MEANING = ENGAGEMENT
The executives surveyed by McCall and his colleagues said
that while the notion of mentors was a nice idea, it didn’t work
very well, either because they didn’t stay in one place in the or-
ganization long enough to benefit from such a relationship or
because the so-called mentors were relatively ineffectual. But
the organization itself should serve as a mentor. Its behavior,
its tone, and its pace instruct, positively or negatively, and its
values, both human and managerial, prevail. If its meaning, its
vision, its purposes, its reason for being, is not clear, if it does
not reward its employees in tangible and symbolic ways for
work well done, then its reflective structures are inadequate,
and in effect it’s flying blind.
Corporate vision operates on three levels: strategic, which is
the organization’s overriding philosophy; tactical, which is that
philosophy in action; and personal, which is that philosophy
made manifest in the behavior of each employee. If you want to
measure the effectiveness of, say, a retail operation, measure
the attitude of any clerk in any store. If the clerk is rude, unin-
formed, helpless, chances are the top executives either are inept
or lack a coherent vision. To enlarge on an Emerson statement
mentioned earlier: the organization is only half itself; the other
half is its expression.
Because reflection is vital—at every level, in every organiza-
tion—and because burnout is a very real threat in today’s hectic
atmosphere, all executives should practice the new three R’s:
retreat, renewal, and return. Academia has long recognized the
value of the sabbatical, and so should other organizations. Ken
Olson, then CEO of Digital Equipment, took two weeks off
every summer and spent them canoeing, far from phones or
any other links with his office. Then Prosecutor Jamie Raskin
Organizations Can Help—or Hinder