Containment…the key to productivity!

Tom was resisting his boss’ request that he write a job description. He felt that to do so would put him in a box and limit his creativity, freedom and, in his mind, his effectiveness. His boss had made the request as a way to begin to bring some structure and accountability to Tom’s work process. Tom wanted to be seen and recognized as a “player” within his company. Unfortunately, his self perception didn’t match that of his peers or supervisors who saw him as far too scattered and undisciplined to be taken seriously.

Relatively young and new to leadership positions, Tom didn’t have or appreciate the need for a structure that allowed for catalyzing his considerable talents. By formulating a job description Tom would essentially be creating a containment field that would cause him stress. This is the good news! Without the stress created by the containment field there could be no directed or intentional action on Tom’s part. Tom’s ideals of and for himself could not coalesce – they would continue to be scattered and unfocused.

In a very real sense, the stress generated by the creation of the constraining job description provides energy. The nature of this particular containment field, a job description, allows for a directed channeling of that energy. Essentially, the containment field of the job description becomes a dynamo – a generator – that has the potential of putting Tom’s ideals into motion in a way that may result in him becoming recognized as the “player” he believes himself to be.