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The thing about Frankenstein is – he had all the parts. It’s just, their nightmarish construction left him…clunky. Unagile. Monstrous.
And who among us hasn’t used one (OK, all) of those words to describe the workplace at some point?
I mean, we’ve got Industrial-era productivity measures, Mad Men-era hierarchies and chains-of-command, Y2K-era open concept physical spaces…all stitched maddeningly together with the contemporary threads of the global, the digital, the artificially intelligent…
And then.
We wonder why change feels so heavy. So slow. So onerous. So draining.
We wonder why innovation stagnates. Creativity cries itself to sleep.
We wonder why there’s never enough time to meaningfully coach and develop our teams. Ourselves.
We wonder why we have no time to wonder. To reflect. To prototype.
As the world of work has changed massively over a hundred years, we’ve added new ways on top of old ones – without questioning the value the centurion remnants continue to offer.
The earliest modern-day workplace was built for a world that was local. Physical. Homogenous. Values like consistency, compliance, repeatability were the core.
Used to be leaders at the top knew the most – had the most experience and wisdom. And so traditional hierarchies were built to cascade it all down. In service of driving consistency, compliance and repeatability.
But today, we say we strive for innovation. Agility. A global mindset. So to achieve these, have we considered which elements of that hierarchy still serve us? And which hold us back?
The traditional hierarchy stifles voices at its bottom. Even if the most ingenious ideas are hiding there.
The traditional hierarchy mitigates successful change. Because the hands and feet on the ground – those who will ultimately implement – aren’t invited to weigh in early enough. So avoidable mistakes get made. Poor choices destroy experiences.
Similarly, we continue to talk about “productivity” as the gold standard. But what even does that mean in the huge swath of organizations not producing widgets? We try to redefine it – but do we need a new measure altogether?
These – and many like them – are questions I help clients explore. And answer. For themselves.
It’s not about tossing it all out and starting from a blank slate. It’s about stepping outside of our assumptions, our habits, our inertia, and imagining a better way. A way that leaves our past behind us and marches us proudly into the uncertain world of opportunity that awaits.
Related: My Team Is Asking For the Impossible