Not only individuals have different levels of mental health; organizations do as well. This is very important to know for a certain type of people who have difficulty adapting to the environment in which they work. Individuals with higher levels of mental health cannot adapt to a work environment if it has a lower level of mental health than theirs.
But how can we understand this?
By becoming familiar with what organizations with truly high levels of mental health look like.
This is why I am sharing here what the psychological profile of healthy organizations looks like. Below I have selected the most important characteristics of a work environment distinguished by a high level of mental health from the wonderful book by Robin Skynner, Life and How to Survive It. The numbering is mine, in order to highlight the different aspects of this profile more clearly.
“*In healthy companies there is (1) an attitude of inclusion, based on goodwill and trust.
In the healthiest companies (2) the taboo is not on making mistakes, but on covering them up.
Because if mistakes are covered up, there is no way to correct them. But leaders must make a great effort for this message to be understood. It is difficult to have such self-confidence that one admits mistakes. Everything we have learned encourages us to hide them…
Healthy companies (3) show interest in all aspects of the individual person.
In them, (4) individuality is highly valued, and there is a desire to hire people with unconventional qualities even for leadership positions, precisely because they carry creative potential. What is more, sometimes people with the reputation of being ‘black sheep’ are consciously hired, because the organization is willing to pay the price of minor inconveniences for having within its ranks people who are drivers of change and courageous enough to criticize the organization…
Just as in healthy families, where there is firm parental authority combined with full consultation with children, so in exceptionally healthy companies there is (5) a combination of great authority of leadership with many practices of consultation and discussion of problems with employees. Because before every decision employees have been seriously consulted and their opinion sought, even if the final decision does not coincide with theirs, they accept it more readily than if they had not been consulted beforehand.
In Japan, consultation with employees even reaches drastic proportions and appears to Western specialists as overly time-consuming, but practice shows that if sufficient time and attention are devoted to the stage of discussion, all viewpoints are heard and taken into account, then at the stage of action they are much faster, more effective, and make fewer mistakes. Because the expression of disagreement is extremely important, they create an environment in which there is no fear of expressing constructive criticism – for example, when a decision is taken at a meeting, voting begins with those lowest in rank, so that they do not later have to conform to the opinion expressed by leadership.
The way decisions are made is reflected in the way control is exercised. And in exceptionally healthy companies, control is reduced to a minimum, with (7) leadership exercising control only over the most important levers (usually related to finances), and granting a great deal of freedom of action down the hierarchy.
It intervenes in their activity only when a problem arises, and this gives people down the hierarchy the reassurance that they are in a safe place and that leadership takes responsibility for the direction. The principle of exercising control is the following: do not exercise more control than is necessary at any given moment.
In mentally healthy organizations (8) authority is willingly accepted because it is used properly. If there is abuse, there are objections and, when necessary, this is corrected. The main thing in the exercise of authority is balance and flexibility in applying a firm and a gentle approach, in issuing orders and in listening and accepting.
Just as in psychologically healthy families, here too (9) full and open communication is extremely important. Companies are managed in such a way as to provide contact between people. Levels of hierarchy are reduced to a minimum. Communication from bottom to top is supported, and there is also very intensive communication from top to bottom – not only in terms of issuing tasks and directives, but providing information of all kinds regarding the company, the processes within it, the planned changes, and so on…
(10) In the most effective organizations it is very cheerful. Because there is a high level of freedom and trust, because there are black sheep scurrying about with crazy ideas, because people feel confident and supported, this naturally leads to an atmosphere of joy and playfulness. And precisely the ability to switch into childlike playfulness is one of the two main characteristics of creative personalities. The other is that they are willing to reflect on problems for longer before making a decision. To allow themselves this longer time means that they have greater inner confidence and the capacity to tolerate the frustrations of uncertainty and delay.
Just as exceptionally psychologically healthy families and individuals, exceptionally psychologically healthy companies also (11) see reality as it is, without distorting the facts about it. This is achieved because the organization has an extremely open attitude toward all information it can receive on three questions – about itself, about the external world, and about the relationship between the two.
The same applies to change – in healthy companies (12) change is seen as the norm, unlike unhealthy companies, where change is seen as an unpleasant annual exercise. Their entire way of thinking is ready to embrace innovation both with regard to the organization and to the products produced, constantly keeping an eye on the changing demands of the external world.*”
— selected quotations from the book by Robin Skynner and John Cleese, Life and How to Survive It
I have a very personal reason for wanting to share the ideas above. Years ago, I worked in an organization with very low levels of mental health, and the feeling of being an outsider was extremely painful. I could not understand what my problem was and blamed myself for it. Only after reading this book did I realize that the problem was not in me. And that changed everything. I again felt different, but I no longer suffered from that difference.
This is why I like systemic psychotherapy so much – excellently presented in the book I quoted above. According to this approach, there are no sick individuals; there are sick relationships. If relationships change, people heal. Organizations with low levels of mental health have sick relationships because of the sick rules that govern them. Take everything written above, formulate what its opposite would look like, and you will understand the characteristics of the most unhealthy organizations.
And rules, in their essence, are nothing other than values – the true essence (the soul) of the individual, the family, the organization. It is understandable that an individual with the values described above cannot adapt to an environment in which these values do not exist. Such a person either becomes neurotic or leaves.
And when they leave, they are infinitely grateful for the experience, because it helped them mature. Because gratitude for difficulties and trials is also a value. 🙂
Kameliya Hadzhiyska
