Treat labor-management disease, not symptoms

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"It's the system, stupid."|ret||ret||tab|

Whether it is AWG, Midwest Express Airlines or General Motors, it is the same story, same dialogue and same ending. Isn't it time to write a new script?|ret||ret||tab|

I appeal for a new approach to labor-management relations, not as an attempt to bust a union (I am a union member of The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) or bust a billionaire's bureaucracy (I am a card-carrying member of the BGWC the Bill Gates Wannabe Club). |ret||ret||tab|

Isn't there another way to ensure fairness in a workplace other than the regular diatribes screaming either "unfair labor practices" or "overpaid whiners"? We never seem to slip out of this vortex of verbal violence because a new contract usually turns out to be just a bandage on a hemorrhage of trust.|ret||ret||tab|

Three years from now we will listen to the same insults, read the same accounts that "no one could be reached for comment," and the same picket signs will be tacked to the same wooden poles. And we will make it all go away with the same plastered smiles, photo-op and flaccid handshake across a mahogany minefield.|ret||ret||tab|

There has to be a better way. And there is.|ret||ret||tab|

Peter Senge, author of "The Fifth Discipline," outlined an approach to long-term problem solving called "systemic thinking." The premise Senge presents is that we continue to repeat our worst behavior when we take the easy way out by "taking a snapshot solution" and then applying it to our gaping organizational wounds. If, on the other hand, we were to fix the system (the generative event or issue) we might be able to finally eliminate the problem from coming back again.|ret||ret||tab|

If you continue to run out of hot water during your morning shower because you are the last in line, you may apply the snapshot solution by moving to the front. You have solved your problem, but the person now at the end of the line could become your worst nightmare. |ret||ret||tab|

If you took a systemic approach, you could add a second water heater or ask someone to move to Motel 6. When you fix the system, you eliminate the problem.|ret||ret||tab|

The historic labor/management kiss-and-sign solution is a crock. The problem is not outsourcing, use of robotics or a jobs-for-life clause. Those are symptomatic of a sick system. The real problem is labor and management have been historically positioned to be enemies.|ret||ret||tab|

When was the last time you, as labor, heard anyone in your ranks swill some coffee and say, "Wow, these senior management people know what they are doing and are worth every cent this company is paying them." And when was the last time you, as senior management, sat around in a plush boardroom and said, "This labor force is hard-working and dedicated. We need to find other ways to reward them."|ret||ret||tab|

In your dreams.|ret||ret||tab|

No, we spend our time drawing pyramids for organizational charts (there is room at the top for just a few), talk in us-vs.-them jargon and make clandestine jokes in the boardroom and the loading dock about the other side. Is it really a surprise that labor and management continue to duke it out? It is time to fool around with the system. I suggest the following bold initiatives.|ret||ret||tab|

Send management and labor leadership on an all-expense-paid Outward Bound experience. Contracts are a protection against mistrust. What better way to learn trust than to pull each other across a 200-foot chasm or paddle, together, through raging white water. Think about it. |ret||ret||tab|

Make an agreement to fire anyone, either management or labor, who makes obscene or derogatory remarks about the other side.|ret||ret||tab|

Internally, do away with titles and, instead, emphasize job descriptions. This also means no special parking places, lunchrooms or company vehicles.|ret||ret||tab|

Provide incentive pay, which is the same percentage for everyone in the comapany.|ret||ret||tab|

Twice a year, throw a labor-management sock hop with required attendance. If you have to dance with your CEO or warehouse highlift operator, I guarantee you will communicate differently over the negotiating table.|ret||ret||tab|

Do you really want to be making picket signs and stapling them to poles in the next century? It's the system, stupid.|ret||ret||tab|

(Dr. Cal LeMon solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. His company, The Executive Edge, can be contacted at the Business Journal by writing to PO Box 1365, Springfield 65801, or by e-mail at sbj@sbj.net.)[[In-content Ad]]