Recently, I decided to find out how I could turn my very desperate yard into a private sanctuary. As I worked, I lamented about my failed efforts to grow a lawn. I had scraped the top soil, added weed killer and patiently tended my new grass, but within a year the weeds were making a fierce come back.

In the battle that raged, I mused that weeds were like the unwanted behaviours that companies keep trying to change in their employees. Some remove the persons they think are causing or encouraging the wrong behaviour, others apply rules and sanctions. In most cases the company gets change for a short period of time, but eventually the employee falls back into the unwanted behaviours.

As I searched the internet looking for answers to my lawn issues. I came across this photo. I realised that while I was pulling weeds above the soil, there was this whole network of roots that eventually just grew back. I simply wasn’t getting deep enough to actually remove the main root cause of my problem.

In the same way businesses today, target the behaviours that they see in the employee. The problem is, that all the lectures and the training that they provide, is much like the treatment I was giving my weeds. It simply took off the top, outward part of the problem. The root remains, hence it is only a matter of time before the unwanted behaviour returns.

I continued to read up on lawn care, and I found out that most ‘native’ plants or weeds have a symbiotic interdependence with the fungi, bacteria and other beneficial microorganisms which allows them to survive even in harsh conditions. The plants that we introduce do not. To increase the new plants chance of survival I would have to find ways to adjust the soil content to better support the new grass by providing the right nutrients, salinity, water levels and microorganisms.

So too, people come with a number of ‘native’ behaviours, beliefs and practices that have helped them to survive and flourish throughout their lives. These are well ingrained and once the values and the practises of the company support them they remain strong. When a manager realises that some of the ingrained behaviours of employees are not in line with company expectations, they provide employees with information and expect change. But this is not realistic, since few of us able to change deep seated and often unconscious responses without help. Others turn to training with the hope of planting new knowledge and behaviour, but this is the equivalent of planting new grass in soil that contains lots of the native grass (weed) seeds. The grass may grow, but so will the weeds and in moments of difficulty the unwanted behaviour will superseed the new behaviours.

The only way to bring about long lasting change is to address the soil, that is the work enviornment. This can only be done by rewarding and encouraging the new behaviours and removing incentives for wrong behaviours. Companies must consider new practices and policies, while managers must use new approaches and set new expectations.

Lilly