The Direction of Intention

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Mark works for a government organization and he told me of a great revelation he had a few years ago. For the first 14 years of his career he got into a lot of trouble. He couldn’t figure out why he was in so much trouble all of the time because he was performing his job to the best of his abilities. And then, one day in the shower the reason hit him like a thunderbolt: his superiors didn’t really want him (or anyone, it wasn’t personal) to do the job. They didn’t want anyone to improve things because, as Mark so beautifully said, “Improvement makes waves.” He did an experiment and stopped doing his job and almost immediately his approval ratings began to rise.

Years ago I had a conversation with a banker, a vice president. I was doing work in system’s change and he told me that if I worked in his department he’d have to fire me. He said, “My job is to keep the status quo. The people that work for me want to come to work and go home with a paycheck. They don’t want change – even if it actually made things better. They want consistency.” I challenged his position. I haven’t met very many people (outside of management) who desire routine over effectiveness. And, his big misperception from my point of view is that change lives in opposition to consistency. In today’s world of business, the only consistency is change.

Recently I heard a speech by the outgoing Washington State Auditor. He’s been around for 20 years and told us that he can’t audit the departments of state government unless they request it; he’s the auditor but he can’t audit anything that will reveal waste and corruption unless the wasters and corrupters request it. You can guess how many requests he’s received in career.

Do you see the pattern? This is thinking of a time-gone-by. Compartmentalization and control are dinosaurs in a digital age. The only thing consistent in our world is change and the pace of change increases every year. Compartmentalization and control are power killers; an expansive economy requires expansive thinkers who know how to engage with multiple possibilities. The folks in the executive suite need to learn a new pattern of empowerment and fluid motion. We have a job to do and pretending that we’re doing it is flushing a ton of potential, time, energy and creative ability down the tubes.

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