Our article for last week explored the phenomenon that nature runs her affairs in a manner that espouses ownership.
The kind ownership we are writing about here does consider what is called employee-owned companies but is not limited to it. We stretch the issue further by looking at ownership where the employees are not necessarily shareholders financially but there is a reward system and culture that puts them in a place of ownership both psychologically and reward wise.
Nature’s activities and her relationship with us is crafted that way. She is seen to be opening the doors for us human beings and other beings to come in and belong.
We used the example of procreation last week to show how we are made not only to participate in the making of human beings through our offspring, but also to feel that they belong to us and that feeling results in us not needing to even be reminded of taking care of them. We are made to feel a sense of belonging and ownership.
This makes the job of nature easy in that she just leaves very important things in the hands of human beings, and they run her errands, take care of her human beings and these little bundles of joy grow up to become part of nature’s agenda.
They become part of the business of nature and a good example of this is Jesus saying in Luke 2:49, ‘And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?’ Right there as you can see, Jesus knew that life is a business and if businesses learn from nature about how business is run they would take keen interest in nature and her way of running business.
The products nature makes via different beings belong to nature technically but the way she does it is that she invites participants to take part and do so genuinely without any schemes to manipulate or exploit any participants. The participants’ invitation is so deep that even when they face death, they still feel that when they are dead, they still own what nature had made them custodians of. A father leaves behind an inheritance for his children out of the concern that they might suffer when he is gone. That is how deep the thread of ownership is, it overlaps even to after death.
Does nature talk? Does she organize training and development sessions in the training room? Not to a large extent. Yes, parents and the elderly do pass knowledge systems to the next generation but when one observes thoroughly, they note that it is more about activities. It is more about how things are done and how participants are treated.
Nature says, fine, I see a desire in you to ‘own’ another human being and I also have an agenda to replenish the earth through reproduction, and so let’s do this together. She says I am inviting you to procreate with me, so you fulfil your desire and I fulfil mine. Is that not a fair deal?
The human being or animal fully participates in all this with the sense that they own. They even have a right to name this offspring and see it grow. Nature on the other hand knows that she has her agenda for the child, and you will see the child grow away from the parent.
This is what I call the bigger picture principle.
The same principle applies to businesses if they craft their relationships with their employees in such a manner that employees participate and in the process of participating, feel that they own this although not entirely.
They are satisfied though about their level of participation. In real life, even the poor feel good about their kids, and they generally take care enthusiastically of their kids.
A parent cannot say all the kids in the world belong to them, at least at this level of relating. What they have is their own portion of ownership and they feel good about it under normal circumstances. An employee also, cannot say this is my company but if the ownership thread is crafted technically well, the employee will know that the company belongs to them. To all employees and they have portions and are happy about them.
An employer who espouses this principle will look at their organisation as a system and craft their activities in such a manner that they create the feelings they want.
Feelings that drive employees to act in a specific way. Feelings are legitimate and important. If an employee is afraid, they will act in a certain way and if they feel free and good, they will act in a certain way.
Maya Angelou put it aptly when she said, ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ They do not even have to think about it unless they are trained to do so.
Feelings are a legitimate way of judging whether employees feel a sense of belonging and ownership and certainly an important element of productivity and performance.
They cannot be ignored if an employer has a serious sense of prudence and optimum production and profit in their way of doing business.
At the centre of this seeming rigmarole, is the way activities are crafted, that is to say the way things are done.
Firstly, it about the work itself and the reward that flows out of it.
As in the nature example we gave earlier where nature invites or employs human beings and animals to participate in her business of procreation and the profits are huge.
The value of this is priceless. You see there where the activity has huge returns coming out.
The nature example is fascinating in that the process of making babies also has its own benefits, just the joy of copulation and the delicious feelings one gets from taking part and relating with another human being that way.
Nature is serious about this participation and ownership thing. Humans call their spouses ‘my’ spouse, honey, sweetie, babe, etc. One realises that both parties have their contribution and their reward, and that is nature and humanity. It is a fair deal, is it not?
The activity and the reward that falls out of the process will also have the element of relationships and treatment of employees coming in to influence the feelings part of this equation.
An employer must make a conscious effort to treat employees fairly. Fairness might not be equality and that is fine but what is important is that employees feel fairly treated.
This gives that sense of belonging and ownership. We belong here and this is our company, they say.
They also learn to treat each other well. This is the subject for the next article.
- Bhekilizwe Bernard Ndlovu’s training is in human resources training, development and transformation, behavioural change, applied drama, personal mastery and mental fitness. He works for a Zimbabwean company as human capital executive, while also doing a PhD with Wits University where he looks at violent strikes in the South African workplace as a researcher. Ndlovu worked as a human resources manager for several blue-chip companies in Zimbabwe and still takes keen interest in the affairs of people and performance management. He can be contacted on bhekilizweb.bn@gmail.com