Organisations hire smart people, but then positively encourage them not to use their intelligence. Asking difficult questions or thinking in greater depth is seen as a dangerous waste. Talented employees quickly learn to use their significant intellectual gifts only in the most narrow and myopic ways.
It’s a sad indictment on where our organisations are now. This essay is full of unbelievable anecdotes and spot-on observations. I can’t wait to read more in the book—The Stupidity Paradox—which I’ve just ordered.
Think of a situation where you had bulletproof facts, reason, and logic on your side, and believed there was absolutely no way the other person could say no to your perfectly constructed argument and proposal.
To do so would be impossible, you figured, because there was no other logical solution or answer.
And then the other person dug in his heels and refused to budge. He wasn’t swayed by your logic. Were you flabbergasted?
An interesting article about decision-making and research that confirms that decisions are emotional, not logical.
The essence of an organisational detox is to remove the toxins of the noise generated by the operation of a normal ordinary command and control organisations, and replace it with the simple clear signal of knowledge of what is actually happening.
It’s said with tongue-in-cheek, but there are some great ideas here.
Well at the simplest level, I’ve heard people give testimony about what it’s like to live in the shadow of a coal terminal, or what it feels like to take tourists out to a coral reef every day when it’s dying before your eyes. And I’ve seen that most basic kind of storytelling move some decision makers to change tack. I’ve had to go to the halls of Parliament and tell personal stories myself – simply in order to make an issue real to politicians and advisers. It liberates an problem from abstraction – a personal story is more powerful than you sometimes imagine.
I’ll circle back to this and write a longer piece about my own, recent experiences learning improv and playback theatre. In the meantime, here’s a great video showing how we can use the ideas of improv to support creativity and change.
It is a powerful experience to engage in someone’s story. Actually it happens naturally. When we get “hooked” into someone’s story, the brain of the storyteller and of the audience light up in a similar way. The brain also releases coritsol and oxytosin, powerful hormones which stimulate the sense of community and sharing amongst us. We literally get a high from stories that engage us..
This is why I love working with stories so much. After stories are shared, something in a group changes and everyone feels it.
But in Denmark, a nation that has consistently been voted the happiest place in the world since Richard Nixon was president, children are taught about empathy from a young age both inside and outside of school.
We should teach empathy in Australian schools, as they do in Denmark.
Yes, change is a constant. But you don’t need a change programme to bring about change…
This struck a chord with me. It’s one of the most coherent arguments I’ve read about what’s wrong with the way organisations approach change programs. It also offers some useful suggestions to ensure you’ll never need a change program again.
Increasingly, the stories of people in organisations that have undergone change are being studied to help understand how change management can be done better.
Yes–stories are central to understanding organisational change.
The paper referenced in the article1 is also great read.
