Workplace leaders are wasting a lot of time, money and energy laboring and belaboring, putzing and futzing with the symptom problems in the workplace...while the root causes and the solutions to them go unseen and ignored.

Just today my morning mail brings me a flyer from a local college advertising a Fall series for employers. ..with topics like these: Keeping Yourself and Others Motivated. Communication and Collaboration Skills -Interacting with Others (this one includes "Getting Emotional Receptivity," whatever that is...and for that matter, how and why did "collaboration" get into our work world conversations?). Dealing with Workplace Stress. Working with Difficult People (including "Getting Past Negative Impact").

My morning mail also brings me a flyer for a one-day seminar with topics like these: The "Want-to-Win" Attitude: How to Build It. "Non-directive" counseling. How to deal with anger, crying, or other over-emotional responses.

You can tell I have little patience, and less appreciation, for the latest solutions for the psycho-babble problems which experts discover in our workplaces. These kinds of topics listed in my morning mail are typical of the symptom problems and challenges that are sucking energy out of employers, managers and supervisors.

Some examples follow. (Are you wasting your time, money and energy dealing with symptoms in these areas rather than dealing with the root causes and solutions?)

Conflict management. This includes violence and violence prevention. You can bring in counselors. You can send supervisors and managers to workshops taught by psychologists and psychiatrists. You can adopt an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). You can do all this and more. But until you focus on the sources of violence and conflict at work...you're mostly wasting your time and resources.

Motivating employees. The goal of all motivation and reward efforts is to get employees to focus on doing their jobs well and on improving production and profits. You can survey employees, you can set up reward programs, you can put in bonus and gainsharing programs. And all of this will work. But until you focus on the sources of what motivates applicants and employees...your motivation and reward efforts will fall short of what you and your employees could be achieving.

Communication and Collaboration. Throw in "collaborative efforts." (Whatever happened to "working together," "getting along with each other," "working things out?") If, in your workplace, you and your employees or associates don't communicate well and don't get along too well together...don't go running off to a seminar on communication and collaboration. Instead, focus on the sources of what blocks communication and cooperation between people at work.

What are these sources of problems and challenges in the workplace?

To start with, the obvious, tap-root source of our stresses and tensions at work is people. Imperfect people. Each of us has a sandpaper exterior, rough edges to some degree. And when these rough edges touch it creates tension, conflict. So the sources of problems and challenges at work are in the people at work.

The three root sources or causes of negative and troublesome behavior at work are:
(I) The "ownership" need that each of us has. (2) The Sandbox Conditioning that each of us experienced as children. (3) The at-work Behavior Style that each of us
has. When we know these things about ourselves and others we work with, we own the keys that open up the solutions to the workplace problems and challenges.

I. The "ownership" need. Watch the little baby. Watch the little fingers reaching for and clutching everything possible. The baby is born knowing how to suck and to clutch. Watch the one-year-olds and the two-year-olds at play. Everything is theirs. Each of us at work is a child with a strongly developed need to own what we have at work, to clutch our position...and to defend ourselves and what we own when we feel someone else at work is threatening us and what we own. At work, we and others own our jobs, we own our work stations, we own our ideas. And we'll defend them as little children defend their piles of toys!

2. Sandbox Conditioning. Watch the little children playing in a sandbox. Each making his or her own castle, or lake, or road, or hill. And each protecting his or her creation from the threatening intrusions of other kids. Those of us at work were once children squabbling in the sandboxes (and in so many other play spaces). In our childhood experiences we developed fears and frustrations and learned to throw up walls of defense against them. We learned to build our own little sandboxes in which we could play to our heart's content...and keep out those who would kick at us and at our dreams. So at work, we build a sandbox, a sandbox around the job and the space and the ideas we own. Each of us has an invisible sandbox with walls we can hide behind, walls we defend when we feel we and they are threatened.

3. At-work Behavior Style. Each of us has a way of behaving that irritates many other people. The few people we work with most often during the day are like a family. Our behavior styles are different. Some of the difference is minor. Some of the difference is extreme. And in some instances, our differences are compatible. But different we are. Some of us are dominant, impatient, wanting to call the shots, wanting the job done...period. Some of us are influencers with our outgoing personalities and with our talking, getting our satisfaction from being at work with others, talking with others, whether or not the job gets done. Some of us are stable and steady, getting our satisfaction from doing our jobs and doing them well. Some of us are compliant, getting our satisfaction from making sure the job is done not only well, but right.

Mix this all up at work and what's the result? People acting normally. People rubbing on each other. People threatening each other, without knowing how they are do- ing it...and not knowing how to stop it.

Understand how the need to own, the sandbox conditioning, and the dominant behavior styles work together to trigger our behaviors at work...and you understand the root sources of the challenges you face in your role as a workplace leader.

This knowledge sets you free.

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