Fast Company – Soul Assassins
Consulting: If You’re Not Part of the Solution, There’s Good Money to Be Made Prolonging the Problem
Meetings: None of Us Is as Dumb as All of Us
These are some of the blurbs in the posters that Despair Inc. are promoting in their Radical Demotivation campaign. In challenging the motivation industry, the trio of Justin and Jef Sewell, and E. Lawrence Kersten are challenging the noble employee myth so that we can realise just what our company’s problem is (US!) and just how we can let them know about it!. From the horse’s mouth:
“Look,” Kersten says, “obviously some people can be highly fulfilled by their jobs. Doctors, for example: It seems like saving lives would be highly fulfilling. Building bridges, building businesses — a lot of careers can fulfill a person’s inherent passion. But I don’t know how passionate you can be about processing paper. The point is that most people should work to make money. They shouldn’t expect a company to make them happy. A company can be friendly and good, but it can’t really make you happy. At the same time, it shouldn’t insult you. It shouldn’t say, ‘We’re a family and have values,’ and then act like Enron.”
Your company’s problem: YOU!!!!
I like this. I think we live in the honesty-era. And being honest about values and purposes is key. Far better to be honest about it if you are really only here to make money than to try to polish it away with all kinds of value-excercises and motivational talks. Because these things have the exact opposite effect if they are really nothing more than window-dressing.
Motivational mumbo jumbo never worked. It needs to be ‘motivated out’ of corporates. A reality check is long overdue for employers & employees.
Where I work, there’s a VP who uses a verison of “Management by walking around”. This got my attention. I was impressed that he was interested in what I had to say.
What am I getting to, you ask? Well, I have the idea of creating something new — a new position which would be more fulfilling. If the company doesn’t do it for you, make lemonade.