Welcome to the Machine

We induct new starters into the mystic rites of our workplaces. We treat them as lost innocents requiring special knowledge of processes and relationships to fill a place in the machinery of work. 

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine
Where have you been?
It's alright we know where you've been.

Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine, Wish You Were Here, 1975 

We induct new starters into the mystic rites of our workplaces. We treat them as lost innocents requiring special knowledge of processes and relationships to fill a place in the machinery of work.  

My induction into the workplace (and my profession) was to learn all the jobs of our team before I was allowed to do mine. I spent time filing, doing administration, and answering phones. These jobs would have been easy to take for granted when I was in full professional flight.

Early in my career, I was given practical and sustained exposure to the importance of everything that contributes to good organisational performance. It taught me about dependence and interdependence. And, perhaps most importantly, it taught me the importance of good administration to successful organisational performance.

But my induction into the workforce is also about conformity to practice, procedure, behaviour, and culture. Overdone, this conformity builds into peer pressure and social norms that can crush initiative, imagination, and wonder.

I have seen this produce organisational and team cultures that grind out diversity in thinking. I have seen a culture of malformed consensus develop, leading to mediocrity in performance. 

We who are already integrated into the machinery of work have a special responsibility to those entering our organisations for the first time to set them up for success. What enduring lessons do they need to learn? Should they be different from the lessons I was taught 30 years ago? The lessons are similar, but the context is different. 

The lessons are similar because we must still understand how the machine works. We need to learn about the parts of the machine and the interdependence between them that contributes to the functioning of the whole. We also need to understand the contribution and value of others and how we should accommodate and use differences to deliver improved performance.  

But much of the administration I learned is now automated and hidden from view. In doing these jobs, I learned the deeper lessons of work. I was learning the craft of work. This was my practical way into what work was about. In the beginning, apply the technique as taught. With experience, we learn to adapt the technique. With time, we work with the principles and question the value.  

Our working relationships are now virtual and distant. So, the details of my learning experience may no longer be relevant, but those techniques and tasks represented in good governance, effective administration, and good customer service remain relevant. We still need to find ways to impart this knowledge.  

My specific tasks were bound to that time, but the insights they gave into the deeper workings of the machine were essential. (At the time, these deeper lessons were not apparent to me, and I displayed all the deficiencies of my youth in performing these duties.)  

Our work and organisations are also different from what they once were. The structures and functions of the machine are changing—those of us who are now deep in the functioning of today’s machine need to understand this. Work, work relationships, and how we organise are adapting to new circumstances.

So, what do new entrants need to know to be successful in a machine that is in transition, a machine that is being re-made?  

These changes will most likely continue throughout the working life of those entering today’s workforce. The knowledge and experience we provide should focus on what we anticipate will be required for that world, not the one we have come from.  

And, here is the nub of the issue at the core of this conversation. This is the question that bothers me most. Is my knowledge and experience relevant to the future working world? How can I best bring young professionals into the machine? What have I learned that might set the foundations for their successful future? 

To answer that question, I think about what I have learned about the continuity of history—the cycle and themes in how we work.

• I think about problems and issues that have proven to be resistant to technical solutions. Problems that, when you think they are resolved, reappear in a new form later.

• I think about deciding where you stand about those issues and being prepared to adjust your balance between two poles rather than believing you need to solve the problem. 

• I think about the need to understand flow and turbulence in people, work, and organisation. I think about riding the flood of change and not panicking. 

• The need to be confident in your ability and those around you to find a safe path through uncertainty.

• I think about the people who have helped me throughout my career. Those who provided vital insights at critical points—those who took the time and created the space for me to learn (and wonder). I think about my responsibility to listen.  

It's mainly about those who helped me see the machine for what it was—those who helped me understand that work and organisation were not machines.

So, to all those innocents entering the workforce, welcome to the machine! Good luck!

I may not be of much use to you. 

Photo credit: Chester Alvarez on Unsplash