applies it to all the problems they could encounter, then it’s plain sailing.

But that’s the easy way out.

What’s a little harder is to treat each employee and customer as an individual with a voice. And to constantly be on your toes so that your organisation is pro-active instead of re-active. Learn to listen to them and intuit what it is you’re needing to do – to keep both employee and customer happy.

The power games in suits and shiny briefcases needs to make way for a more caring way of doing business which is authentic and sustainable.

If morale cannot work from incentives (re #7) due to the short term nature of its benefits, what kind of change is needed for the leadership? A pat on the back for workers? More recognition? A combination of all of the above? More face to face contact between management and worker? Less perceived differences by workers between what management says and does?

It seems this article raises more questions than it answers — which I take to be at least one purpose of it — as well as a challenge to others to figure out what The Answers are.

Ideally, the best coaching program for any person / team at a period in time will exist once and can never be repeated. But I find that coaching clients are sadly more likely to buy coaching when it is neatly packaged as a set of tools and processes that have been proven with previous clients.

In my coaching experience, clients who gain the most from coaching engage with a coach thinking “let’s trust that what emerges from our conversations is what will best help me achieve my objectives”. So it’s a pity many people reduce their decisions-making to simple models like an ROI equation or expect a “proven”, paint-by-numbers process to guarantee future success.