The Dynamic Organization
Real living and business have become too disconnected from each other. Too dis-integrated. The other day someone said to me that something the company was doing “was just business, it wasn’t personal”. If that phrase doesn’t grate on you, maybe you should stop and ask yourself why not?
“It’s just business” has become the recombinant DNA of an increasingly corrupted corporate corpus with Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing, Andersen and a stew of others appearing as themselves in the starring roles. The returns are in, and the findings are unambiguous. For far too many organizations, business has lost its tribal meaning, its heart, its soul, its reason for being.
It’s all personal. Without people, there are no customers, investors, owners, or employees. We nod our heads at something as stupidly obvious as the point I’m making, and then we make inexplicable business decisions that shade or trample ethics, honesty, integrity, kindness, and compassion in order to make the numbers, beat the street, sell the deal, or do the do.
And the chickens always come home to roost. Build on sand, and the house will come down; it’s just a question of when.
But we have to! Our intentions were good! It’s perfectly legal! Everyone’s doing it! Nobody will know! My advisors said I could do it! You can just hear the voice of the petulant child when you read words like these. It’s the same voice and rationale speaking behind “it’s just business”. News flash: There is no middle ground on integrity, humanity, and morality.
Great organizations are built on bedrock. It’s a hard place to build and a harder place to stay. That’s why there are so many good organizations, and so few great ones. There is no “great” where there isn’t . . .
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Heartfelt purpose. Any vision or purpose will do, it just has to be the real thing and people need to believe in it. This creates the power of love: a word that 94% of the people in business are convinced has no place in the modern commercial lexicon. Personally, I love what I do, love the work I do, and love working with the clients I work with. Isn’t that what you want in your organization too? Isn’t that what you want to feel about what you do?
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Powered-up people. The energy that radiates from a fired-up group of people is palpable. You can feel it. That kind of power makes for wonderful working environments and wonderful interactions. Powered-up people have high self-esteem and they bring it with them when they come to work. They need less external coaching, motivation, and leadership. Mostly they need you to stay out of the way so they can do great work, the kind their high self-esteem requires that they do. Those people are out there. They’re probably in your organization as well. You need to figure out a way to make sure they bring their energy and power with them when they come to work.
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Honest relationships. This gets back to the “it’s not personal, it’s just business” point. Every time I hear something like that, I assume the opposite and am usually right. You can feel it in your gut when you’re not being dealt with honestly—and feel it in your heart when you’re the one hiding the ball. Great sellers, service providers, managers, leaders, and colleagues create great relationships because they begin and proceed with integrity and honesty.
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Integrity in the tribe. Someone once told me that “culture eats strategy” every time. We are a social species. We have big needs to affiliate and gain the protection and validation of the tribe. In many parts of the world, “tribe” is the defining group construct. For the rest of us, we think it’s a neat sounding word. We don’t really understand what it means and why people in far-off lands value “tribe” more than nation or brand. So we finish our coffee and go to work instead. Work is our tribe, with all the rituals, rights, myths, rules, and legends that go along with it. And when the tribe is dysfunctional, we know it, our customers know it, and ultimately the investors and community pays for it.
Where you find these elements, you have what some people would call a great organization. I think of it as a dynamic organization. If you’re comfortable with the concept, I think it also describes an organization that’s capable of self-healing in the sense that anything organic and alive has the capacity to grow, adapt, cleanse, and otherwise do what it takes to deal with wounds.
