The Huddle Wisdom Blog

WARNING: Contrarian readers only

Can shared values and ideas harm mature organisations?

One might think it shouldn't it can.

Sometimes the wisdom of crowds is in fact stupid.

The wise crowd is an organism where the constituent parts work and think independently.

In the absence of this...you lose diversity of thought and information.

The chance of staying innovative decreases.

People start to make decisions based on the actions of others in the organisation rather than their own.

So, in times of crisis, large complex systems that has all its parts linked in rigid fashion will fail to adapt.

You'll often observe chain reactions resulting in unfavorable outcomes.

Independent thinkers leave the organisation...which increases homogeneity and with that you have decreasing adaptability

You know how the story ends. You have what we call an information cascade that ends in what I call an avalanche.

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Attempts to align staff with a power over and control approach to force commitment isn't likely to be ultimately rewarding, though perhaps in some instances this may produce some superficial gains initially; it is likely to be outweighed by unwanted effects going forward i.e. resistance and resentment in staff. You may discover that unhelpful patterns of inter-relating can then entrench themselves over time, and erode team functioning in the long run. How might you then evoke commitment that strengthens cohesion and motivation that drives teams towards the achievement of its' goals, while validating individual expression and maintaining the integrity of the team?

The onus for 'setting the scene' I believe, begins with the organisation, but responsibility for ensuring that the employer-employee relationship moves in a desirable direction is a corporate affair which requires effective relational skills, emotion modulation, and empathy. These skills help to promote those factors such...