An Elephant is physically massive, intelligent, and enduring. In the African Savanna, elephants are a species symbolic of wild Africa. However these big animals can be tamed. In India a cruel method called, “The Phajaan“, (elephant crushing) is a method by which wild baby elephants can be tamed for domestication, using restriction in a cage, sometimes with the use of corporal punishment or negative reinforcement. There is a less cruel method where the baby elephant is pegged for months to a stamp that restricts its movement. Thereafter when it is let go it cannot move far without getting instructions.
Structure impacts behaviour both positively and negatively. Someone who works in an office (controlled environment) and goes out to start a business will deal with the transition from Corporate to Business.
When you start to work with XYZ Ltd, you bring your personality into a particular environment. That environment is controlled- for profit or impact or both. It has expectations from you. It is a show that is why you have performance reviews. Every time you walk into the doors its performance time. Never be fooled that it is a family. It is not. What you might not see is that the environment over time impacts your behavior either for the good or bad
Case in point: Martha joined KER Inc as an intern thirteen months ago. As part of the recruitment exercise she had to take the OCEAN (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) test. Results revealed Martha as an outgoing person, high on trust, open minded and incredibly organized. Last week I sat down Martha to take the test again. The revelation was interesting. Results indicated that she was less trusting, she wasn’t as open-minded as she was before. Her level of organization has incredibly dropped and she was less trusting.
“Martha you have changed”, I remarked. “You don’t seem to be trusting as you used to. What has changed?” Martha: “Sudesh, this is not School anymore. People here lie to you easily. One needs to verify everything. Besides I am learning a lot”
The Corporate environment is sharing Martha’s behaviour for the good. She is developing critical thinking skills and learning that the world has both good and bad people. While she was organized in school, it was all about following the time table and sitting for exams. The Corporate world is about getting results with ever changing dynamics. The personality that thrives in a school setting needs to be upgraded to thrive.
That is how structure impacts behaviour
