BarTalk December 2004
Volume 16, Number 6

By Ginger J E Grant, MA
Balance may be simple, but it is never an easy discipline. Far too often, we are asked to take on tasks that create imbalance in our lives. When you move away from your natural strengths, imbalance is the result. A poll by the Gallup Organization discovered that the average employee spends only 20 per cent of the time actively engaged in work that maximizes his or her individual strengths. The implications are staggering. If the average engagement in North America is only 20 per cent, what would happen if you were 100 per cent engaged in your work? Doing work that you love and at which you excel? It is an interesting question to pursue: what percentage of your talent is being utilized?

What would be the difference in your firm if every person employed there was engaged in work that brought him/her recognition, meaning, and closer relationships with colleagues and clients? In a world suffering from information overload, sometimes the most powerful attention-grabbers are the things you don’t know.

If you think of your life in terms of a story, creative tension is what makes the story interesting. Justice is usually portrayed as blind, suggesting to me to move beyond what is visible to the naked eye. What is the underlying environment or culture in which you work? What is not obvious or clearly understood? What is being said that is unspoken? What are the stories told around the water-cooler?

Is there a disconnect between your external marketing message and your internal corporate culture? If so, work-life balance will become an issue, a symptom of the underlying problem. Consider your external marketing message as a promise to the associates and partners with whom you work. Does your behaviour support your promise? If inconsistent, you will constantly try to achieve “buy-in.” If inconsistent, associates and staff will respond negatively as it becomes obvious the emperor has no clothes. If consistent, you will retain valuable intellectual capital, the people who help you co-create your story on a daily basis. The story you tell externally must reflect the story you live internally. Organizational balance starts from within.

Pick an image that represents the balance you seek in your life. Now pick another image that represents the balance currently experienced in your work. Do the images differ? Such projective technique comes from the world of archetypal psychology, finding the story beneath the story. This underlying story is the foundation for your brand and should drive any external marketing effort. In order to create a brand that is effective, you must reach the heart as well as the mind. Do you communicate what you most deeply care about?

If work-life balance is an issue, you may have disconnected your story from its living source. Work-life balance is the symptom of a disease where personal aspirations are not considered, respected and more importantly honoured. The stories you tell are like a living fire. They can spark engagement and light up your future, or burn your house down. Choose them wisely.

As an example of an internal story that sparked innovation, see www.storytellings.com/clients.htm and click on Ford Commercial No. 1 (not yet released in Canada). Can you find the contract? See how the story within became the story without.

Ginger J E Grant, MA is an expert in corporate culture and creativity.

This article was published in the December 2004 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2004, all rights reserved.