Is it burnout, or is it organizational trauma? A vital question 

If I asked a room of strangers, “What do you picture when I say organizational trauma?”, here’s what I might hear:

Soup.

Shattered glass.

Unrelieved stress.

Denial and acceptance.

Behavior that is unchallenged.

A fear of taking risks or speaking up.

Constant fires to put out.

Working in silos. Sticking to people you believe you can trust.

Defaults that become more unconscious over time.

Root causes that can’t be explained, or explanations that don’t exist.

Language matters. The words available to us are how we create meaning, how we describe an experience, how we ask questions and share information. Words allow us to make connections between ideas, and they also reveal differences.

In times of high stress the human brain is designed to understand fewer things at a time, to reduce functioning, and to repeat habits. One way this happens is through language, limiting us to the words we’re most familiar with, or what we already know. When this happens, we are less creative, less able to communicate confusion, and less able to learn, even if what we know isn’t sufficient. Our responses are limited. 

Work represents many things–a space where people interact daily, a space where ideas circulate, a space where stress can be high. For many of us, it can also be a space where we question ourselves. Question our interactions, our priorities, our timing, our preparedness. Even if our responses are a reflection of us, or something in our environment. Said another way–we want to know if something important is happening, and what to do about it. We want to know if the relationships and processes that we influence and rely on are negatively affected. And we want to know if that can change–if things can get better.

Burnout is the state of being negatively affected by an environment to the point of disconnecting from it to cope. It is a very real consequence of unresolved stress. Burnout describes what’s happening in a person–but what about if we want to understand burnout in a greater context? What if we want to ask, why does one environment, or type of work, lead to burnout more frequently than others? Why does a certain supervisory style or pace of work increase turnover? Why are leaders defensive of hearing feedback in group conversations? Why are staff silent in meetings? Why are new employees unsupported in interpreting office dynamics? 

To examine these questions our word choice has to evolve to include additional concepts.  In the best scenarios, we need concepts that help us recognize, identify, validate, and respond to what we’re experiencing. This is what has motivated Jennifer and I to create spaces to discuss one important concept that is affecting a large number of our workplaces – organizational trauma.

How can we become responsive leaders who can recognize organizational trauma? What are some clues? How can we begin to dismantle the conditions that create organizational trauma?

Once a month we hold a forum to ask that direct question, and to answer it by sharing the important framework of organizational trauma that has evolved over forty years. We uplift the researchers that have dived deeply into these questions and shared what they’ve learned, and are still learning. We create among participants language that matches unique and universal examples.

The language used in this blog came from a room of participants creating language together. They were offered time to reflect, and to share, and then invited into a greater context to support them. In their groundbreaking book, Organizational Trauma and Healing, researchers and practitioners Shana Hormann and Pat Vivian write, 

Organizational Trauma is not part of the normal organizational lifecycle. It is a disruptive occurrence or pattern outside the usual organizational experience. Distinguishing between organizational lifecycle transitions, organizational crises, and organizational trauma is important. 

They were among the first consultants working with organizations to organize these conclusions, and their work has served as a foundation for further research to continue for over forty years. 

While organizational trauma is not a new occurrence, it is newer language that is available. And that language coincides with approaches, resources, and recognition of harmful patterns that are operating. For employees, that language shifts the perception that what they experience at work is an isolated or individual experience, and offers the vantage point of larger themes. And most importantly, larger and more precise interventions. In the 2023 Winter issue of Organization Development Review guest editors Dr. Preston Lindsay, Dr. Colin Cooper, and contributors provided an updated view of what’s been researched, and what new language and methodology is forming.

And yet, the question remains:why does what we call something matter? Put simply, because language creates meaning and allows responsiveness. As organizational leaders we can know there are paths forward, resources and experienced practitioners, similar issues across workplaces, specific tailored reflections that employees can lead and invest in, and adjustments that can lead to changed workplace considerations. Employees can find support and protect their wellbeing. As organizational consultants, Jennifer and I can take greater care in our observations and recommendations. 

If you’re skeptical, familiar, curious, or exhausted, come learn and talk with others who maybe feel the same way and are open to putting language to their experiences together.

We all deserve to be aware, supported, and reminded that healthy workplaces are cultivated.