“Our research suggests that most managers are not in tune with the inner work lives of their people; nor do they appreciate how pervasive the effects of inner work life can be on performance.” Amabile and Kramer (2007:77)
  
Traditionally companies chose not to address the emotional needs of their employees. This could be because of the influence the science of the time had on society. Soft intangible human issues were separated from the hard technical and unambiguous. One cannot deny the effect science has on our relationship with reality. When a scientist makes remarkable discoveries, society is eager to assimilate those into all walks of life. Some of these discoveries stick longer than others. This is why we refer to a new idea either being a fad or a trend, the latter having a far more profound impact on society.  However this pattern does create other dilemmas like: “How do you change a school of thought once created by a revered scientist like Sir Isaac Newton?”
  
Frederick Taylor, a staunch supporter of Newtonian-thinking, created the concept of “scientific management” in 1889. This command-and-control management system is still evident in many organisations today. The Taylor-era heralded the beginning of assembly lines and dehumanising management practices. If you are looking for tell-tales of this paradigm, you need not look far; hierarchically structured companies executing their business on a command-and-control basis, preferential treatment for those with power; obsession with job descriptions and tasks, less focus on business processes, reward schemes that manipulate the work force by using corporate carrots to trick them into better performance, etc. These practices were the result of thinking styles associated with left brain thinking only; efficiency, empirical measurements of performance, critical analysis, regulations, quality perfection, control and policy.
  
The beginning of the twentieth century heralded the end of Newton’s domination. Discoveries of a new world at the subatomic level could not be explained by Newtonian laws; the door was opened for new ways of comprehending the universe. This new view of science practice can be regarded as a no-go for one-sidedness and makes a wealth of scientific approaches and methods possible. It gradually affected the way business leaders designed their organisational processes.
   
A comfortable dumping ground for employee management followed when Human Resource Departments (HRD) were institutionalised to take care of the “touchy-feely” – stuff. Remarkably this discipline was also “high-jacked” by left-brain practices characterised by empirical “measurements” of personality types and constructs of social behaviour.
  
This epidemic of left-brain practices has ruined many careers and still threatens the existence of many organisations.
  
“It may stun you, if you are a manager, to learn what power you hold. Your behaviour as a manager dramatically shapes your employees’ inner work lives.” Amabile and Kramer (2007:74)
  
There is hope. Research increasingly focus on understanding what employees are thinking and feeling as they go about their work, why it matters, and how managers can use this information to improve job performance. This clearly indicates that right brain-practices are slowly entering the corporate arena; understanding and living values, sound relationships, team work, training and development.
  
According to Amabile and Kramer (2007:72, 73) a crucial driver of a worker’s performance is that of a person’s inner work life. Consider your most recent day at the office. “What would hidden observers have been able to learn had they been watching you go through that day? They might have read the e-mails you composed, looked at the numbers you plugged into the spreadsheets, reviewed the reports you prepared. They would have noted your interactions, informal meetings and hallway encounters, with colleagues, subordinates, and superiors and listened in on a presentation you delivered. They would have heard your end of various telephone conversations, perhaps with customers, suppliers, or consultants. Maybe they would have watched you sitting quietly for a while, looking off into space, jotting down a few notes.” Amabile and Kramer (2007:74) The question Amabile and Kramer ask is; would the observers really understand your inner life of that day?
  
“As events unfolded, you were also forming and adjusting perceptions about the people you work with, the organisation you are part of, the work you do and even yourself. You were experiencing emotions, maybe mild states of satisfaction or irritation, maybe intense feelings of pride or frustration.” Amabile and Kramer (2007:74).It is obvious that these emotions will impact on productivity. I would like to extend the “Inner work life”-research to include also the “personal” life. Referring to “work life” only suggests how work-related experiences impact on our lives. When other dimensions of our lives are not included we are fragmenting the person and this reminds of Newtonian-thinking where the “whole” is broken up into parts. I therefore would like to refer to “Inner life @ work”. We cannot deny the effect a sick child at home will have on the performance of an employee. Why should we only recognise the impact work-related issues have on us? My sick child at home is also the problem of my manager. My transport problems to get to work on time are also my manager’s problem. “Put simply, every moment that they are performing their jobs, employees are “working under the influence” of their inner work lives.” Amabile and Kramer (2007:77)
  
Employees will only share their inner life experiences where an organisational culture of trust and respect prevails. The output or performance of employees stands in direct relation to their perceptions, emotions and motivation. With this in mind a questionnaire has been designed to measure the “Inner life @ work” of clients that have completed the Team Growth Strategy™(TGS).
  
The aim of the TGS is to grow a team to such a high level of effectiveness that the team becomes a self-facilitating team. This concept was derived from research by Dr. Simon Priest on the effect follow-up interventions have on the retention of learning. A self-facilitating team is exposed to frequent facilitated interventions by an outside facilitator as well as self-facilitated sessions internally organised by fellow team members.
  
A self-facilitating team can be described as a team which regularly gets together to discuss it’s effectiveness in realising goals as well as it’s members sharing with one another their emotional state of mind and reinforcing metaphors of good team behaviour. : “the group not receiving any supportive procedures reverted to baseline measures by the end of six months. After the same time period, the group involved with strategies such as team meetings, refresher training, social gatherings, staff luncheons, and coaching sub-teams, maintained the level of their team behaviours. Lastly, the self-facilitating group was able to increase the levels of their team behaviours, building on successes and learning from setbacks at work,..” Priest, S. & Lesperance, M. A. (1994:34)
  
The “Inner life @ work” questionnaire was designed to measure the constructs (perceptions; emotions and motivation) as they relate directly to performance (Amabile and Kramer: 2007). The types of questions were open-ended with a strong emphasis on generating qualitative data. The respondents are all senior personal assistants of managers at a multi-national company. Although they do not function as an intact team, but as individuals, they are exposed to extremely stressful situations and rely a lot on one another for moral support from time-to-time. One of their strategies in maintaining their performance as a self-facilitating team is a Monday-morning checking-in session before they report to their work stations. It is important to note that these sessions are not limited to sharing just work-related issues, hence “inner life @ work”.
  
The last team building intervention this team was exposed to was approximately 9 months ago. The team decided to implement self-facilitation at weekly coffee-check-in sessions. The team consists of 12 members, and 10 questionnaires were received. The quantitative results of the questions (see fig1) are reflected in the graph below (see fig2)
  

Interpretation of quantitative results

Question 1: Although managers do not realise how much their behaviour impacts on the inner life of employees, employees are well aware of the fact that their state of mind has a definite impact on their performance at work. Nine respondents out of ten answered positively.

Question 2: “Check-in” sessions is a powerful tool to monitor the inner lives of employees. The fact that 90% of the respondents indicated that they were never exposed to similar interventions during their careers (average of 18 years experience) highlights the point that managers hold the wrong perception about the inner life of employees and are overlooking a crucial driver of an employee’s performance.
  
Question 3: The majority of respondents indicated that they attend these sessions because they want to. Some participants indicated that they felt obliged to attend, although they do not want to let the team down, they do not like it when the sessions get too emotional. Another respondent indicated that these sessions do put her under pressure to get through her work load.
  
Question 4: Every participant indicated that they have shared with the team an emotional event either at home or at work which made an impact on them.
  
Question 5: 70% of the participants indicated that their perception of a situation or a member of the team has changed since they started with the check-in sessions.
  
Question 6: A colour code using the colours of a traffic light has been introduced to metaphorically link the emotional state of mind of the individual to the checking-in procedure. 90% of the respondents indicated that they share their emotional state of mind with the team. One member mentioned that she always responds positively (green). She reasons that an orange or red response will take up to much time to debrief.

Question 7: All the respondents indicated that they regard the check-in sessions as being important. Every respondent elaborated on the motivational value these sessions add to their team spirit.
  
Interpretation of qualitative results
  
Question 3: The aim of this question is to determine the perception the participants hold regarding the reasons why they attend. If these sessions create an external locus of control, participants would attend for the wrong reasons i.e.: # 4 “Monday mornings are hectic, and I do attend these sessions because we have been asked to attend. These sessions are sometimes too serious and it makes me uncomfortable.”
  
The following responses indicate a strong internal locus of control. The perception these participants hold regarding the sessions is internally motivated. Their attendance is based on the belief that they personally gain from being present i.e.: # 2 “I regard these sessions as an opportunity to give and receive. Their experience is valuable when I am confronted with dilemmas which seem insurmountable. I am available to render support and help to carry the load (emotional pain) by being available in my free time.”  # 5 “These sessions are sometimes the only opportunity the team members have to effectively communicate with one-another.”
  
“I am looking forward to these sessions; it is a lot of fun too. There were times when I could not attend and it felt as if I missed out.”
  
Question 4: The aim of this question was to determine whether their attendance made an emotional impact. # 3 “Yes, it is fun to share something close to my heart with the team.”
  
# 7 “Yes, it is fun to share. It gives one the peace of mind that others listen and understand.” # 8 “Yes, I received a lot of support to help me cope with my divorce.”
# 9 “Yes,…I am grateful that I could share this tragedy with others. This proved to me that we are really a team, and we genuinely care for one another…If we didn’t agree on these sessions I would have had to cope with this tragedy all by myself.
  
”Question 5: This question generated information about the effect these sessions could have had on perceptions about people or certain situations. # 6 “…this was when I realised how sensitive she is. I think I saw a dimension of her personality the other team members didn’t see…another team member indicated at this stage how much she depends on these sessions. My initial perception was that these ladies are always in control, after this I realised how much they depend on the support from the team.”
# 3 “Yes, I understand my colleagues much better now. When we have to perform under extreme pressure we can be quite hard on one another, and these sessions have improved my understanding of my fellow team members, now I know how to approach them when the pressure increases.”
  
Question 7: This question aims to reveal the motivational value team activities hold.
# 1  “Yes. Very. We will function far more effectively and efficiently if we know each other and are aware of each others’ strengths and weaknesses.” # 2 “ Yes, it is important to maintain contact, these sessions improve our understanding of one-another’s’ work and it helps us in our endeavor to render meaningful support.”
# 8 “ …Since we started these sessions my understanding of my role as a team member as improved. I really feel that I belong. # 4 “ These sessions have become a very important part of my work”. # 6 “…the emotional gains are mind blowing. All members attend, and this has given us an unbelievable strong sense of unity.”
  
“So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to do work.” Drucker in Amabile and Kramer (2007:83) My research points to the silent majority of employees daily trying to cope with challenges they face, being it personal in nature or work-related. Corporate South Africa is crying out for managers with a serving attitude, willing to make work-life an enjoyable experience for those reporting to them. I applaud the tenacity and discipline the experimental team displays in their pursuit of a happy inner life @ work. When managers value the inner lives of their employees they will realise it is not only good for business, but will create a dignified work force.