Act Of Aggression - Reboot Edition

[Rachelle Kun]

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Spanish students still today get prepared from earliest preschool all the way through University to function in 19th Century mechanical working environments with nepotism, autocratic behavior or best case, paternalistic management styles (culture). They are not taught how to think, collaborate, question, challenge or be in contact with their own feelings and emotions. Yet these are the main attributes needed for the digital world which needs open, collaborative and cross functional team working styles, ready to deal with the high speed, high connectivity and real time world.

Most enterprises in Spain know that they have to take the swift turn to this new culture and when asked, their leaders are able to define what they want. Their management though is often overwhelmed and unable to translate this need into practice. They too are unprepared victims of an outdated educational system and over challenged to lead the massive enterprise transformations taking place because they carry around the culture imposed by Franco's educational system, still in place.

When people (managers and workers equally) are educated like that and confronted with a hurricane, they will mostly react with fear as they do not know how to deal with the new situation. Not emotionally, not professionally. They will freeze, hide away or if pushed too hard, react with anger or even aggression, while desperately trying to hold on to their status quo. It's precisely the opposite of what needs to be happen.

The Spanish educational system has never been challenged or changed substantially and today about 65% of all public workers (including politicians and educators) are above 63 years of age. (850 thousand of them will retire in the next 2 to 3 years). This will hopefully create the room for the imperative total reboot. Fact is that whatever will happen, it will take at least 2 more generations before the "reformed" students will flow into the labor market.

In the meanwhile, Change Managers in Spain can do a lot. They can put (lots of) plugs and plasters, build small bridges for better mutual understanding and help create a minimum basis for trust and respect; help managers and workers deal with their emotions, teach collaboration on top and filter out the natural leaders and bring them into mainstream. If needed, also filter out the "untrainable ones" and start building in-house change management muscle to help undo existing behaviors and rebuild cultures in a systematic and continued way. Small additional issue is that there are almost no change managers in Spain (and no training institutions). This is part of the same problem that needs urgent addressing as well.

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