Imagine a scale. On one side of the scale is “individual leadership” and on the other side “company culture.”
These two things are always striving to stay in balance. Can one try to influence the other? Of course, and as they do their side of the scale goes up. But the other side will “fight” to retain equilibrium.
This explains why it is so incredibly difficult to change a culture, as well as why it’s so painful to introduce into a culture a leader who doesn’t “fit.” That leader will push, and the culture will push back.
These two things are always trying to stay balanced on the scale.
Let’s say we are trying to bring change to an organization. We bring in someone, an insider or outsider, a change agent, a consultant or a coach, to try to do this. The only way for them to be able to actually make sustainable growth happen is by focusing on both sides of the scale.
It’s not enough to focus just on improving individual leaders — the old culture will eventually push them out. Likewise, it’s not enough to focus solely on group behaviors, the culture, because they don’t exist without the individual people that make them function.
What to do?
Option C.
Over time, the entire scale must be raised.
What’s going on behind the scenes, what we don’t see, is that the interactions between individual leaders and the larger group culture will always push the entire scale into motion, either going up or going down. There is no such thing as a plateau in an organization — it is always moving one direction or the other. Getting better or getting worse. Improving or deteriorating. Evolving or regressing.
That’s why Option C is the magic, focusing on the both/and of the scale, not the either/or.
Yes, focus on the individual leaders. Make sure they are in the right spots and for goodness sake, get the wrong people off the bus. But also focus on the system, the culture, the groupthink, which is really just a collection of a million tiny decisions the individuals make. If we want it to last, it has to be both/and.
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Today’s post is by business card sketch artist Hugh MacLeod; I personally quite enjoy his slightly irreverent insightfulness. This excerpt, #8, is from his new book, “Ignore Everybody” where he describes 37 tips that he says have worked for him over the years. Read the first 25% of the book for free at gapingvoid.com, then go buy the rest. Enjoy! -Josh
8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
Nor can you bully a subordinate into becoming a genius.
Since the modern, scientifically-conceived corporation was invented in the early half of the Twentieth Century, creativity has been sacrificed in favor of forwarding the interests of the “Team Player”.
Fair enough. There was more money in doing it that way; that’s why they did it.
There’s only one problem. Team Players are not very good at creating value on their own. They are not autonomous; they need a team in order to exist.
So now corporations are awash with non-autonomous thinkers.
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
And so on.
Creating an economically viable entity where lack of original thought is handsomely rewarded creates a rich, fertile environment for parasites to breed. And that’s exactly what’s been happening. So now we have millions upon millions of human tapeworms thriving in the Western World, making love to their Powerpoint presentations, feasting on the creativity of others.
What happens to an ecology, when the parasite level reaches critical mass?
The ecology dies.
If you’re creative, if you can think independantly, if you can articulate passion, if you can override the fear of being wrong, then your company needs you now more than it ever did. And now your company can no longer afford to pretend that isn’t the case.
So dust off your horn and start tooting it. Exactly.
However if you’re not paricularly creative, then you’re in real trouble. And there’s no buzzword or “new paradigm” that can help you. They may not have mentioned this in business school, but… people like watching dinosaurs die.
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In the longstanding tradition of dividing the world into two types of people, I present to you two ways of thinking — both equally deadly, but for different reasons.
Also, today our camps will be played by gelatinous colored mammals (reference above picture).
On one side we have The Camp Of Information — Green gummis.
This Camp states that the more information we have, the better leaders we are sure to be. They incessantly attend seminars and read magazines, blogs, books, articles, and tweets to gorge on a constant deluge of models, bullet points, acronyms, and metaphors, thinking that more content will ensure better practice.
In truth, these folks generally spend time creating problems by continually disseminating new models, bullet points, acronyms, and metaphors that only serve to confuse an already overwhelmed population (i.e. the Red gummis).
On the other side we have The Camp Of Ignorance — Red gummis.
This Camp maintains an undying, unwavering faith to the “If it ain’t broke, please for the love of God don’t fix it” mentality. They fear change more than public speaking,* haven’t read a non-fiction book since… well, actually they’ve never ‘technically’ read a whole one, and spend most of their energy ignoring trends and shifts, hoping this means they won’t ever have to deal with them.
In truth, these folks generally spend time fixing problems that could be easily solved by better practices, new science, or automation. (If only they could decipher what the hell those Green gummis were talking about!)
The middle ground is hard, but it’s the only place that actually works.
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*Statistically scarier than death.
Photo by furiousgeorge81.
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Copyright © 2005-2012 Josh Allan Dykstra
