Leading Workplace Change™

…rugged individualism needs to be aligned with institutional mission

Recently, I was asked to bring my knowledge about shaping workplace culture to a symposium for educators on “Stopping Youth Bullying.”    I started my workshop with the question -  “What are the underlying reasons why teachers, families and children have a hard time addressing bullying?”  The answers were varied, but consistent.

• some people think bullying helps kids ‘toughen up’ for the real world, so a little bit is OK
• if a teacher responds, the bullying goes underground and becomes even more dangerous for kids
• administrators deny it is happening in ‘their school’

These responses reminded me of feedback from folks within organizations as to why harassment of employees, a form of bullying, is tolerated within the workplace.

• hazing of newcomers is just expected in the workplace
• just ‘keep your mouth shut and look the other way’ around aggressive managers or you could become their target
• people stuff is just not as important or valued as getting the job done

The questions then became – do “bullying” and “harassment” go with or against the grain of the national beliefs of our U. S. culture?  Is it primarily about the need for some to seek attention, power and control through humiliation, as postulated by the Workplace Bullying Institute?  Is there something more within our national DNA that allows children and adults to gather around and cheer the bully on or just ignore it?  This appears to be the case, even as we are becoming more and more aware of the negative consequences in the workplace and in the schools.

It became clear to many of us within our Symposium sessions that bullying may go with the grain of our traditional American frontier roots and our belief in the importance of “rugged individualism.”  We admire people who stand up for themselves and show initiative, stamina.  This “rugged individualism” can lead to creativity and innovation – a core component of U.S. success, and in the workplace it translates into valuing people who are “self-starters.”  No one wants to get rid of the “self-starter” instinct in our culture, but left in its traditional pure form – it appears to influence a passive acceptance of the practice of bullying which can lead to violence, depression and decreased productivity among youths and adults.

We finished up our time during the Symposium sessions talking about what educators should focus on to shape school cultures to stop bullying.  One participant from a school, recognized nationally for its successful school transformation effort said simply:

In our school, parents pushed from the bottom-up and demanded that bullying be stopped and our principal pushed from the top-down to put in practices to stop bullying.  Teachers, parents, guardians and students talked together and agreed that their school needed to be a safe place to learn.

Other participants replied - thinking realistically it will require more than that - creating “safety” will require us to talk about shifting the grain of our U.S. culture for long-term transformation to occur both in our schools and in our workplaces.

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