Organizational Schizophrenia:
Preserving Your Mental Health in the Midst of Contradictions

Presenter: David Irvine
Format: Workshop
Prerequisite: Audience needs to have attended an Accountability and Authenticity session before attending this session.

Life and leadership in organizations can be very complex, wearing us down with endless contradictions. We hear announcements such as, “Be effective and try new things,” when we know that trying new things will put some of our effectiveness at risk. Or, “Don’t give me bad news, but at the same time, tell me exactly what’s going on.” Or, “Do more work with less resources.” Or, “Reduce your budget, but make sure we have 20% more output to satisfy the growing demand.” Such conflicting messages persuade us to either go crazy trying to accommodate both sides of the contradiction, or simply give up, responding with, “This is ridiculous. It makes no sense. I’ll just do what I want.” Either response means succumbing to the resulting insanity.

• Why is there is a tendency for organizations to become schizophrenic?
• Why are these issues significant to the lives of employees and the life of an organization?
• How do these contradictions effect the organization and the people?
• What you can do about it?

You will leave this presentation with practical insights and strategies to:

• Discover your most powerful resource in the midst of organizational schizophrenia.
• Preserve your integrity and positive impact in your organization in the midst of the contradictory messages.
• Sustain your accountability to yourself and to your organization.

Learning to deal authentically with contradictions means transforming stress into fulfillment by being a voice of influence instead of a victim of circumstance.