The following was published in
People Performance Magazine, November 2001.
Bloody Well Listen Will you!
Tony Page is a consultant, change agent and author. The
story he has written here highlights issues of fear, trust and change.
Is he over dramatic or has he articulated what is really
going on in most companies?
_________________________________________
Don't try to shut me up!
Don't try to shut me up!
Shouts Jo the service worker
To Chris the startled CEO in the staff canteen
In a voice, loud, enraged, passionate, indignant,
threatening
Yes. Possibly drunken
Eyeball to eyeball, like an animal, attacked, cornered, in
terror, desperate not to die
Don't turn away
Don't ignore me.
You say we're a well run ship
And you come down from on high and pay us a
visit
Why? To boost our morale?
And we put on a show. Nice. Polite
hellos. Smiles. False
questions. Best behaviour
Well I've conformed, smiled, pretended, kept the peace
Treated you as my
customer. For the last 2 years I've tried to keep you happy
Mockingly. Is everything all right sir?
Well guess what? No it's not alright!
CEO forcing a smile glances towards the exit
But being on public show is rooted to the spot
Worker, animated in this moment of truth
Has trapped the CEO and demands to be heard
Don't laugh, make fun
Or make me smaller than I feel already
Don’t divert me, and don't interrupt, or pull
the rug from under me
I've let you do this before.
Don't give me your polite voice
Your patronising
air.
Your politician's answers
Don't spin me in your babble of missions and
visions and values
I'd rather you knocked me flat or sacked me
At least that would be an honest reaction
You have been cold, distant, unknowable
Until you respect me then I cannot trust where
you're taking us.
Outside life goes on
Inside a frozen nightmare moment
Revealing the stakes
The organisation in play
Worker, surrounded by colleagues, betting a job and a
livelihood
CEO risking reputation, career, personal fortune
Unusually struck dumb
Nods to let the worker continue.
And don't clam up either
Like I'm mad and you're scared of me
I've just been silent too long
This way of running things
It is eating me up
The pressure of one way traffic has been
killing me
While I rant and rage like
this, I might make no sense to you
But at least for once I feel tinglingly, brilliantly alive.
Distractedly. Don't call security yet
I know I'm breaking the rules
And this is out of order
Then more animated. But I'm bringing you something
And maybe it's right to bring you this
Then we must argue, fight
And find out directly
Distractedly again. But find out what?
Facing the CEO squarely. Your face is set now
and I see fear behind your rigid smile
What is the truth behind your fear?
Give me your anger, your sadness, your truth
If it's complicated make it simple for me
Is the truth too terrible to voice?
What is your hidden agenda? Yet more stock
options?
Are you on my side?
Are you trying to save us, sell us or break us
up?
Well, I'm bringing you… what? Something.
A wake-up call.
Look at our organisation, our call centres,
labs, factories and offices
Yes we're different for sure, global now, but
where's the feeling gone?
We remember the blood, the work, and the worry
that got us here
But we're not sure you remember us, the people
inside and outside who keep you here
This game of roulette you're playing doesn't
make sense to us
Have you noticed the lights are on but no
one's at home?
As if possessed. I speak for those people, inside and outside
And I have set you a trap
I will keep you here, in a repeating Groundhog
Day
Until you listen
But ignore me
And I won't go away
I am not a lone voice
So don't even try to get rid of me.
Like a devil. I am the
voice of the mad, bad, scared and stupid, those you ignore
I am your call centre operator, delivery
driver, waiter and
machine operator
I am your confused HR Director, your switched
off Head of Operations, your surly Brand Manager
I am the alienated, incoherent, redundant and
outsourced
I am the
I am the doctor who treats your stressed out
workers
I am your partner, your children, the village
beside your factory
I am your shadow, the voice of humanity
knocking on your door.
Through slanted eyes. I am with you through thick and thin
In the background
Sometimes a nagging whisper, rising to a
roaring wind that blows you away
Like your shadow, always attached
Embodied in a whingeing colleague, an
estranged brother, a mother in law, a disloyal friend
Ignore me and I'll kick up fuss
Like a virus
I'll spoil your life
I'll sabotage your finest plans, mess up your
tidiest rooms
Graffiti your proudest, whitest walls
Hack in and threaten your security
Riot at your orderly meetings
Corrode your certainty, disturb your sanity
I am your worst enemy, your most shameful,
darkest secret
I will harm you, your family and friends
Because, I am in you
Part of you
You will find me in all the people you meet
You can cut me out
But then you lose
Yourself
You put yourself apart
Alone behind a
screen.
Silence.
___________________________
Don’t be so pathetic!
Silence.
Chris the CEO wretched, defeated, on the floor
Exit barred
Mask ripped off
As if naked
Just a person
Emptied of wit, charm, decency
Scared, wounded, writhing in pain.
Inside are screaming questions.
Why? Why have they attacked you?
You lead. You do what's right.
You fight and rescue, fools from oblivion
You try to win, to prove their worth
And hungry to prove yours
You dine in bankers boardrooms, do the deals
Invest, transform, provide returns
Your anger rising, demands release
Don't be so pathetic
Oh God! Should you say that?
But that's how you feel after the tirade
Hearing you I'm fed up, and doubly let down
Fed up at your moaning, nostalgic, stuckness
Let down by your upside-down performance
Complaints up, accidents up, costs up, sales
down
When will you grow up and get on with your job?
When will you get the message?
You're in an industry at war
We're fighting for customers, battered,
scarred
They are so blinkered, blind, naive
Loud echoes, dark shadows, fighting parents, tears and shame
The old impossible trap
To hold and hide
Or let go, enflame, destroy
Is there a way to shrink the gulf between you?
You may not know I was physically sick
The day we axed your colleagues' jobs
Each day I dread the fights
Killing competitors, calming customers
Squeezing suppliers, impressing investors
And now I'm brawling with you
Do you expect magic?
That's it, you do
Blaming me, the government, the world at large
How can I lead if you don't want survival,
success?
Haven't you realised we're in this together?
I can only play my part, if you play yours
You say I'm failing you
Look at yourselves. You're failing me!
You want to get out now, close the book
But you feel you've failed and you hate to lose
Blame them if you like, but hold on!
Is there a different way for you to lead?
Could you really find your voice
Less wasted words, more understanding, and perhaps
Belief, impact, passion, responsibility?
Wouldn't that be worth something?
But how?
___________________________
Here are extracts from online
dialogue when the piece was posted in NI in September 2001
-----Original
Message-----
From: jane.humby@ons.gov.uk
[SMTP:jane.humby@ons.gov.uk]
Sent:
To:
Subject: Re: NI - Welcome back - and does this strike a chord with anyone?
Tony,
I could compose a tune with the
number of chords struck!
-----Original
Message-----
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject: RE: NI - Welcome back - and does this strike a
chord with anyone?
Tony hi and welcome back with a bang..pictures of you emerging
from a cloud
of red smoke about to tell your tale.
Yes it strikes a chord...it's felt
like the first week back at school this
week, holidays over for a while (tho' not for long in my case)and thank
goodness the phones are ringing again and
people are telling their tales of
need and eagerness for change again.
Your poem comes just as I'm trying
to think through a response to a CEO, met
for the first time yesterday, who now
wants me to send details of past
assignments, the measures of success and levels
af achievement so he can
feel safer about knowing I can meet his
needs. And yet what fills my head
and my senses is the brutality of his
environment, the 30% illiterate
workforce and the folk throughout the
organisation who don't care, who've
had their 'psychological contract
broken at least 6 times' and the bit in
the early part of the conversation when
I saw his eyes flicker when he
boldly said he's made 1000 redundant.
Later, on surer ground personally, I
took him back and asked him about the
flicker and he told me about how he
was physically sick over the
redundancies and I saw the hard man who cares
and who knows that he's in an industry
and position that means he could go
to prison if an accident occurs, where
politics are hugely influential and
his bosses would 'hang him out to dry'
if something goes wrong. And of
course I pick up the fear and the anxiety
as well as the boldness and think
and think and feel and feel before I
will find the response and the heart to
say what I want and need to say. My
belief is this client would understand
your poem only too well.
Yvana
----Original
Message-----
From: James Souttar
[SMTP:ancient@urizen.demon.co.uk]
Sent:
To:
Subject: NI - Re: Welcome back - and does this
strike a chord with anyone?
Lovely, Tony. … A beautiful
meditation that gets to the heart of
organizational life in 2001.
And I thought I was the ranter here! (Move over Billy Bragg ;-)
James
-----Original
Message-----
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject: NI - The poem
Tony and friends
Tony- well done on
your poem. it got me thinking
and feeling too.
this week two of the individuals that i coach have been casualties. The
first actually attempted suicide-parrtly because of a bullying boss. The
second has been encouraged to find a new job
because his new manager will
not stand up to the senior manager who
has his favourites! So alot of us
see the damage that some leaders can
do!
The real question is do some of us want to do something about this. we are
an influential group and perhaps we
could think about working as a group to
help raise the standard of
leadership? of
course life is not this simple!
And as we have already seen some of
the tough bastards do have a heart!
i got a bit depressed earlier today
because i look at real organisational
life through the jottings in NI and some
of it seems far from great. So
what are we doing??
Should we try to raise the issues a
bit more?
As a group of internal and external
consultants whoare all involved with
change-could we hold a day next year where
we invited key memebers of the
press to listen to some of the better
things that can happen in
organisations??
I guess i am kite flying at the moment-my
point is that
perhaps NI has been quite inward
looking-with some diversions-is there some
energy for us to do some educating or
issue raising??
Well done Tony on starting anoher ball rolling.
Cheers
-----Original
Message-----
From: Shugar, Nic [SMTP:nshugar@nextera.com]
Sent:
To: '
Subject: Your poem
Tony
I really value your sharing of the
inner voices that have emerged as "don't
try to shut me up". Great poem!
Thank you.
I recall some time ago wrestling
with powerful emotions to conceive and
articulate a poem; the words wouldn't lie down
until tamed and placed in
shape.
Besides acknowledging your
creativity, my reason for e-mailing you is to ask
whether I might copy the poem inside a
client to remind the leadership of
the potential that lies locked up in
their organisation?
Sadly, will miss
the live problem page day. Hope to catch up with you before
too long.
All good wishes
Nic
-----Original
Message-----
From: Andy Symons
[SMTP:andy.symons@peakperspectives.co.uk]
Sent:
To: Tony
Page; 'Tony'
Subject: RE: NI - Digest Number 238
Looks like a piece of drama -- the
basis for a play?
A.