Top Down Tyranny Is The Mother Of Mutiny

This is part of a conversation from a LinkedIn group called Step into the Spotlight.  I belong to many groups most of which are copious in their communication but devoid of discussion.  This is the same challenge facing many nonprofits, governmental organizations and hierarchical entities of all kinds.  It has been the common practice all over the world.  All roads did go through Rome, the USSR installed loudspeakers instead of telephones and a vast majority of corporate communications are still top down. Though historically accurate this top down tyranny is the mother of mutiny.

Communication is controlling while conversation is creating.  The difference is specific.

Communication is:

1. Intentional-purpose driven

2. Intimate-close in spirit

3. Inclusive-transparent and open to everyone

4. Interactive-dialogue not just monologue

My first response to this question stirred up a little controversy essentially advising me to tell it like it is and let people decide for themselves.  I have some strong opinions about that so I thought in the interest of full disclosure I would share my thoughts about the process of Authentic Improvement and the challenges of real change vs token efforts.

Several people recommended I was swimming against the tide and I should stay within the comfort zone of my clients but in my experience I wouldn’t be much help if I only told people what they wanted to hear.

i.e.

1. Most people don’t want to believe they are the cause of their stress.

2. Managers believe they have people problems when they are largely process driven

3. and most adults think they are more emotionally intelligent than children but anyone that has ever truly watched a child knows differently.

I think most great leaders become so because they help others hear things they have worked hard to ignore and be aware of realities they are too myopic to understand.

When Vineet Nayar took over HCLT they were growing at 30%.  As he shares his firsthand account of the process in Employees First, Customers Second.  It was a tremendously difficult job to convince his team they needed to completely invert the company or that managers should share their 360 evaluations with all employees or include the input of any interactive employee in the evaluation of another.  Finally I doubt that their best customers liked being told they were “Number Two”. Yet in the first five years of their transformation (2005-2009)

-The number of HCLT customers grew fivefold.

-Employee attrition dropped nearly 50%

-Employee satisfaction increased 70%

-Both revenues and operating income tripled

My role may be very different from others in the group but I am primarily hired to say things leadership either can’t say, won’t risk saying or lack the skills to say.  I almost never present issues “head on” as most people’s defensiveness is far too well developed to be easily overcome by the force of facts regardless of their algorithmic accuracy.  I typically use an unrelated obtusely analogous, highly humorous stories to allow people to discover their own solutions in a positively “Affective” environment.  This is highly impactful in the short term but the effects wear off quickly as the force fields of familiarity ease us back on to our accustomed awareness.  Daniel Kahneman describes this view of reality as “System One Thinking” valuing congruity of story over the totality of truth.    

Just a few of the challenges are:

1-Most changes are not highly generalizable.

2-Most people are unreceptive to feedback that challenges their preconceptions unless they are experiencing a “Disorienting Dilemma”

3-Those who do benefit from these “Inoculations of Inspiration” do so not because of their short time with me but their extensive investment in their own personal self-development.

Our daughter is one of those amazing people who went to work, got pregnant and became one of her company’s most valuable manager’s right out of high school.  I asked her yesterday how she got so smart.  She said “I learn from my mistakes”.    Mistakes are physiologically, according to Jonah Lehrer, the ONLY physiologic events capable of triggering learning but most people find it easier to assign blame than to accept responsibility.

The challenge I am looking for help with is how to help organizations recognize the commitment required to create even a single small change.  Peer Power Performance  is a process that allows our team to lead by listening.  We share content, listen to the responses and design illustrated stories to convey complex ideas in a transparent environment.  This seems like a wonderful solution to me but most managers are terrified by transparency but only slightly less than they loath listening.