A prominent neuroscientist was asked, “What do emotions have to do with learning?” His reply. “If you want to learn a foreign language quickly, fall in love with someone who only speaks that language.”

There’s no doubt that generating and tapping positive energy is one of the great challenges for business. But what about the other side of emotions – what may be termed ‘destructive’ emotions?

A couple of years ago the news media reported a punchup in the executive suite of a large Australian organisation. Tensions were high in the organisation, and not just at the higher echelons. At around that time I was asked to facilitate a solution to a conflict at operational level in an organisation, in which the senior manager in one division had been told that he would be knifed if he attended a Christmas party. That conflict was estimated to be costing the organisation $500,000 per year in lost productivity.

Most of us have seen, or felt, the destructive effects of sustained anger and resentment in businesses, at Board and Executive levels, as well as in personal life. An article by Deb Richards in the weekend Australian Financial Review in 2005 focused on anger in the workplace, and what it costs business in hard earned money.

Paul McCarthy, at Griffith Business School in Australia, estimated an average cost of $20,000 per employee per annum. That amount is calculated on the impact on productivity, absenteeism, personnel turnover, management time and the cost of implementing various HR and grievance procedures to deal with the issues created by the anger.

I think of anger and passion as two sides to the coin of creative energy. The difference lies in how we frame and direct the energy – in other words, our choices.

Anger in the workplace is often blocked or frustrated passion. The passion drives a sense of purpose, accomplishment, freedom to fully express and be the best a person can be. Empowering corporate cultures create and direct that passion and the energy that goes with it.

Tapping into that power is one of the main keys to productivity and profits. If the passion is blocked, frustration, anger and resentment soon follow, and productivity will decline along with profits.

When working on corporate culture change projects, it is easy to observe just how prevalent negative emotions can be in many businesses, and the crucifying effect on productivity. In one particular company, the managers were sending their most difficult people to our change workshops to get ‘fixed’. They considered those people to be troublemakers. However, what we found in the workshops was a little different – that most of those ‘troublemakers’ wanted to do their best for the company, but were stifled by bureacracy and a controlling management style, and expressed years of frustration in their anger. They didn’t need to be ‘fixed’. They needed tools to enable them to unblock the pipes and to direct their energy to more productive outcomes.

Once we realised that by simply providing some simple skills the negative energy could be switched 180 degrees to a positive energy with a substantial immediate impact on the organisation, we actually began to ask for ‘troublemakers’ to be sent to the workshops. Within 6 months their managers were asking to be taught the same skills.

That was how Spandah’s flagship program the MasterProcess was born. I liken the MasterProcess to the martial art of Aikido – in which the attacker’s energy is turned around to neutralise the attack with very little effort. Except in the case of the MasterProcess, the energy is then immediately directed towards a productive outcome and the art is in asking questions that change the way people think, choose and behave.

If there is negativity in the workplace, there is usually a simultaneous opportunity to improve the business, productivity and profit. Karen Weedon, a Brisbane based organisational psychologist, has researched the issue of anger in the workplace, and found that the worker starts to withdraw his or her loyalty to the company in the early stages of anger. If the situation is not dealt with in time, the worker will leave.

Weedon points out that the worker’s relationship with the boss is important in limiting the losses that arise from anger in the workplace. If they thought that the boss was a good person, they stayed loyal, despite the anger.

However, that’s no way to live. The issues simply need to be dealt with by a process that creates solutions to the core problem. Last year one of the MasterProcess participants sent me an email after their workshop, and said that, prior to the workshop, she was intending to leave her company, as she had perceived the problems that she faced there as being insurmountable and had become angry and disillusioned. During the workshop she was able to see the light, worked out a number of opportunities and strategies for changing her situation at work, and decided to take up the challenge to create a sustainable work environment.

Instead of losing a very capable person, the company now has an advocate, and has retained her energy and expertise to deal with issues that had been undermining the morale of many of her colleagues. That resolution will be worth at least $100,000 to the company just in the local work area by retaining that person’s experience and knowledge, and avoiding the costs of finding and training a replacement. Across the company, the value of the solution (which extended beyond the local area) is worth a lot more.

As an end note, I have a friend who regularly buys into, and turns around, ailing companies. Among other criteria, he looks for companies that have a couple of executives who are at each other’s throats and are limiting the potential of the company, or where the company’s leaders have created a stifling culture (there’s often a lot of ego tied up with both elements). One of my friend’s first tasks is to offer the relevant executives the opportunity to work out their differences, or (if they can’t) to receive a golden handshake. Once the warring executives have resolved their differences or (more often) received a golden handshake, he is able to shift the company to an empowering culture and return to profits within 12 months (and a few $million increased personal wealth). Nice work if you can get it.

By Christo Norden-Powers          Copyright 2006 Spandah Pty Ltd