The importance of Organizational Culture
What is typically called the 11 to 1 Ratio?
As discussed in the unit materials, For every negative person in your organization it takes 11 positve people to make up for that one person. Negativity also means that employees don't believe or practice the Mission and Vision or Philosophy of the organization.
How is it at your school?
Joe
Unfortunately, I believe there is a lot of sarcasm used as humor in my organization. I've been guilty of it myself but don't excuse it. We have an excellent director of education and she's hired great instructors so that contributes to our retention significantly. Were it not for that, I think our drop rate would be outrageous. Our team needs to focus more on modeling positive attitudes. We do OK on monitoring but we need to practice more of what we preach.
Melanie,
You did a great job of describing how effective a good model is. Your director of education may be contributing to other staff and faculty just by modeling the right kind of behavior.
Thanks for the input.
I definitely agree that it takes 11 positive people to offset that one negative person. In an organization I've worked for, the staff was not happy, for various reasons. So, of course, they didn't want to do more than what they were being paid for. This is sometimes conveyed to the students, sometimes enhancing their dissatisfaction.
It is difficult to work with people who are
negative. Also those who only do what they are
Paid for seldom even do that much. That is
one place where the 11 to 1 ratio can really
effect a class or school structure when
the negatives may not only be the instructors
but the students as well. Motivating
students as well as other employees to do
better without telling them what to do or
making them feel worse about their work
or the class can be very difficult but maintaining
a positive attitude and maintaining a
healthy sense of humor will sometimes
make the difference for them and onself.
I have a vocal coach that calls this negativity "withholding." it's about selfishly claiming your energy and clinging to a lowest common denominator rather than letting it flow, realizing that you are part of a larger point of view, a greater harmony beyond the scope of your understanding.
Although I may slip into sarcasm once in a while, on the whole I do try to stay posative and help others do the same. It is very frustrating when people are negative. But I do my part in trying to make others "see the light". 99% of the time I wake up and "get" to go to work, and enjoy my job and the people around me. I know that there are some people that may never think this way, but I can only immagine how great it would be to come to work if everyone thought like that.
No one is perfect. We've all slipped into the sarcasm role once in a while, but the trick is to be positive most of the time, and also be able to identify when you are being negative. There have been times when i've found myself being negative, and usually that comes from a previous interaction with a negative person, and all of a sudden I take a step back (mentally) and think about why I work where I do. At that point, i usually realize how much I do enjoy teaching, and how much i hated previous jobs that were meaningless. It's important to want to come to work everyday.
I've found that this "wanting" to come to work creates a postive chain reaction among the students. The more students you can keep positve, the better the overall class experience will be.
Well thought out response.
Isn't it great to work in a business that changes lives everyday?
Best,
Joe
11 positive people are needed to overcome 1 negative person. Having a negative person can greatly affect an entire group. It is very important to continuously have positive effects on students, because negativity can come from various diections. I try to think about different positive influences to instill on the students, so that every day they have something influential coming from me and maybe that can move around the group effectively.
Excellent! Most people don't know that they are being negative. They are one of the "ones" that it takes 11 others to counter. They just need to become aware that they are negative.
Having a small class size really makes the 11 to 1 ratio very challenging. I agree with your comment, Christine. I also try to be positive and influential to each student daily. When they are in my class, I try to inspire them with positive situations that I have been through, in hopes that they can relate, which keeps the class motivated and positive.
I have witnessed the same affects with my students. When I say to them on the first day of class, "This is the one job I have had in my life that I truly look forward to coming to everyday", the students' expressions tell me I am in the right place.
Roy,
I have also witnessed the same affects with my students. I was in public education before career education, and I was just as miserable as my students at times. Now, however I tell my students every term that I would show up each day to work with them even if I didn't get paid. I can see the comfort in their eyes when they heard that statement.
In a barrel of apples, one bad one makes the others unpalatable.
Daniel,
This is very true. The one bad apple only ruins the others if it stays in the barrel long enough.
negative people breed negative attitudes. I personally am not one of those super perky positive people but I do think that if you think negative about yourself then you will fail. Students sometime don't realize that if they think negative then negative things will happen. I am not so crazy to think that if you think positive everything will be hunky dory either, but it does help with your outlook.
I too am guilty of sarcasm and did not understand how detrimental it was. I would suggest the antidote is to get others in a problem solving mode. I would suggest the use of De Bono's six thinking hats. Red for feeling discussions, black for what can go wrong, yellow for positive discuss, etc. Refer to the following website for further discussion.
