The (Workplace) Butterfly Effect
“It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world” — Chaos Theory
The impact of one’s action or inaction can have a prodigious effect on the outlook of another. How we perceive things individually is unique and no two people will react the same to every situation. In a working culture, we are provided with guidelines, policies, values and processes to abide by and embrace which are in place for the greater good of the workplace. When the standards that are set are not met, a variety of reactions follow and it is the response, inevitably, that dictates one’s desire and motivation within the company.
It is an outrageous thought, the fact that a single flutter of an insect could cause a typhoon halfway around the world. Outrageous, yet understandable. When we compare the quote to our own lives, how often has a single word or a slight change in direction evolved into a drastic change in our lives. It’s happened to me plenty of times. I remember when I was younger and my mum asked me what I liked in my lunch box at school. I went a bit dramatic and said I loved apricot bars (they were okay but that compared to an LCM bar? I know what I’d rather..). For the next five years of school, a day did not go by without an apricot bar packed in my lunch. A weird example I know but using such a strong word as love instead of like or enjoy resulted in five years of apricot in bar form at 10:30am during lunch. One single word spoken off the cuff changed my culinary experience for half a decade, for better or worse I’m still not sure.
So what happens when this enters our workplace?
What is the impact of a minor event at work which snowballs into something much larger. Too many times we overlook the small acts, questions and issues raised which unavoidably reverberate into a negative impact on an employee. From a managerial perspective, it is our responsibility to ensure care is continuously shown, our employees feel they have a voice within the company and are truly valued for their input. It is our role within the company to uphold standards, maintain the reputation of the brand and hold our staff accountable when not living up to the expectations set. And yes, there are certain ways you go about approaching this but if we do not remain consistent with our approaches, confusion and distrust creeps into the minds of staff. The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behaviours the leaders are willing to tolerate, including their own.
Every conversation we have with our staff should be treated with the utmost of importance. When our colleagues speak, we must listen and act based off their expression of emotion. We do not truly see the impact of not listening or caring has on someone until it is often too late. Too many times have I seen a conversation that was brushed off turn into a resignation from an employee. What we understand is that people work to earn money, to survive and to maintain their ideal lives. What often isn’t understood is that businesses survive off these people and out of the billions of jobs on offer, they have chosen to work with you so why don’t we cherish and nurture them?We should appreciate their decision to work for us and support them in everything they do.
If we do not do this, if we dismiss our colleague’s cries for help or desire to have a voice, we risk the resignation. We risk the reputation of the business and we risk the faith the remaining employees have in us as managers. A single act of ignorance, a blunt response to a question or one turn of a blind eye to a rule break can have a lasting effect on a workplace, risking the environment to become toxic. Before us as leaders hold our employees to a high level of service and responsibility, we need to face ourselves in the mirror and ask the person looking back if we would be happy with our own behaviour. If we saw from an employee perspective how we were acting, would we feel motivated to perform at the highest level?
Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, put it perfectly when he said, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is a process and working together is success.” If companies do not recognise this and appreciate the first step to being successful is coming together then they will never fulfill their full potential. Much like the butterfly's flutter, one misspoken word in a quiet conversation to a front line employee can ultimately cause the demise of even the most successful businesses around the world. And I call that..
The Care Effect.
