We show that unprocessed anger and grief poison organizations.
Through open dialogue, we transform the undercurrent into strength.

To process the anger and sorrow that inevitably develop in organizations, a dialogue is needed that focuses on the strength and positivity inherent in people.

Structures, processes, and routines are continuously (re)designed. Technology makes this fast and efficient. Often through pre-configured systems and processes, implemented with the help of smart experts. This often leaves “us—the people inside the organization”—behind, astonished and powerless.

We experience all of this as overwhelming and intimidating. Not that we show it. We cooperate loyally, contribute when asked, and preach the new gospel. But processing takes longer. Our ways of thinking—in words, images, and actions—have not yet adjusted. We experience incapacity, feel frustration, and develop a longing for when everything was still “like it used to be.” Eventually, this creates friction and tension. Visible in subversive behavior, in unspoken distrust, in gossip and backstabbing.

These become collective emotions that settle into the collective memory and behavior of an organization. Until we begin to find it normal not to trust each other. Normal to speak badly about one another. Common to manipulate and bargain. Even when this otherwise normal human behavior goes so far that it no longer contributes to the functioning of the organization. When the lubricant of the informal becomes the poison in our system. And with that, the poison in our own working existence.

Absorbing and processing this poison can—or even must—be a role for leaders within the organization. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true: leaders themselves, intentionally or unintentionally, can feed the undercurrent of sorrow and anger.

But more is possible. By bringing conversation back into the organization, we can begin searching for what hinders us and what gives us energy again. We can examine our ways of thinking and align them with the processes and structures that have already been put in place. We can bridge opposites, bring people together, and create connections.

Everything we once used to be toxic, we now use to detoxify. We gossip until we see what helps and what does not. We name our distrust in order to develop trust. And we examine our behavior in order to transform undermining elements into informal effectiveness.

This does not happen automatically. It requires effort, endurance, respect for those involved, and positivity. Leadership is needed to balance the hard reality of our processes and systems with the softer and more stubborn reality of our thinking and doing. Learning together begins with a good conversation. Learning together is the antidote.

Rene de Baaij