Broken People and Broken System

Broken People and Broken System

We sometimes hear it said that the system is broken. People complain  almost, if not, ad infinitum  among themselves as if by talking, what they see as broken will fix itself. We say they are just ventilating their frustrations. Yet, more than that, they are nurturing an unhealthy negative attitude towards the organizations they are supposed to serve with pride. As they feed their frustration, they get even more frustrated.

Others take actions, big or small, whatever their work environment allows. They do not talk loud and defiant. To them, actions speak louder than their words. They just model the behaviours and actions they expect from others in their organizations even if an increasing number of their colleagues have settled content with Herzberg’s Hygiene Factors as the source of meaning for their work lives. To the latter, service and excellence are no longer the summum bonum of public service worth striving for but Hygiene Factors like high salary, smooth interpersonal relationship(SIR), and most favored staff status(MFSS).

Still others are bold and defiant, daring to speak to power publicly. They do not care if they are thrown out or burned and destroy their organizations. They hyperventilate even about small imperfection in a world everyone knows is imperfect. They want change now! Yet, the path to change for the better is not always revolution but mostly evolution in the little things that we do every day.

I would argue that there is no broken system or organization. There are only broken people. Systems and organizations are broken because of broken people. Give a good system and organization to broken people and they will break it in no time. Give a broken system and organization to good people and they will fix it in no time.

Building excellent and high-performing organizations start with the people we bring in, and secondly, how we treat the people we bring in. In any organization, people are the only truly productive resources. We must not only be able to bring in the geese that lay golden eggs, but we must be able to make the geese lay golden eggs by building a nest, a.k.a., environment, where they will happily lay their eggs. In Herzberg Two-Factory Theory, we must be able to provide the motivating factors on top of hygiene factors.

Having an elaborate hiring process, for instance, meant to make us look good than to seek the good does not work. If we serve not for the public but for the public to think about how good we are even if the public wish, desperately at times, that they deserve better, we end up not only failing the public but ourselves. While we may build a whole architecture of forms and appearances, without substance, it is just a matter of time before we discover that our “cheese” has not only been moved but taken away. When catastrophe strikes, the facade and mask fall off.

Just like any living thing, goodness in people has to be welcomed, affirmed, nourished, and supported to grow it to excellence and high performance and to flourish in productivity. While words matter, actions matter too. We cannot forever pep talk people to feel good when, every time we give our heart-pumping pep talk, their circumstance is increasingly heart-thumping, and everyone can see that our talk has not the walk. Often, it is the little “walks” or actions that touch and ignite the power in people to perform at elevated levels even without the so-called hygiene factors.

Thus, before we complain about the broken system or organization, let us pause and take a deep look. Maybe, it is us who are broken, trying to fix the results of our own brokenness. The bigger the brokenness the bigger the broken people. And remember too, that the only thing that we can really change is ourselves. As Rabbi Yisrael Salanter said, “When I was young, I wanted to change the world. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself.”