Storytellers & Organisation Behaviour Specialist

I think storytellers and scriptwriters are better judges of human behavior than OB specialists. Psychologists keep on examining the reasons why people behave in a certain fashion in organizations and what motivates them. I say, do not look beyond the base emotions of anger, greed, jealousy, hate, love, loyalty, revenge and fear.

I am sure we can add some more feelings to the list but a good manager and a great HR professional keeps looking for these emotions to find out what will work in his/her organization in particular circumstances.

Sometimes it is difficult to put data on the table for these feelings but ask the data oriented guys (vis-a-vis touchy feely guys) as to what are we trying to do with data except for satiate the feeling of “I Know” and a sense of fulfillment by making a point.

I wonder if the data oriented guys overlook their feeling(s) while listening. In a meeting when they are looking at their ‘blackberries’, I think they are ‘bored’. They look only for those points which will interest them and many of them are yawning, they feel ‘tired’ and ‘exhausted’.

The world is full of feelings and so is corporate, the sooner we recognize and put them in the right place in the corporate the better it will be for employees and shareholders; who I think feel “cheated” when they do not get the returns they are looking for.

If  Mckinsey’s Rajat Gupta’s tale was to be examined, I think ‘Greed’ will score above everything else including success and fame. I am sure you are familiar with many more such tales, including the day to day one’s happening in your company and the in the corporate world.

Like I say, “People are People”, let us treat them like that and we would have taken care of profits and fairness.