Archive | 2004

Stuck in the Middle of You

by on December 16, 2004 in Career, Work

clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right…

Yep, being a middle manager can a tragicomic experience. Lisa Haneberg at Management Craft comments on a recent article from the HBS Working Knowledge e-newsletter by Harold J. Leavitt on The Plight of Middle Managers. I think Leavitt gets some things right, but unfortunately seems to be happy to accept the organizational hierarchy model as the way things are done. Of course, I may be oversimplifying his argument based on only an except from his book.

Here’s what I think he’s right on about:
Being a middle manager can be a lonely, isolating experience, at times. You have to be savvy to navigate and coordinate the often different desires of your line staff and those of executive management. Both of these groups need to be open to understanding the objectives and needs of the other and if they do not, it is up to the folks in the middle to clear a path for making this happen. The danger is being perceived as being too much in favor of one group over the other. This is where personal integrity must be a middle manager’s chief value. And yet it’s never as easy as it seems. Leavitt writes:

In big hierarchies, the middle managerial highway is pitted with such psychological potholes. Despite valiant humanizing efforts, it will continue that way. Traveling that road requires a fine, continuous interplay among a triangle of forces: one’s personal values, the real (not the professed) standards of the organization, and the need to keep the family’s refrigerator full.

I would only argue that this is what a middle manager faces regardless of whether its a big or small company with a hierarchical structure.

Here’s what I think he’s got dead wrong:
There’s a line between accepting what is and striving for something better. It seems that he’s arguing for the former:

Perhaps it’s time to stop trying to persuade managers and other organizational employees to behave as though they are not occupants of authoritarian hierarchies, when, in fact, that’s exactly where they live. [...]

I cringe to see the word "authoritarian" in anything. Take a look at the word in the dictionary and you’ll find such phrases as "requiring unquestionable obedience" and "against individual freedom." This is the way of the industrial age when individuals went to the factory and told to be non-thinking entities. This is not the way of the new age we live in, the age where we are no longer mindless cogs in a machine, but thoughtful, soulful individuals who know that organizations NEED their talents far more than they need the organization.

Folks, if you’re at a crossroads where you have to choose between your integrity for what’s right to you and the standards of your organization (in other words, these are in conflict), think carefully. If this happens often, think carefully about finding a better place to work.

More Myths of Creativity

by on December 13, 2004 in Career, Creative, Work

In the December issue of Fast Company, there’s a thought-provoking article on Teresa Amabile who has researched and compiled six myths about creativity in the modern organization. From experience, she’s dead on with most of these myths.

Her third myth, “Time Pressure Fuels Creativity”, points to what I think is a more systemic problem plaguing not only work, but life as well. We allow ourselves to be busy for no other reason than it offers status. We own “busyness” like a badge of honor. Why? Perhaps its because if we slow down, we might actually have time to reflect on who we are and where our life is heading. In this case, the actual act of reflection isn’t the terrifying part…it’s what we fear we’ll find as a result. Consider this recent essay in Harper’s Magazine by Mark Slouka which extols the virtues of idleness. He talks about the slow disintegration of a democratically-literate society, but could easily be addressing the same disintegration of a soulful, conscious individual.

I would also like to add a seventh myth: Creativity Can Be Managed. Many organizations love their streamlined processes, their rational objectives, their linear methodologies for execution. But creativity thrives on chaos. It thrives on those mysterious connections that only come from improvisation and sudden inspiration. The very thought that the creative process can be controlled and managed is an illusion. The faster an organization gives up this idea, the faster they will encourage groundbreaking, world-changing results.

On Curt’s Post: Create a Sangha

by on December 13, 2004 in Career, Creative, Life

Curt Rosengren’s latest post is a brilliant reminder that we don’t have to take the journey toward more purposeful and soulful work alone. It’s sometimes easy to forget, though, particularly when we blaze a path where few have gone before.

Consciously creating your Sangha, both by identifying the people currently in your life that will support your journey and by reaching out and creating new connections, can have an amazing impact on what you are able to achieve.

If it’s a matter of just getting started in creating your support network, find a couple of people who will be your biggest fans. For instance, my wife is my rock. She’s both my most vocal supporter, but also my source for reality-checks. I can be a very "blue sky" dreamer-type and she offers the kind of "green grass" practicality that helps me assess my decisions. Yet, most importantly, as my rock I can hold on to her when everything else in my life seems to be caught up in the maelstrom. I have a spouse, but it could easily be a good friend, sibling, mentor, or parent.

Probably the harder part of creating your support network is developing new connections. Putting yourself, your ideas, your dreams out there to new contacts can be frightening. One place to start is with the folks you already know and trust. Ask them to suggest other individuals they know with whom you might connect. You’ll continue to build your network steadily outward from your core of biggest fans above.

And if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can take more dynamic action and create more networks outside of your familiar contacts. This is going to those places where other people who share your passion hang out. You might find these as networking events (a word on ‘networking’ below) or professional society meetings or a local coffee shop. The point is that creating a bold life of passionate work means getting out of your comfort zone and taking a risk. Consider the words of Andre Gide, French critic, essayist, & novelist:

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

And that word on networking…the concept has developed a kind of nasty connotation which is unfortunate. Rather, consider networking to be an act of relationship building, one that may not exactly bear fruit immediately. Purposeful networking is an act of cultivation, of nourishing the relationships with your contacts. It means that you give as well as receive, which is where we circle back around to Curt’s posting on creating your own sangha. As others support your dreams and work, it’s up to you to do the very same for them.

Reclaiming our Creativity

by on December 11, 2004 in Creative, Life

Odd how themes emerge when you’re conscious of them. I came across this old article in Fast Company on Dee Hock and his management principles. Dee Hock was the Founder and CEO of VISA International and more recently founded Terra Civitas. Among the ideas that caught my eye was this one on creativity:

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a room packed with archaic furniture. You must get the old furniture of what you know, think, and believe out before anything new can get in. Make an empty space in any corner of your mind, and creativity will instantly fill it.

I’m also thinking about how many of us tend to “lose” our creativity as we mature into adults. I have two daughters (ages 2 and almost 6) and they amaze me with some of the things that they conjure up. They tell the most interesting stories. They draw these fabulous pictures. They dress up and pretend to be fascinating creatures. And fortunately, they pull me into their world. They are my links to the creative reservoir within me. However, I’m considering the very real possibility that its going to be me who will need to return the favor in the not too distant future. They may need me to inspire their own sense of wonder and creativity. Sadly, there’s something about our schools that can help children forget they are creative, imaginative people. Or it could just be a natural struggle of growing up.

So, to all the creative and imaginative dreamers out there…here’s a heart-felt desire to more fully reconnect with you.

Comments on “Spirit in Business”

by on December 9, 2004 in Creative, Work

Yesterday, David Batstone posted a blog entry on Spirit in Business at Worthwhile Magazine and probably spoke for many of us who are trying to help organizations understand how powerful they can be when connecting their actions to deeper principles. He writes about how difficult it can be to get through the front door, particularly when the organization’s culture rewards the financial bottom line over the personnel bottom line. David goes on to say:

I take a broader view of spirit in business. I find it embedded in the relationship that a customer has with a company, that a worker has with her boss, that an investor has with management. The degree to which these relationships, these points of connection, create trust and generate real value, then a company is soulful.

I commented:

I share your same dilemma – you start talking about spirit and purpose in the workplace and it’s often perceived as too woo-woo for the business world. Managers and execs wonder what that has to do with making decisions and execution (those two areas that often define performance). Yet, what holds up those decisions and actions? They’re not made in a vacuum, but come from a personal philosophy that may or may not match the one held by the company.

I like your perspective on spirit as the connection of relationships. And I’d like to add that its also the connection that one has with their work. A person who believes in what they are doing and believes that it is a true display of their unique talents and passions has found the soulfulness of their work.

Keep the faith, David. Perhaps we’ll come to the place soon where the big picture is too compelling to ignore.

And as I thought about this further, I remembered a familiar voice from my experiences trying to grow my practice. This voice reminded me that you have to know how to speak your audience’s language. Talking about spirit may be woo woo at first, but if you put it in the terms of the culture’s preferred lexicon, you’ll open the door to possible acceptance. If you’re speaking to a CEO or Executive Director, find out what’s important to them and use the metaphor and imagery that can speak to that specific individual.

I’d be interested in hearing about other experiences out there in the field.