Healing Ecosystem Component 1 – A Close Look at Structure
In May, we proposed that work within organizations to reduce burnout and improve human thriving could benefit from reframing our view of what organizations are. We introduced the concept of the organization as a healing ecosystem and asked how a workplace could potentially become one.
The first component of our ecosystem model is structure: the physical, digital, and regulatory environment in which we do our work. Often, individuals, teams, and even units or departments feel apathy or despair as soon as we embark on conversations about structural elements and wellbeing at work. We tend to view these elements as difficult or impossible to change and mostly as sources of annoyance, frustration, and depletion. Is the parking structure a source of thriving or burnout? Are community spaces—staff kitchens, lobbies, hallways—designed for thriving? How about allocation of offices? And how often are the digital technologies organizations use to enable work invoked as causes of burnout?!
Despite our tendency to view structures as immovable sources of burnout, they are important components of the ecosystem and therefore deserve attention. Changing structures can take considerable time and effort, and yet these changes tend to create significant impact on the nature of human interactions (featured in a later post on another ecosystem element) and the range of human emotions experienced in daily work. Any leader or organization seeking to create a healing ecosystem therefore must consider how changes in structures can enhance thriving.
Often, changing structures to support a healing ecosystem begins with 2 simple questions: 1) what do we have the ability to modify, and 2) if we rethought structure with a focus on thriving, what might we do? These questions are straightforward, but they are difficult to raise and we often avoid them in favor of conversations grounded in current operating assumptions. Budgeting and capital allocation processes push back on revisiting decisions about line items that now represent depreciating assets or sunk costs. Most management principles related to examining structure focus heavily on extracting maximum efficiency, not promoting thriving.
Nonetheless, leaders, teams, and organizations that ask these two provocative questions find numerous avenues for turning structure into catalysts for wellbeing. In the next post, we’ll provide several examples, including data on the impact that can occur when working with structures within our ecosystems.