From "The Speed Trap"

Ginny has worked as a lab technician at the same hospital for twenty years. When her hospital merged with another hospital five years ago, the atmosphere at work became tense and uncertain, hostile and territorial, and filled with fear. To help employees cope with all the changes and facilitate the integration of the two hospital cultures, management hired a consulting firm and offered seminars to employees on stress prevention and how to deal with change effectively.

Three years ago, the changes continued as each department was asked to implement more budget-saving measures. In her small department, the manager, assistant manager, and her supervisor all lost their jobs on the same day. Ginny and her coworkers felt angry, abandoned, and full of uncertainty. Who would make the decisions? Who would determine the workload? Who would they go to when they had a problem? These were the questions that plagued Ginny and her coworkers.

About that time, one of her coworkers, Jeff, attended one of the hospital-sponsored seminars on stress and change. He came back from the seminar very enthused and excited, as he always did from seminars or vacations. As usual, Ginny and her coworkers ignored him and waited till Jeff got back to normal. Jeff initially hung up signs in the work area with sentiments like "Thought creates reality" and tried to tell his coworkers how easy it would be for them to change their attitude. They weren't interested.

Over time, Jeff realized that he needed to just put into practice what he had learned and not concern himself with his coworkers, no matter how valuable he might think what he'd learned would be for them too. He realized that his mental well-being didn't depend on their changing along with him. As a result, Jeff started to mind his own business and quietly changed his own attitude. He would catch himself about to have an emotional reaction to the latest pronouncement from management or to a potential conflict with his coworkers and would keep his mouth shut, leave the room till he got his bearings, and come back calmed down.

Ginny and the others wondered if he left to take a "happy pill," because his mood would change so abruptly. When he did talk, he usually had something very wise and comforting to say that helped calm them down too. As Ginny told me, "He was helping all of us to become calmer, more confident, and more of a team, and we didn't even know he was doing it."

After a while, Ginny saw that Jeff's new attitude wasn't wearing off. She had worked with him for almost twenty years and thought she knew what he was like, but Jeff became a calm and happy person instead of the aggressive, negative, and cynical guy she knew. If Jeff can change this much, Ginny thought, maybe I should learn what he learned.

The Fork in the Road

Recently, Ginny attended one of the hospital-sponsored seminars. All of the ideas Jeff had been sharing with her and exemplifying started to fall into place as she listened. Ginny realized that her strong emotional nature came from not recognizing the source of her own experience -- her own thinking. She now sees why it is important to calm down first and then act, decide, or react. Her habit was to fly off the handle at the least provocation and then have to clean up the mess later.

After the first night of the seminar she shared what she was learning with her two teenagers. They said, "Mom, we've been trying to tell you this all our lives. You need to just chill out!"

She hated to admit it, but they were right. Humbly she said, "I know what you're saying is true, but before I didn't understand that I had a choice. It looked to me like you kids just didn't understand, that when you had the responsibilities that I do and worked at a real job, you'd understand why I react the way I do."

Ginny's department has changed dramatically for the better. Even though they have two fewer technicians and three fewer managers, they are more efficient now than ever. They are able to get as much, if not more, work done with fewer people. They used to have to live with decisions their boss made that were often irrelevant and not based on what their jobs really entailed. Now, they were making all the decisions themselves as a team and really knew what variables they were dealing with. Somehow they worked out the schedule, workload, and other details without much effort. It all seemed like common sense. The atmosphere in their department is now calm, cooperative, and there is a feeling of truly providing a valuable service to patients and staff at the hospital.
Ginny shared with me how she feels about all of these changes. "I worried it would go away, but it just keeps getting deeper for all of us. At the seminar I wanted to stand up and share how this has impacted me, but I knew I would start crying and not be able to say anything. Not because I am sad, but because I am so grateful. I can only compare the feelings I am having to when I gave birth -- total joy."

The Principle in Practice

I recently spoke with the director of the Learning Department at Ginny's hospital. She felt that Ginny's story exemplified the kind of change that management was hoping for when they committed to improving the human-relations climate at the hospital. Convincing the management of the hospital to commit to this type of long-term program was difficult initially, but the results have paid off in terms of a rise in morale, communication, and productivity. The hospital has now expanded its program to the whole community and is sponsoring seminars for government, businesses, and schools.

Applying the principles of mental well-being to organizational change requires a commitment to a more long-term attitudinal change and not just a quick fix. Organizational change occurs one person at a time, as it did with Jeff and then Ginny. However, when one person changes, it gives hope to all those around him or her. Even before Ginny changed, Jeff's calm attitude and wisdom had a positive effect on their work group. Their meetings were more lighthearted and productive, and it has become easier for them to come to an agreement on decisions. Once a critical mass of attitudinal change occurs, there is a shift in the entire organizational culture.

Human beings have an innate desire to feel happy. Many have given up hope that it is possible to be happy, especially at their jobs. Realizing that happiness comes from an internal source rather than from our boss or coworkers is a revelation that can free us, like Ginny, from blaming the tyranny of the organization for our state of mind. Things like policy decisions, mergers, and downsizing may be out of our control, but we can control the most important thing -- our own mental well-being. We can do this, as Jeff and Ginny did, when we gain an understanding of our mind.

Positive and permanent organizational changes occur one person at a time.

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