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July 10, 2009 My company goes out of its way to make sure I am unhappy. Some of my clients have echoed sentiments to this effect and I must say that I sometimes thought the same when I worked for couple of large employers. When reading this, you may find yourself relating to this statement. If we attempt to look at this statement without knowing any of the background, does it make logical sense? Why would a company go out of its way to make us unhappy. Do they really want us to be as unproductive as possible? One of my favourite coaching tools is called - The Ladder of Inference. I understand that it is based on Chris Argyris' work in Overcoming Organizational Defenses and used later by Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline. Essentially what the Ladder of Inference says is that we are overwhelmed with observable "data" and experiences. We then select "data" from what we believe. From that data we add meaning and assumptions leading us to specific conclusions and beliefs. Our beliefs will influence the data we select next time putting us in an on-going loop. So let's examine what else might be going on. Perhaps, the company is faced with severe business challenges. It believes by taking specific actions that it hopes to again be successful. Perhaps, they are putting in tighter spending controls, reducing pay increases and taking other actions. The observable data was correct but the conclusions and beliefs may not be correct. I am believing they are reducing my budget so that I cannot accomplish as much. I then observe the company is freezing my wages and that of my staff. I come to the conclusion that the company is purposely making me unhappy. I start thinking that maybe they are doing this because they don't care about me or my staff and hope that I resign. In reality, the company may be doing all it can to ensure that company remains in business and the last thing they want is some of its key employees leaving. It is not possible to not add meaning and draw assumptions but we need to be aware that we are doing this. Also, sometime it's important to reflect upon how our beliefs and assumptions are serving us in where we want to go and who we want to be. We need to check in and be absolutely certain our assumptions and conclusions are correct. The wrong conclusion may not serve us very well!
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