Thank you for your kind comments about this post. I do think we have to remember we are running businesses, and while happy to help people learn how to work productively, there has to be motivation in them to do so.

My wife, a clinical psychologist, learned from one of her mentors that “you can’t try harder than the patient.” – a great way to conceptualize the issue.

So, yes, work back from your objectives to see what might be the true cause of the problem, and then resolve it, whether that means adjusting policy – which can be agonizing for managers to do – or reassigning or removing employees who are unwilling to collaborate maturely in the workplace.

This can also be difficult for a manager to do, but it is decisions like this – whether regarding policy or employment – that are what managers are paid for. And if employees are active discipline problems, then we owe it to the organization and its other employees to act like managers – not parents.

Thanks so much again for your visit and your insightful restatement of the issues!

If a person can’t do what you want you have either a training or a fitness for duty problem. If the person can do what you want, but won’t, you have a discipline problem.