Exploring the impact of emotions in the workplace, addressing resistance to change, navigating emotional labor, fostering open communication, and the importance of transparency during organizational transformations.
Addressing emotional labor is crucial for organizational success by processing feelings effectively.
Leadership should prioritize self-awareness and emotional intelligence to foster a culture of open dialogue and vulnerability.
Encouraging transparency and respect during organizational change fosters resilience and understanding among employees.
Deep dives
Emotional Turmoil as an Attention Pit
Acknowledging that emotional turmoil in an organization consumes valuable attention, the podcast highlights the need to address emotional labor. By recognizing feelings and processing them effectively, organizations can redirect attention to productive and valuable pursuits.
Leader's Role in Emotional Work
The importance of self-awareness and modeling emotional intelligence by leaders is emphasized. Leaders play a crucial role in setting the tone for addressing emotions and creating a culture that values open dialogue and vulnerability.
Acknowledging Losses in Change Efforts
Encouraging transparency by acknowledging losses in organizational change, the podcast advocates for honesty and respect towards employees. By articulating potential trade-offs and allowing space for individuals to process emotions related to change, a more resilient and understanding organization can emerge.
Seasons of Change and Complexity
Highlighting the ebbs and flows in organizational change efforts, the podcast discusses the importance of patience and adaptability. Change processes involve varying emotions, energy levels, setbacks, and progress, requiring a nuanced and flexible approach to navigate complexities.
Continuous Data Collection on Sentiments
Suggesting a consistent and light-touch approach to collecting sentiment data in organizations, the podcast recommends regular surveys to monitor employees' feelings over time. By treating emotional data as valuable feedback, organizations can better understand and address underlying emotions to support effective change initiatives.
Every time something changes at work, someone’s bound to be upset. Digital transformations take resources from analog teams; restructuring a department can take authority from one group and give it to another; removing a step from a workflow can eliminate a role altogether. Any change, including those meant to make things better, will create winners and losers and that’s bound to kick up a hornet’s nest of feelings.
Here’s the puzzling part: Despite years of research showing us that surfacing and processing these feelings is key to unlocking a company’s ability to be adapt, many workplaces often treat emotions as taboo. They’re messy, unpredictable, and nobody wants to touch them—even when ignoring them does more harm that good. Playing pretend isn't getting us anywhere.
In this episode of At Work with The Ready, Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin explore why we have negative feelings about big feelings and how it’s holding our organizations back from evolving into the places they could be.
We're on Youtube! An extended video version of this episode (with extra Rodney and Sam moments) is available to watch there.
