MISHLOVE: Well, sociologists have long said that we go through life with a persona; we wear a mask. It's not really us; our real feelings are hidden underneath the mask. And I think what I am understanding from your discussion is that as organizations go through great change, as we deal with transition, we have to let more of ourselves come out, that we can't continue this personal business -- that we have to communicate. It's so essential, because of the change. 

SCOTT: I find the organizations that do that, it takes them less time to go through the change. And I think in some ways it's not really peeling away the mask, but it's the person coming up behind the mask and coming through the mask. 

MISHLOVE: Letting them shine, so to speak. 

SCOTT: Yes. So I think that the organizations that do that, Jeffrey, really have a head start. I don't know any organization that's not dealing with change these days. And the question they keep asking is, "I can't make my people do it." See, they do the deals on the top, but they can't get the heart to follow. And they don't understand what it takes to move people through that, and recreate loyalty, recreate commitment, recreate a way of working together where people can come back to work after a large change. 

MISHLOVE: In other words, the people at the top actually are able to go through this process, but then it gets stuck somewhere in the organization. 

SCOTT: They go through it, but they don't tell anybody; they don't really come forward as the leaders of the change. They want the personnel people or somebody else to do it. Often I find myself coaching the top people, because if they can get out and be the leaders, then the organization will follow them. 

MISHLOVE: This has to do with leadership, really. In effect you're saying that a corporate leader, a manager of people, has to lead from the heart.
 
SCOTT: And if they haven't been through the change process themselves completely, they won't understand. It's the same thing with divorce or other things. If you don't say goodbye well, you never say hello well. A lot of people never say goodbye. Sometimes you have to back up and say goodbye. 

MISHLOVE: Well, there's so much grief in our culture. We're dealing with so many social problems -- drugs, alienation, homelessness. Isn't there a sense in the corporate world that we've got to just keep a kind of lid on these personal things and not let them interfere? 

SCOTT: But they do anyway. If ten or fifteen percent of your people are alcohol- or drug-addicted -- you know, the sandwich generation is dealing with not only managing their children, but managing their parents. 

MISHLOVE: The baby boomers. 

SCOTT: The baby boomers are really stretched to the limit right now, and I think the employers that understand the balancing of work and family, they are also dealing with two issues that are coming up very acutely -- recruitment and retention. You see, people want to work for companies that understand that balance. They've gotten fifty-one percent of their women into the workplace. To get the other forty-nine percent they're going to have to deal with those issues. The companies that are creatively addressing it -- it's not just a woman's issue, either; it's a corporate/ family balancing issue. 

MISHLOVE: So the pressure is coming from both directions -- from people who want more self-actualization in their lives, who want to be able to realize more of themselves, and from the economic and competitive pressures in the business world, which are saying we must become more productive, we must really fully utilize our human resources. 

SCOTT: It's a human capital management issue. Those are very economic terms, and they sound very cold, but I think we have to look at those for making the humanistic argument, and I think we have to be able to weave that around the other issues, because it sure makes a difference. I have one hospital now that has forty physicians that they have not been able to recruit or retain. It's not because there aren't enough physicians; it's because the organization that they've created is not someplace where people want to work. 

MISHLOVE: Cynthia Scott, we're out of time now, but it's been such a pleasure getting into the meat of human relations and change in corporations. 

SCOTT: Good, Jeffrey. Thank you. 

MISHLOVE: Thanks so much for being with me. 

SCOTT: Thank you. 

END OF INTERVIEW 
 
 

Previous "Dolphin Relationship Lagoon" pages:
 

#1	How to Develop Self Esteem
#2	Love Them, Anyway
#3	Perf Measurements at Call Centers
#4	Staff Empowerment
#5	Team Training for Your Teams
#6	Handling Confrontations
#7	Social Support
#8	The Power of Influencing...
#9	Expectations
#10	Impression
#11	Learning Through the Ages
#12	Instructions for Life
#13	More Instructions for Life
#14	Inner Feelings with Virginia Satir
#15	More conversations with Virginia Satir
#16	What I've Learned in Life
#17	What Do You See?
#18	If the World Were a Village...
#19	Lessons from Noah's Ark
#20	Discussion with Albert Ellis, Part I
#21	Discussion with Albert Ellis, Part II
#22	Discussion with Albert Ellis, Part III
#23	Discussion with Albert Ellis, Part IV
#24	Discussion with Albert Ellis, Part V
#25	Discussion with Beverly Potter, Part I
#26	Discussion with Beverly Potter, Part II
#27	Discussion with Beverly Potter, Part III
#28	Discussion with Dennis Jaffe, Part I
#29	Discussion with Dennis Jaffe, Part II
#30	Discussion with Dennis Jaffe, Part III
#31	Discussion with Dennis Jaffe, Part IV
#32	Discussion with James Kouzes, Part I
#33	Discussion with James Kouzes, Part II
#34	Discussion with James Kouzes, Part III
#35	Discussion with James Kouzes, Part IV
#36	Discussion with Cynthia Scott, Part I
#37	Discussion with Cynthia Scott, Part II
#38	Discussion with Cynthia Scott, Part III

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