Obviously, at some point in time every organisation has to recruit people to work in it.
In the Chapter on Leadership I stated that the first thing that a leader needs is people to believe, – and that the most enduring believers are those who are a little sceptical. I then stressed that the leader needs to take care of believers.
The same is true for organisations.
If we wish to have a leadership role in easing the distress of very hurt people we must firstly identify people who will believe in the path that we want to take i.e. our vision.
We then need to listen carefully so that the vision is a cooperative and collective venture (as I have stated a number of times) of the ideas and energy of the people who matter most and the professional boundaries necessary to work in a safe and progressive manner.
Voices need to be heard, so that a sense of belonging is engendered and everyone feels that they truly have a stake in what the organisation is trying to achieve.
Now if we have experienced a lot of hurt in life it may manifest in different ways in respect of who we choose to believe in.
We might have a bit (or a lot) of scepticism. This (very wise) scepticism will almost always be because we may have trusted in the past and then felt very let down. Therefore we may follow at a distance – wondering what will happen or who else will get involved before we make a final decision.
Or in our desperation to have a better life for ourselves and our families we may follow too closely or too quickly – placing all our trust immediately in the organisation only to be disappointed at the (inevitable) slow pace of change and seemingly never-ending problems.
One way or another, early believers are very important, and will set the tone, or culture for people who come along later.
They may not fully control how the organisation will evolve, but (as we know from Systems Theory) they will be influential.
And, when we set up an organisation to assist families in our Focus Group, if no-one from the people who matter most believe, (i.e. are not attracted) it is probably because the leaders are not in touch with the needs, and/or there is no, or insufficient Cultural Matching.
In such a case the leadership group probably needs to follow the lead of the people who may come up with ideas that are a lot better – because they are born of experience.
This Sub-Chapter on Recruitment will propose a different way of attracting believers than the traditional recruitment process.