Symptoms of Problems
A ‘symptom’ is a measurable deviation from normal - or what was expected. While there are obvious symptoms associated with structural and ‘system’ problems, the truly difficult symptoms to deal with are ones that concern the people - specifically their minds. Fortunately, being symptoms, they can be measured - even ‘mind’ problems.
Humans as problems
Human symptoms in any organisation can be measured in terms of stress, absenteeism, illness, relationship failures, commitment, loyalty, trust, support, satisfaction and so on. Once symptoms are identified the suffering may be alleviated - like aspirin for short term relief. Once the cause has been identified, it can be treated to eradicate the symptoms - like surgery for longer term cure.
We have to accept that because organisations exist, and work in a competitive environment, they will make mistakes that cause internal pain. Even organisations that take extra care internally will make mistakes. Organisations can pay attention to detect early signs of mistakes - and it isn’t all that hard or expensive. Organisations can plan to be healthy so that when something hits, resilience is demonstrated with rapid treatment and recovery.
At the other end, it is quite possible that what is ‘normal’ for an organisation might be outside the parameters considered acceptable by the community at large (society). For example, if the organisation is always burning people out, it might be normal for the organisation, but is not considered ‘right’. Such an organisation probably has a pathologic (toxic to humans) environment (business practices etc). With earnest intent and external help, such organisations can turn around.
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