Fear is a powerful emotion. In 1933, the Great Depression
was in its fourth year of a decade long economic downturn that gripped the
world. Unemployment in the United States was at 25%. In other parts of the
world, the impact of the Great Depression was much worse. In Germany,
unemployment peaked at 30% in 1933. People wanted a solution to the economic
crisis. In 1933 they turned to a politician who had predicted the economic
crisis nearly a decade earlier when hyper-inflation had eroded German wealth.
He had also offered up a radical plan to solve the economic woes that included
the government taking control of business decisions which had been made by
corporate management in the past. He believed that the government should decide
who would get contracts and who would not. He believed certain industries
should be rewarded and certain industries should be pushed aside. His ideas
seemed extreme in the 1920s. But in the prolonged economic downturn of the
1930s, fear caused people to give his ideas a chance. In 1933, Adolf Hitler was
elected Chancellor of Germany; a decision that would cost the lives of 60
million people worldwide.
I find that there is a lot of fear as we enter 2012. People
are unsure if they will hold the same job for the same employer at this same
time next year. Businesses are uncertain if they can maintain their customer
base. On top of this, there are grave concerns that the federal government has
spent so much borrowed money that will have to be paid back as increased taxes
coupled with more government regulations. Businesses fear they are in the
crosshairs. It makes for a panicked market on both the consumer and producer
side of the equation. Fear seems to be the prevalent emotion of the times in
which we live and do business. My good friend, Scott Livingston, is an
executive coach and an expert on Emotional Intelligence. He says that when our
brains are experiencing fear, we cannot think straight. We simply react to the
fear by protecting ourselves: either by standing up and fighting or running for
our lives (2007).1
Tom Rieger has a new book out called Breaking the Fear
Barrier2(2011). In it, he describes what he calls the pyramid of fear
that is found within organizations. Fear causes barriers that eventually cause
the company to crumble from the inside out. The first fear barrier is
parochialism. This is a fear of outside influences that will change your
business… and change is seen as an enemy that needs to be kept at bay. The
second barrier is territorialism. This is fear of change from the inside. A
manager who is territorial will shout down anyone who attempts to make things
better for the company if it runs counter to the thinking of the manager. In
other words, if it is not his idea or his method, it is a bad idea… again, a
thing to be feared and pushed back in its place. The third fear barrier is
empire building. This occurs when a person, department or division of a company
decides they will circumvent other persons, departments or divisions to remain
self sufficient. When they are told to work with another division of the
company, they stonewall the process. When they ask for funding or resources to
do a project and are told no, they simply find another way to get what they
want and maintain control over their own destiny. They may operate with their
own sub-contractors even if the company has a contract with a competing
sub-contractor. They may hoard resources that are sorely needed by another part
of the company. Even though one could applaud the ingenuity of getting around
barriers, empire builders are not going to put your company’s best foot
forward. They are looking out for their own interests and fear being denied the
resources they need to keep their own little boat afloat, even if it means the rest
of the company sinks.
The problem with running a business with fear barriers is
that it is counter-productive. First, there are no good decisions made when you
are baring your fangs or running for your life. You cannot have your thinking
mind in the midst of fearing for your job. If you want the best out of your
workers, you have to take the air out of the fear-for-my-job balloon. If
management can convey a realistic, but confident, plan for the immediate
future, it goes a long ways in helping alleviate fears. Secondly, you have to
eliminate the fear barriers from your workplace. If you allow good ideas to be
shut down due to fear of outside influence (parochialism) or a rising star in
your ranks (territorialism), you simply will not make your best business
decisions. Neither will you move forward if you have an empire builder in your
midst. In today’s economy, everyone must pull together. It is what eventually
ended the Great Depression and the grave mistake of the fear-driven election of
1933.
_________________________
1. Livingston,
S.R. (2007). Seven Secrets of an Emotionally Intelligent Coach. Noblesville, IN: Buttermilk Ridge Books. http://www.integratei.com/SevenSecrets.asp
2. Rieger, T.
(2011). Breaking the Fear Barrier. New
York, New York: Gallup Press.
The Great Depression of the 1930s and Its Origins, San Jose State Department of Economics. http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/dep1929.htm
World War II casualties. Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties
Photo by Littal