Monday, December 16, 2019

The Upside of Stress

Stress that is managed and harnessed leads to production, innovation, and growth

By Roberta Vriesema, CLAC Representative

There is a saying that for every truth, the opposite is true.

We all know stress can kill. But stress can also create.

It isn’t too hard to understand the first statement. As workers, you can probably point out examples of how overwhelm, overwork, and unrealistic expectations at work lead to burnout, fatigue, mental exhaustion, and even physical symptoms.

And yet stress is responsible for many great innovations.

Stress occurs when there is friction and/or limitations. Stress can come from having too much, too little—or as Goldilocks would say, just not the right amount. Stress is a sign of a problem. Stress that is left unmanaged leads to friction, failure, and destruction. Stress that is managed and harnessed leads to production, innovation, and growth.

What is the connection between the extremes of failure and innovation?

A combustion engine provides a good example.

The power of a combustion engine comes from the right mixture of fuel and air in a strong and sealed chamber where it is placed under pressure and a spark is added. That creates a tightly contained explosion, which drives a piston that can then be mechanically harnessed to literally drive forward.

When properly and precisely balanced, combustion is a force that can be harnessed, controlled, magnified, and directed. But when it is not, it is a force that is destructive and harmful. If the combustion chamber is weakened, the pressure that is meant to be contained inside can burst out in the wrong direction and destroy the engine. When the mixture of fuel and air is wrong, it can stall or misfire and lead to a different series of problems for the engine. When the piston isn’t properly aligned, its driving force can be entirely wasted—or, yet again, lead to destruction of the engine.

Taking this back to the workplace, it is not hard to determine where the workplace's stresses exist because those are the areas that lead to the most conversation and water cooler chatter.

It is perhaps the next response that is the biggest factor in determining if that stress leads to catastrophic failure or innovation.

Work stress that stays at the level of chatter is often the stress that leads to eventual burnout and further consequences. Left as the constant background and ignored serves no purpose and only leads to failure.

But where a work environment is created that defines the boundaries and the space that lays between, it can lead to the place where fuel and oxygen can mix. The chamber or boundaries that are often defined by the finances of the workplace. Materials, supplies, and tools can be considered the fuel for the organization—they are a substance that, on their own, are quite useless. Staff are like the oxygen, required to make something out of the fuel. When brought together, they can mix and combine to try new approaches and new directions to solve the problems with which they are faced. Yet alone, the mixture is not enough.

The spark is brought through leadership. Leadership here is not synonymous with the boss. Leaders are those who are willing to try, to motivate and encourage the team to redefine, readdress, and to try-try-again. Leaders are those who see failure as the next step on the road to success.

Workplaces where these elements are properly brought together are the workplaces that seem to take on a momentum of their own. It becomes a situation where the momentum becomes self propelling and people are attracted to what works. Yet, like any engine, it doesn’t take a lot to divert and shut down the fine balance.

Unlike the illustration, an employee plays a very important role. In an engine, the oxygen and the spark are two different elements. Both are added to the chamber from the outside, and yet one is not the other. In a workplace, an employee can be both the element that works with the tools and materials provided and be the leader that helps shape and direct the morale of the team, the innovation of the company, and the force that harnesses the power created in the combination. This is a choice and an opportunity.

Stress kills, but it can also lead to innovation. Which do you choose?

The Upside of Stress

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