Stress: when the solution worsens the problem

The stress management movement has been around for some time and continues to receive unwarranted enthusiasm and support by often well-meaning leaders.

What I mean by this is that when we make stress sign personal efficiency requiring personal responsibility it exacerbates the problem. Not only do people have the original stress but now they have the stress of guilt and obligation to get rid of their own stress through techniques provided to them by their leaders.

It is far more accurate and effective to understand stress as the logical experience of a toxic team and organizational culture. This is a culture where people do not feel valued, connected or free to do their best. It is a culture of approval and permissions and focus on deficiencies, weaknesses and failures.

Stress logically decreases when the culture becomes healthier. Culture is the effective point in context for intervention. And best of all it doesn't require a change management program because we all intrinsically long for healthy team and organizational environment.

Rethinking stress at work

Stress at work is considered to be a symptom of myriad contributing conditions. We associate stress with having things out of our control, having more demands that we have capacity, having problems and uncertainties, feeling undervalued or undervalued or devalued.

An alternative hypothesis is that stress is a logical result of working from the wrong questions. The evidence for this in part is found in the fact that when we feel inspired and engaged in our work it is when we are fact working from good questions.