Going With The Flow
In the famous adventure story, Around The World In 80 Days, the author Jules Verne surprised the hero Phileas Fogg and his servant Jean Passepartout on their journey with a fact that changed their financial outcome. Remember, the wager to win or lose £20,000, was contingent on the result of their attempt to circle the world in 80 days? In actuality, their journey extended slightly beyond 80 days, but they won the wager anyway. How did they do this?
The heroes of the story learned that when they traveled east days 'shortened' by four minutes for every line of Longitude they crossed, something that allowed them to gain more than a full day. So, despite the fact that from their perspective they had traveled more than 80 days, for the people that had stayed at the starting point, they had arrived on time. If they had traveled west the opposite would have happened; they would have lost a day, and lost the wager entirely.
The principle that this story teaches us is that to achieve more positive results, it is necessary to be in harmony with one's surrounding environment, and not insist on 'going against the current.'
Green Management
In business it is commonly thought that in order to produce more product or improve services, more resources are needed (like different production elements and human resources in general.) This may sound logical, but is not necessarily so.
In Green Management it is understood that it is possible to generate more from existing resources if they are directed differently and the focus of business is on conservation, holistic methods, positive and nurturing approaches, long-term thinking, empowerment, environmental replenishment, harmony, and consideration.
Thinking Creates Reality or The Magic Circle of Consciousness
One of the main 'green' tools for management is understanding that there is a connection between desired results and belief in those results happening.
A good example of positive thinking is found in the effects of placebo medicine. The placebo is a medicine that is chemically void of any healing agents, and despite this can cause the patient to heal as if they had received real medicine. The explanation for this is that the patient heals from the power of his belief in the effectiveness of the medicine and nothing else.
Actually, what happens is that the belief in the medical treatment activates natural powers of healing that already exist in the body. It has been even been said that the role of doctors is to amuse the patient while God (natural healing power) does the work!
Pygmalion Effect
When someone has a belief it will colour their thoughts and feelings and this leads to a corresponding behavior, which ultimately leads to a result that corresponds with the original belief. This is called a self fulfilling prophecy, or Pygmalion effect. From the moment that there is a result, the original belief is strengthened - which creates more results and so on.
The energetic effect of internalizing our negative thoughts (e.g."I can't...it's hard...I don't have the strength for this...Our organization is weaker than the competition") diminishes our resources.
In the same respect, it takes no extra effort to choose to direct resources and beliefs towards the positive (e.g. "I succeeded in the past with harder things than this and therefore I will succeed this time as well...this will be easier than we originally thought...we believe in our ability to succeed because of our unique talents,") and the results will be more positive.
The first stage in the process of using the Pygmalion effect is to test our beliefs and bring them into awareness with the following questions:
Do we believe we can improve our productivity by improving our thinking and belief systems? Do we have faith in the future of our company? Do we believe we can grow from year to year? Can we improve the quality of our product and services without a significant increase in effort? And most important: Does the manager instill a sense of belief in the workers, and faith in their ability to perform at their very best?
If you can answer positively to every one of these questions that your business is more likely to be in a position of flowing with its strengths and utilizing the power of thought effectively.
The Role Of Managers In Green Management
The strength that managers gain with Green Management is enormous because they represent authority figures, and can activate a positive Pygmalion effect. People tend to easily receive outside suggestions from authority figures like managers (or parents.)
Managers therefore, creating positive beliefs in the workforce, become also influential leaders.
In Green Management it is very important for managers to truly believe in their workers and their abilities, and to take care to constantly convey that to them with compliments, even in front of other workers.
An employee that has a good reputation with his manager at work tends to want to protect his reputation and therefore works with more enthusiasm. It has been found that focusing on a worker's attributes is the easiest way to maintain the loyalty of good workers in an organization.
It is also vital to get rid of outdated attitudes like: "I'm paying him to work the hardest he can." For workers as well as managers there are social/psychological aspects, which also need to be nurtured in order to be more productive at work. Today, talented workers can easily move around from job to job, and workers who know their own value will look for a place of employment that also meets there psychological needs.
And it is time to get rid of macho military thinking like: "If I affirm that my worker is successful he is likely to climb all over me, demanding more and more benefits," or "If I compliment my worker it will cause me to look weak in his eyes."
Making positive changes in the workplace can begin with simply changing language. For example you can decide that the words "hard" or "impossible" are not to be spoken at work, but instead use the words "challenging" or "obligates us to think in a new way."