AUTHOR S AFTERTHOUGHTS

AUTHOR'S AFTERTHOUGHTS

The first time I presented this information to a group of internal auditors , although in agreement with the concepts, they assured me that unless the concepts were quantifiable, businesses would not be receptive to including standards for emotions within their best practices evaluations. I listened. And although not everyone is as tuned into measurement as an auditor , the point was well taken. The challenge became not only to convince companies that Emotional Continuity Management is critical to success, but to provide a means to identify, assess, and evaluate human emotions in a way that is productive and compassionate. A few people suggested producing a profiling tool. As a mental health professional it has always been my opinion that such instruments deny unique differences. And as soon as a standard is established a new anomaly appears. This is a good thing. Life is ever shifting and adjustment means paying attention to those movements. Rigidity is life threatening . So, how do you document emotions?

The solution was quite simple: collect data and report your findings. Use both hard data (observations) and soft data (intuitions, feelings and impressions ) to create a full picture.

It has been my observation that people tend to feel whatever they feel. What people do with those feelings should be the only piece that is up for question. For example, wanting to scream at work may be a very appropriate feeling. Screaming at work may not be acceptable. On the other hand, if you are a professional sports person and your job includes attending sports events, screaming may be perfectly acceptable behavior. Even in this situation there are limitations such as not screaming in the face of the referee or directly into the television camera.

Companies that begin the difficult process of establishing hard and soft guidelines for emotions in the workplace are going to do better than their competition. The reports of less confusion, chaos and upheaval on a daily basis are my feedback. Companies go for longer periods of time without having to stop productivity to manage an emotional incident. If this sounds valuable to you, then perhaps your company can handle the ambiguity of the dynamics between hard and soft data of emotions.