What Does it Mean to Deconstruct Stress?
If you are reading this article it is likely that you, like millions of others around the world, are feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything going on in and around your life personally and professionally. This stress or anxiety can be made up of many smaller irritations as well as major life changes and everything in-between. It is not uncommon that your home stress is either causing additional stress at work or vice versa. Commonly, people can’t figure out where one stressor ends and the other begins nor identify where the feelings of anxiety are stemming from. It’s one jumbled feeling of, “my stress is coming from of ALL of it.”
When you’re the one active in stress or anxiety, whether individual or work-related, it is not uncommon that the idea of dealing with this amalgamation of stressors is simply overwhelming. That feeling of clumping all stressors together is shared by many. As the pandemic has taught us, the intersection of home and work life can become a jumble of mental and emotional blurred lines between personal and professional stressors.
Therefore, when dealing with work stress or organizational stress the process is reciprocal for each of us. Individuals bring stress into the working environment, whether working in person or remotely. Similarly, organizations create different types of stressors, some good, some misguided, and others unhealthy. Therefore, at the heart of dealing with organizational stress is identifying what are the individual’s personal stressors and what are the organization’s. Only then can we begin to improve the health and wellbeing of the individual and the organization for more productive, innovative, and creative futures.
It’s Not Just About the Pandemic
The pandemic has thrown everyone and every business off their secure footing. As with any abrupt change and with ongoing insecurity and instability, the natural human response is to feel imbalanced. These rapidly changing work norms leave us in a constant state of flux. Work, family and friends keep telling us we just need to be adaptable, resilient and patient and that will fix everything. Sadly, this is either only a portion of the answer or not the answer at all. Every stress we have requires a different solution, some are easier than others.
As an example, balancing our home lives, relationships at home and work, and our work responsibilities is challenging at best. These upending norms with no semblance of routine often make us feel disjointed to our core. Outcomes of these stress-inducing activities probably have generated imbalances in how you take care of your primary needs (food, health, security) and secondary needs (peace of mind, emotional support). Consequently, a common part of human nature, which is more work, is to develop or force norms and routines so you can feel a sense of control. When this doesn’t work we feel more stressed, unstable, or secure.
Another common reaction is the need to ‘fix it.’ The urge to return to some semblance of normal can be overpowering. In the article, The Evolution of Altruism in Humans, from The Annual Review of Psychology, one of the theories is that the sense of altruism has developed in humans since we were hunters and foragers because we found it to be a mediator of unhelpful and dangerous behavior. What that means today is, as part of our nature we search for solutions to make our families and selves feel safe and secure. In this altruistic search, we take actions that don’t pay off, often at the expense of ourselves, the way we intended and cause feelings of anxiety. All this is done in the effort to ‘find solutions’ to mediate our fears and frustrations.
The stress and anxiety personally and professionally are an amalgamation of the instability we feel, our insecurity about the futures, habits and norms being upended, forgetting to care for our personal wellbeing, and feeling unsafe in our environment — even if it’s virtual. It’s no wonder that our stress responses from these efforts end up generating feelings of insecurity, threats to safety, destabilization to norms, and fear of the unknown.
Organizational Stress is No Different
To take a step back, the definition of a stressor by the American Psychological Association (APA) is “any event, force, or condition that results in physical or emotional stress. Stressors may be internal or external forces that require adjustment or coping strategies on the part of the affected individual.” The events and forces that are occurring in our lives are multi-layered. What is happening in the pandemic and social unrest are in addition to, not instead of other natural disasters, significant life events, or our normal stresses of everyday life. Also, note that implicit in the definition of stress is the individual needs to identify what adjustments and coping strategies are necessary to relieve or mitigate his/her/their stressors.
Organizational stress, similar to and in combination with individual stress, is also an amalgamation of many things jumbled together. In the end, our conscientiousness and need to perform as a viable provider and equal contributor to our tribes, groups, teams, or organization are driven by our intrinsic survival mechanisms of working collectively to thrive.
Globalization while meant to make things easier, has added to our anxiety in many cases. Initially sparked the growth of virtual co-located networks of diverse and flexible people, the pandemic has exacerbated that growth exponentially. Prior to the pandemic, well-managed dispersed teams outperformed those with shared office space with the understanding that individual differences in employee behavior could help virtual leaders develop better teams (Ferrazzi, 2014; Politis & Politis, 2011). Today, it’s pervasive in the workforce without a well-thought-out plan for the organization nor the individual. As we move into the next stage of emerging from the fire of the pandemic — stressful issues have begun to arise.
The Deconstruction of Stress
The concept of deconstructing stress is to break stressors down into the smallest elements possible, categorize them, name them and then identify workable solutions. When we list our stressors, we start dealing with the known versus the unknown. We can more easily categorize them, assess the importance and effect, identify stressors you can handle on your own, flag those you need support to deal with or those you may want to seek professional help to process. We do this for individual and organizational stress so people can separate their personal from professionally systematically.
We want everyone to know that what they are experiencing or feeling right now is genuine and normal. More importantly, no one can make you wrong for how you feel. That said, only you can take the actions to move toward a solution to get your sense of control back or know when to ask for professional help. The only wrong thing to do is nothing.
An Exercise to Do Before the Deconstructing Stress Workbook Comes Out.
- On a piece of paper list your stressors that come from your personal life. These are stressors that are in effect your personal life. Consider stressors from:
RELATIONSHIP(S): Interacting with others; FINANCIAL; PHYSICAL HOME ENVIRONMENT (structural, remodel, no personal space); OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES (i.e. you or family members playing baseball, hockey, singing in the choir, etc.); DISORIENTING CULTURES (e.g. between families or partners, moved from another culture, etc.); EQUITY, BIAS or FAIRNESS (your relationship between your husband or wife is unbalanced, there are some biases you have about what someone in your family does, your children are acting up because they feel they are being treated unfairly); COMMUNITY (e.g. dangerous urban area, church, neighborhood); LIFE EVENT(s) (e.g. death in the family, disabled child, divorce, etc.
- Now list the stressors that come from your work or professional life. You will have stressors from work that you may feel in your personal life and have already listed. No worries. The category is not as important as you putting the stressor down on paper. Consider stressors at work in the following categories:
INDIVIDUAL (things you think about yourself at work such as your ability, attitude, behavior, knowledge, skill level to name a few); TEAM (e.g. generates from team interaction such as knowledge, pressure, ability to communicate, attitude, or skill level to name a few); LEADERSHIP (e.g. either the leaders above you, your peers or those you lead); DISORIENTING CULTURES (e.g. diversity, global company, different cultures between offices or divisions); EQUITY, BIAS or FAIRNESS (your relationship within work is unbalanced, there are some biases you have about your team or other teams, other cultures, diversity, or this is happening to you because you feel you are being treated unfairly); ENVIRONMENT (this refers to the physical environments in which you work, it also has to do with the organizational people structure or culture that creates stress or anxiety); ORGANIZATIONAL (not mentioned in the above categories); INDUSTRY (it’s a new industry, stale industry, declining industry, dangerous industry, etc.).
- Now go back to each stressor you have listed and identify if it affects the way you think (cognitive), the way you feel (psychological), the way you act (behavioral), the way you interact with others (psychosocial), or your productivity (work outcomes).
- For each of the items you have listed as stressors or anxiety-inducing situations follow the remaining steps.
Step 1: The Kind of Stress –
This is some self-diagnosis; however, identifying the stressor helps us realize this is not a nebulous idea but something real we can deal with even if we need help to address it. From the list below, see if you can determine what type of stress it is by choosing from the following list:
A. Good stress, B. Bad stress, C. Challenge causing stress, D. Opportunity causing stress, E. Life stress, F. Organizational, G. Divisional / Departmental, H. Team, I. Leadership, J. Others
Step 2: Personal Importance Level –
Rate this stressor on “how important is this stressor to me?” Put the multiple-choice letter choice next to each stressor.
A. Very important, B. Important, C. Manageable, D. Somewhat Important, E. Not Important at all
Step 3: Organizational Importance Level –
Rate this stressor on how important in this stressor to the organization: Put the multiple-choice letter choice next to each stressor.
A. Very important, B. Important, C. Manageable, D. Somewhat important, E. Not Important at all
Step 4: Anxiety Level –
Rate this stressor on how anxious it makes you feel: Put the multiple-choice letter choice next to each stressor.
A. Very anxious, B. Anxious, C. Manageable, D. Somewhat Anxious, E. Not anxious at all
Step 5: Intensity Level –
Rate this on how intense this stress is to you: Put the multiple-choice letter choice next to each stressor.
A. Very Intense, B. Intense, C. Manageable, D. Somewhat Intense, E. Not intense at all
Step 6: Affects My Personal Life –
I agree or disagree with this statement: This stressor is affecting my personal life negatively. Put the multiple-choice letter choice next to each stressor.
A. Very much agree, B. Agree, C. Unsure, D. Disagree, E. Very much disagree
Step 7: Affects My Work Life –
I agree or disagree with this statement: This stressor is affecting my personal life negatively. Put the multiple-choice letter choice next to each stressor.
A. Very much agree, B. Agree, C. Unsure, D. Disagree, E. Very much disagree
In steps 1–7, if you answered A or B to any of your stressors then these are the ones that need to be dealt with to start alleviating stress. For all the A or B answers continue with the following.
Step 8: Support Need –
Do I need support to change this? A special note, if this involves another person, the answer is an automatic yes.
A. Yes, B. No, C. It is my responsibility, but I put it off, D. Other — explain.
We often want to think we can take care of everything on our own. The reality is that if it involves another person you have very little control over them. What you do have control over is how you act, react, or do nothing. Do not be afraid of asking for help. If you can not get help from those close to you, then seek professional advice. We encourage everyone to seek help when they are not dealing with something in their skill set or lack the experience or emotional capability in dealing with unfamiliar or too familiar situations.
Step 9: Need Tools:
Do I have the tools to be able to instigate this change? (time, money, knowledge, influence, support, help)
A. Yes, B. No, C. It is my responsibility, but I put it off, D. I am unsure.
If your answer is C, there is no mindfulness or meditating away the act of meeting responsibilities, being accountable, or stopping to avoid difficult situations. The only way out is through.
For A or B you may need to ask for help, or at a minimum create a plan of action to address. If you made it to this step while the stress may still be prominent in your thinking, you should begin to feel there is hope for a solution.
The best action is no procrastination. Addressing these stresses, even if they are overwhelming today will ultimately free you from being overwhelmed. If you need help, please seek support from people around you or professionals. You are worth it.
Step 12: Outline Action Plan
Whether you are doing it yourself or you need support, create a simple (K.I.S.S.: Keep it simple silly) action plan that you can be accountable to. For seeking help, give yourself a date that you will ask someone to meet with you. Each of these steps, even tiny ones, will get you closer to the solution.
- Date to begin
- Who, what, why, when, how
- Gain more knowledge
- Ask for help
- Schedule time
- Additional support list
- When will I have the first step accomplished?
- Who am I accountable to?
- Who needs to be involved?
LASTLY, Step 13: Prioritize
Start with the easiest then do the hardest. 1. The easiest will take the least amount of time and get off your plate the fastest. 2. The hardest will tend to take more work and therefore more time.
Similar to paying off debt, financial planners will tell you to pay off the smallest debt first so you can feel a sense of accomplishment along the way. We want you to feel a sense of accomplishment along the way as well. Address what you can, feel free to ask for help, and celebrate the wins as they happen. Remember, there is hope and a solution.
Good luck on this journey and reach out to me at DrTom@4iLeadership.com if you have any questions or need assistance either individually or organizationally. I study organizational leadership, industrial and organizational psychology, environmental psychology, stress, and virtual work. Please note: I am not a clinical psychologist and do not provide in-clinic assistance, but I will help guide you on how to look for help.
