Self organization with consequences

‘When we chat it is no longer we who speak, we are fashioning ourselves then in the likeness of other people, and not of a self that differs from them.’ Proust had it right, we all do this more or less, and it creates an atmosphere of wanting to agree with each other without the basis for agreement that is reached by confrontation and reflection; knowledge of what drives us as individuals and as groups. I think this is one of the main reasons why people in teams seldom reach results quickly and get bogged down in the ‘decision’ process. We like to discuss and meet and are capable of spending hours coming up with a thousand possibilities, but are rarely able to agree on even a single opportunity among them.

Why? Because there is a huge difference between a possibility and an opportunity. An opportunity is a qualified possibility, a possibility that we believe will add value to what we do together. To qualify a possibility we need a shared sense of purpose and insight into each others value systems and capabilities. We need to be able to reflect as individuals and as teams. But that is scary and takes too much time in our ever faster moving world.

When working with the Innovatieplatform (innovation platform) in the Netherlands on setting up a foundation (Nederland Innovatief) to promote innovation in The Netherlands, it was quite clear that there were twelve people or more in the room, discussing something that they did not have a unified view on (innovation) and all had different interests when it came to results. In confronting the project leader with this observation, he agreed and answered that this wasn’t a problem, since they set it up as an organic process and that whoever stayed after July 6th would be interested enough to create value with whomever else stayed. The 6th of July being the date for the committee presided by our prime minister to decide on the proposal on setting up Nederland Innovatief. A lot of ideas were created by the group, but since there were no agreed upon criteria to judge them, all stayed vague and unnamed. The only thing that kept coming back was the creation of a middle man to form a bridge between the Dutch SME and whomever could provide services to help small companies innovate. No innovation there, because this is how the Dutch have been doing business for the last three centuries and there are several middle men already providing this service. The lowest common denominator survived the ‘organic’ approach because there was no other possibility to agree on. I haven’t heard from them since the 15th of June, and I won’t hold my breath for the outcome.

When my partner Mathijs worked for Craftworld on creating new programs for TV that would integrate gaming with a TV show, he ran into the same problem. A lot of ideas, but no common sense of purpose and no idea about the value systems each partner brought to the table. Consequently it was almost impossible to come up with a consensus on the right opportunity. The one they came up with through a war of attrition (let’s say yes, I am too tired to go on) was surprisingly interesting, but unsurprisingly the process has bled to death in the last three weeks.

What was missing from both approaches, and I believe from almost all team approaches I have been part of in my corporate career, is a shared sense of purpose. Not just a problem to solve, but a shared goal reached through understanding of what each of the contributors wanted out of the process of solving the problem and how the results should be based on what they think adds value to their lives. Matches to your individual goals? Great, working together will bring fun and lots of energy to reach results. Doesn’t fit your goals or growth path? That’s ok, go elsewhere and find something that will. Especially in the Dutch consensus based society, this rarely happens. We are all equal and all opinions matter and should be heard and respected. True, we should be heard and respected, but we are not all equal and not all opinions matter, this is context dependent. The result is that people who do not add value remain with the team and instead of focusing our energy on opportunities we waste it by talking about countless possibilities. Self organization without consequences is an empty shell that provides security but no value.

This gets us back to the organic approach; I love the idea. In Nature, everything has a purpose, it grows towards something; this is called Morphogenesis. This is not about all cells of an organism agreeing with each other, but about all cells getting the idea how to shape themselves to promote growth in the right direction. On a higher level; if you take care of your garden you take out the weeds right? Those plants that do not add to the beauty of what you envision your garden to be, you take out! This doesn’t mean no compromises, since you have to agree with your wife on what would look best, and if you have small children you would like it to be safe, so no poisonous plants or sharp rocks please.

What they seem to be focusing on at Nederland Innovatief is the latter part, security. God forbid you make a decision, you might just be wrong. They take no action, because the basis for taking action isn’t there. They leave it to individuals to decide whether to stay or go, instead of clearly stating that some are excused since they will not add value and others should stay for what they offer the team. That to me is an impossible starting point for creating value in this day and age. With a stable environment and predictable and high economic growth, this form of consensus works because it creates a sense of stability which is necessary for managing growth. In our current environment of slow economic growth, constantly changing contexts and rapid globalization, we need to make choices, make them fast and keep making them. That is the only way to achieve growth instead of just managing it. For that we need a basis, a solid foundation to keep us going were we want to go together. To me that can only be a shared sense of purpose based on the value we want to create together and as individuals. It’s not just the journey, it just as much the destination! If you don’t like it? Find somewhere else to go!