Britain’s shock vote of last week shouldn’t have been a shock at all. The basis for it has been growing for years. Are you sure you’re not facing the same challenges in your own organisation
You’d have to have been living in a cave since Thursday not to have seen the media explosion that followed the results of the UK referendum in which 52% of Britons opted to take their country out of the European Union.
Whether it will actually happen or not (the result is not binding, merely advisory; the British Parliament may choose not to endorse it), the vote nevertheless holds two important, scary lessons for the country which may echo in your own organisation:
1. Perhaps people don’t feel the way you think they feel
In a country like the United Kingdom, where there is a huge gap between those who embrace the system as supportive and growth-enabling, and those who feel it works against them, perhaps the result shouldn’t have been so surprising. And yet it appears to have shocked the country to its core as if there was a collective expectation that even the most common gripes were only superficial.
The question for your organisation is this: are you confident that you’re in touch with how people really feel? Are you listening well enough to be able to predict that their choices, if given the option, would mirror the ones you want for your organisation?
2. Without constant education and communication, you don’t control the game.
Many British people appear to have opted to radically alter the course of their own destiny based on inaccurate information. They emotionally reacted to things that aren’t entirely true, fuelled by a very effective prejudicial rumour mill. That there were ample half-truths and exaggerations on both sides of the argument only strengthens the confusion.
Open, bi-directional and constant communication stands as one of the five major hallmarks of an engaged organisation according to the initial Happy Sandpit research, for one very good reason: if you don’t constantly reiterate the narrative that you want your people to buy into, a new, possibly unwanted narrative will surely form.
The Brexit vote is a cautionary tale, not because of the outcome but because the grounds for that outcome have been brewing, unchecked, for years. Leaders in the United Kingdom appear to have done a poor job of establishing a baseline for the desired cultural habits and beliefs of the country, and of tackling the most wayward undermining opposition to that baseline.
Whether the United Kingdom leaves the European Union or not, the important work for British leaders to do now, is to listen and to educate better.
And the same goes for all of us.
Happy Sandpit is a South Africa-based Think Tank about organisational culture, employee engagement and leadership. If you’re looking for solutions that will enable you to create a results-focused organisation, start clicking the buttons below. To book Colin for a talk or workshop, get in touch.
