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Reversal Theory: changing your organisation for the better

By Stephen Carter (May 2005 Issue)
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Here’s a scenario you might recognise. A team of hard-working salespeople, who have already been successful in working together, is given a new set of targets – their toughest yet – by senior management keen to see how much value and profitability can be squeezed out of the team. True, the financial rewards the team members can expect for on-target performance are very substantial, but the targets are truly daunting.

From the outset, team members feel anxious about being able to meet the new targets. This anxiety quickly leads to a situation where the team feels driven to fail. This communicates itself to sales prospects, which don’t pick up a sense of energy and excitement from the salespeople. Worsening sales results make the team even more anxious, serious and generally low-spirited. This also gets picked up by prospects; sales dip even further. Before long, a team of, in principle, well-motivated high-performers is struggling to turn in even a nondescript performance. As for the new targets, they seem now like impossible dreams.

Radical new understanding of what it is to be human and techniques aimed at maximising and fulfilling the human potential for contribution at work, happiness and career success are being developed and these techniques are based on Reversal Theory. ...

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