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For a year I live and work in Croatia and, as a Dutchman, I love it here. But in my work as consultant (strategic and marketing planning, organisation development and HRM) I see in many organisations a culture of passiveness, a lack of commitment and even a lot of blaming. The management style is often, what I call "macho style", where actually a simple approach to commit staff and employees would be much more effective.

This made me think about the history of the development of management. For centuries "management experts" analysed weak points and failures of people and organisations. In general they focused on the things that went wrong, and then they tried to find out how to improve in practice.

Focus on the strong points

Since the nineties of the last century, scientists (e.g. Marti Seligman, Barbara Fredrickson, David Cooperrider etc.) are studying this subject from the other side. They are looking at the strong points of people and organisations. This is based on belief that every person and every organisation has strong points, there is always something that works well and there is always something that is good enough to build upon further. And that, taking these strong points as a start for development, the person or the organisation then is much more capable to improve.

They found remarkable proof for this, both in theory and in practice. Simply because this approach is a far more motivating and inspiring way to co-create, implement and achieve goals in the constant changing marketplace. 

We are talking here about, as we call them, the strength based approaches of change, and they are put into practice on both a personal and an organisational level, in more and more companies worldwide.

Management still looks only at what is going wrong

Unfortunately, management is still trained in analysing problems, looking at what is going wrong in their organisation, department or with their employees. They are still trained in problem solving techniques, trying to fix the deficits they found.
And so they become part of the "management paradox": solve one problem which, at the same time, creates another problem. And so a vicious circle is created.

The main question however is: Is it possible to turn weak points into strong points? And if yes, at what costs? (time, money, emotional, social etc.).
But another important question is: Why can we not accept that people are different and why can’t we recognise and accept that every individual has his/her specific qualities?
Why can’t we work together? Co-operate to create a positive workforce based on the diversity of people, based on the mutual strong points and, through that, stimulate creativity, innovation and fun to work in your organisation?

Gallup research shows that an average organisation only uses 40-60% of their potential. What an incredible improvement is possible! What tremendous opportunities we have! Of course, this requires another way of looking at HRM "tools" like recruitment, appraisal, training & development, etc. And yes, it requires especially another management style and another way of (cultural) thinking in the organisation.
But, just take a look at successful organisations, what can we learn from them? Where is the HRM benchmark??? It is not their strategy and it is not their marketing plan, which in my eyes is (oh yes, necessary, but) only "paperwork".
No, it is the way (top)management involves and commit their staff, their "human capital", their human potentials. It is the way management challenges their employees, the way management uses the expertise and skills of their staff, and the way they create a positive team spirit in their organisation.

Can it be applied to Croatia?

I regularly get the question: Yep, that sounds very nice, ALI... is that possible in our Croatian culture?? And my answer is simple: Yes! Of course it is possible!
ALI, it only requires a different mind set, it requires from you to look at the positive side of live and of your people, and it only requires to practice positive thinking and consistency in your management style.

What about you? Do you want to improve? Do you want to make your organisation more effective and productive, do you want it to be a better place?

In May 2011 we organise a seminar in Zagreb based on a strength based approach where everybody is welcome to find his/her strength and to work on the opportunity to co-create his/her own future.

John Lodder – www.balance-consultancy.com