Rule #1: Adapt or die
Published:Wednesday | June 2, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Glenford Smith, Contributor
ALL WORK environments are not created equal. Working in the private and public sectors can often seem like worlds apart. Generally, private corporations are run more efficiently and with greater accountability, since their survival is inextricably tied to their profitability.
To move from either work culture to the next can be somewhat of a shock to many people. As more people scramble to get whatever job they can, knowing how to cope in a new kind of work culture is critical to career success.
The following letter from a regular reader, Ann, to this column highlights one side of the problem:
"I worked at a bank for four years in a professional and structured environment. Now, I am at a government organisation and I'm struggling with the level of unprofessionalism that exists here.
"There is also a lot of focus on people's personalities rather than performance and competence. Actually, I'm not being given tasks that match my level of competency, as I'm not seen as a friend to the supervisors; thus, I don't feel challenged enough.
"Also, the 'guidelines' for executing job tasks are unstructured. I am sometimes being subjected to personal criticisms which really cause me to feel like an outcast.
"I'm almost two years into this job, but I'm now in the process of sending out job applications. I'm doing this with mixed feelings, however, as I want to hold on to see if change will come. What should I do?"
Here's what Ann should do: adapt. While it's always a good idea to explore other job options, her best response to this situation seems to be to change her expectations and attitude towards her new work culture and co-workers. This suggestion would be just as well for someone who left the public sector to take up a more tightly controlled and demanding private sector job.
Ann's dilemma reveals one of the greatest challenges to our growth and development: the insistence that people and circumstances change to our liking rather than our being flexible in the face of changing realities.
My advice to Ann is what Fast Company magazine editors and writers present as Rule #1 in their treasure trove of business wisdom, The Rules of Business. In this book, they state: "The first rule of business is the same as the first rule of life: Adapt or die."
Finding another job is rarely the answer. People are not perfect and every work culture will have things we don't like. Dr Al Siebert, a leading authority on resilience, in his book The Survivor Personality, counsels: "Employees in today's world of constant change must respond in different ways to different demands. To respond in the same fixed way to all situations reduces your ability to adapt to changing events and circumstances."
Your adaptability is the most critical resource to develop if you want to survive the change from a professional to an unprofessional work culture, or vice versa.