US AND THEM? Call in Frank, Dick and Jane!

Business managers are victims of an age-old, very damaging ailment. It's called the Us and Them Syndrome and although we think of it as an attitude problem, in many ways it's like a communication "disease" that infects businesses at virtually all levels. Management and hourly will never see eye-to-eye, right? Many hourly people and supervisors think executive managers spend their time with their feet up on a desk, pulling shenanigans in the ivory tower. And if you happen to reside in the ivory tower, you probably believe those hourly people and front-line supervisors just can't be told the whole truth. They have no sense of the broad perspective that senior managers use to guide an organization. Sound about right? Us...and them. Because of this syndrome senior management teams expend an enormous amount of time and energy working through productivity, safety and other employee problems. Well, here's the good news. The Us and Them Syndrome is not a given. It can be "treated". The companies who make it their business to do so and "get well" find themselves at a tremendous advantage on the business playing field. While their competitors trudge along in the mistaken belief that us and them just comes with the territory, these newly energized companies experience a greatly improved commitment to company goals and an increased understanding on everyone's part of what it takes to be successful in business.