PRINCIPLE: Images of Agreement

This is you.

This is the organization.

When you choose to join an organization, you do so with the belief that you and the organization are in agreement.

You agree on meeting each others’ needs. You agree on your salary and benefits. You agree on your roles and responsibilities towards each other.

You agree on your commitments to each other. You both agree to give up some things in exchange for other things.

You agree on your shared values and ways of doing things. You agree on norms and how you will behave towards one another.

You agree on your shared purpose and vision. You agree on goals. You agree on what you are both trying to achieve.

And you do so with the belief that together, you will produce more than what you put in individually.

At least, that’s the hope. You hope that you are fully in agreement. You hope that you are NOT compromising important things in exchange for LESS important things.

You hope that you are not sacrificing your values in exchange for a paycheck. You hope that you are not sacrificing your time with family in exchange for benefits. You hope you are not sacrificing your freedom for forty hours or more of being unfulfilled. You hope that you are not sacrificing your vision and purpose in exchange for a vision and purpose you do not believe in.

When you compromise, you are half-in, half-out. You are not as engaged as you would be if you were in total agreement. And the differences between you and the organization will slowly magnify until those differences are all you can see.

“…but one truth abides. Shift happens.” - Barry Oshry, Seeing Systems

Maybe you shift. Your needs may shift. Your goals may shift. Your commitments may shift. Your values may shift.

And you find yourself no longer in agreement with your organization.

Maybe the organization shifts. Its needs may shift. Its goals may shift. Its commitments may shift. Its values may shift.

And you find yourself no longer in agreement with your organization.

Maybe you BOTH shift together. Your needs may shift together. Your goals may shift together. Your commitments may shift together. Your values may shift together.

And you will find yourselves CHANGED, but still in agreement with each other.

This is rare.

More often, a shift occurs, and either you or the organization chooses to ignore the shift. Because of inertia. Because of fear. Because of denial. Because of avoidance. Because of laziness. Because of complacency.

Until at last, one of you can’t ignore the shift any longer.