This is the official Blog of Directive Communication International. Our Goal is to assist Organizations and Individuals to improve personals and organizational performance and effectiveness. Here we will post the latest articles and information relating to the applications of Directive Communication Psychology to peak performance, leadership development, corporate training, change management and organizational development. We welcome new insights, positive and negative comments, opposing views and competitors posts for complimentary training or methodologies which can further the benefit the readers of this blog. We wish to provide a fully rounded perspective of group dynamics and psychological methodologies that affect the performance, passion and effectiveness organizations.
Negative Key Influencers are the Enemy to Organizational Change. The best way to defeat your enemy is to make him your friend and turning negative key influencers into positive ones is the ideal solution for getting others on involved in organizational change. Unfortunately, it is not always possible. So, the first step is to identify [...]
Finding your “Key Influencers” is kinda like checking your friends on Facebook to see who has the most friends who comment and interact with them. While there may be others with more friends by number, those may be shallow acquaintances or maybe just collected individuals who have no real connection. But those who’s friends interact [...]
The psychological key to organizational change is that people want to be successful in their jobs… yes, even those “lazy” people. But a person’s desire to be successful in their job is often diluted by the environment. I always considered myself a hardworking person who puts a 100% into his job, yet, long ago when [...]
Part 2 of how to change an Organizational Culture in 80 Days By: Arthur Carmazzi Changing organizational culture can have a profound impact on effectiveness, motivation and alignment of personal goals and organizational objectives, but there can be negative effects if you do not understand your current organizational culture before you start. The first step [...]
Part 1 of how to change an Organizational Culture in 80 Days By: Arthur Carmazzi Traditionally the concept of changing an organizational culture has been long and tedious, and for over 70% of organizations who have tried… unsuccessful (according to a 2006 Gallup study). The primary reason for failure is lack of follow through, most [...]
Foundations for Blame come from our intrinsic need for significance; our ego is constantly looking for reasons why we are not wrong, why the decisions we make were ok… if it wasn’t for… “X”. Blame is a response to our fear of not being good enough. Blame circumstances, blame others, the bottom line is Blame, [...]
Continued from Part 3
TepTep sighed, if he is truly to fulfil his dream to become the type of leader who can build long lasting institutions (or pyramids), his journey must extend far beyond what he has learned and even what he believes to be true. He must break old habits and be prepared to accept that his reality may need to be redefined….
Please continue to help me write my new book, this is Part 3. You are welcome to look at and contribute to the previous posts. And special thanks to Earl Wallace, who I did not have an opportunity to thank for his brilliant contribution in Part 2
Also, please see the web pages Organizational Culture Change at: http://directivecommunication.com/corporate_culture_organisational_development.php
Continued from Part 1 –
“The Great Pharaoh” was always striving for bigger and better Pyramids, BUT, there were definitely some quality issues. So when TepTep got his first position as Quarry Manager for the construction blocks division, he found the real world issues were very different than what he learned in school.
Although the employees did the job, he found the division’s effectiveness was sadly lacking. People were not putting in a “full” effort, politics were being played, people were blaming each other for mistakes and difficulties, and there was little or no cooperation across divisions… he even heard many employees say they felt like they were being treated like slaves. Wow, he didn’t have to go to school to know that this wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. At first he thought it was because they were only paid about 3 baskets of grain a week (minimum wage for skilled labour), but this idea was about to change, and the course of leadership (and pyramid building) would never be the same again.
Picture of Egyptian workers being lazy and complaining in a quarry
TepTep thought he would never be able to be a great leader here. He didn’t want to be held back by this kind of dysfunctional environment so he went Great Pharaoh’s senior management and asked to be re-assigned. “After all”, he thought, “A leader couldn’t be great with people who weren’t eager to do what he said ”. “Could they?”
The senior managers all sat around a big table and listened to him complain, when he was finished, they talked and whispered and then said: “sure, why not, your dad was a real fun guy at the alligator wrestling matches, so go ahead, we will put you in charge of pyramid building”
TepTep said “thank you” and thought “Wow, now I can work with people who have greater skill and knowledge, and they even get better pay. These people are more like me, so they will be easier to lead.”
TepTep was excited. He wanted to understand more about his job so he decided to visit some of the latest developments. His first stop was the recently finished project in Meidum to see the pyramid built for Pharaoh Seneferu only a few years before. When he arrived, he saw the blocks were already starting to crumble and the structure wasn’t very sturdy. “This sucks!” he thought, this was not the quality he wanted to create.
Rendering of pyramid at Meidum
He looked at the structure again. While each of the individual stones was carved skilfully, each was just laid as an individual block, with one piled on top of another. With minor earthquakes and strong weather conditions the whole complex was already falling apart. And of course no one was taking responsibility for it and everyone was blaming everyone else. People were talking behind others back because one stone carver would think his carving is better than the other guys, or one would think he was caring more Weight than the rest. But the quality of the overall work was still not what it could be. He felt that all the theory he had learned from ISIS school of Management was not applicable in the real world, when the “human element” was introduced.
But Why?
Why would people who have the skill, have the experience, and have reasonable pay, not really put in the extra effort to build something Great?
Why were they working as individuals instead as a team with a common vision?
TepTep was discouraged and confused. Suddenly a hawk cried overhead, and as TepTep looked up, he saw a sign.
Picture of a sign carried by a hawk that says “The Great Bubu, Magic Solutions to your problems”
“That’s it! That’s how I can be a great leader and a great builder of Pyramids, I will get the magic solution.”
Leadership Lessons from the Great Pyramids Cultivating masses of motivated people to build Lasting organizations ————————————————————————————————- Evidence uncovered by Faunal experts Redding and Lehner prove it… “It was not the slaves that built the pyramids. It was gangs of motivated, dedicated and well organized individuals who had a purpose…” This is the semi-historical saga of [...]
