If the slow moving, status quo loving cruise ship falls into desperate straits the captain needs new strategic steering and a new sense of urgency to keep from running aground.
“5” Steve Howey, 42: “Human perception (and indeed, survival) depends on filtering out more than what we let into our awareness. You may be noticing a lot more than the others. Try not to hold it against them.” Cancer
Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 101 in Season 2 of “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 2nd day of August in the summer of 2020.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.
Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year
S2 E100 — Live, Love, Work, Play, Invest and Leave a Legacy; S2 E99 — Why Pay Over $100,000 When You Don’t Have To? ; S2 E98 — Why Your Company Simply Won’t Make It Out of Puberty
Related from Season One, the Normal Year
S1 E101 — From Saint to Soul Mate and Trusted Friend; S1 E100 — Running out of Determination and Grit by the 100th Day ; S1 E99 — What’s in a Name? Baby Boy Names?; S1 E98 — Why Can’t I Leave 26 Orphans for a Well Deserved Vacation?
Context
This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.
In previous episodes we described Start Up, Emerging Growth, Rapid Growth, Sustained Growth and Maturity stages. But, each with the emphasis on how a specific stage provides another better fit opportunity for one or more of 16 Talent Profiles
Consequences of Not Mastering Growth Crises
Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2020
We described two mini case studies of what it was like working behind the scenes at a mature companies in a financial, in a consumer industries and in another century-old university system — Part One and Two.
Decline
Strange bedfellow feel attracted to declining organizations. One drawn to the crisis from the “Blue Box” of Systematic-Professionals and the other from the “Red Box” of Paradoxy-Morons. You’ll see an interesting partnership formed by 113 Idea Packagers (Blue) and 102 Thought Leaders (Red).
16 Talent Profiles by Organization Type
Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2020
Why?
A company or any organization that has been successfully operating for over 40 years, and especially those that have been around for a century or longer, like our last three examples, over extend their prevailing business model and the systems required to operate in the status quo.
You could say, and you wouldn’t be wrong, they fall victim to maturity “group think” that collectively filters out information from the margins — where emerging competition fester.
Set in their ways, mature organizations will do almost anything to repeat the success factors derived from building on what has worked for years and maybe generations.
They recruit, develop and retain, all most unconsciously like-minded people with similar backgrounds and education.
They build layer upon layer of complex organizational structures and operating systems which divorce them from director customer contact, which start ups and growth companies build strong relationships with.
Their expertise becomes highly specialized, but their research and development functions don’t really benefit from direct market feedback and shifting customer requirements.
A mature culture resists any threat to their status quo until it is too late and they become victim to their own Red-Tape Crisis.
In short, reversing the risk adverse, red tape-poisoned culture requires outside intervention with a newer perspective while the company restructures, downsizes and outsources costly internal operations.
The outside partnership blends combinations high degrees of independence with medium degrees of disruptive innovation, speed, embedded knowledge, improvement and mastery.
The 113 Idea Packagers work well in settings that require outside-the-system perspective when information filtering contributes to decline. They provide the conceptual framework by which manuals, organizational procedures, and even work assignments are translated and put into action.
They also tend to be impatient with the bureaucracy, rigid hierarchies, and politics prevalent in many professions, preferring to work informally with others as equals. But, 113 Idea Packagers use cleverness and independent thinking to problem-solve and reinvent, and in an easygoing, unassuming manner prod organizational change and improvement towards restructuring, downsizing, outsourcing and other relevant solutions to the red tape crisis.
Why a partnership with talent from a Paradoxy-Moron culture? While 102 Thought Leaders share a high degree of independence with 113 Idea Packagers they’re attracted to medium degrees of speed and disruptive innovation. If the slow moving, status quo loving cruise ship falls into desperate straights the captain needs new strategic steering and a new sense of urgency to keep from running aground.
Evidence
“4” Steve Zahn, 51: “The remedy to get past fear and discomfort is to do the very thing you would most want to avoid. You don’t have to do it a lot though because once or twice will get you over things quite nicely today.”Scorpio
Almost every effort to change a mature organization is met with overwhelming resistance, fear and discomfort. Also FUD — fear, uncertainty and doubt. That’s why the new direction provided in collaboration with thought leader requires an idea packager to cement a tangible future the remaining employees can believe in.
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
Today’s Holiday Birthday:
Your projects do not have to be lucrative for you to consider them a success, and yet you’ll have the pleasure of many different beneficial outcomes flowing from your work, including financial gain. Young and inexperienced people will follow your lead and be better for it. New relationships start the year off with style.
How awesome is that? Too bad this ain’t my birthday so I can claim it. If it’s yours, please be my guest!
“3” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “You already know what you like, so do something else. Better to find out that you have a great range of likes than to narrow your scope and be stuck trying to satisfy niche preferences.” Aries
One of the lessons I learned over a 5 year employment in a declining company is you need to quickly volunteer for projects to add value in the downsizing, and then during the rightsizing and then back to innovation in the reinvention upsizing.
“5” Steve Howey, 42: “Human perception (and indeed, survival) depends on filtering out more than what we let into our awareness. You may be noticing a lot more than the others. Try not to hold it against them.” Cancer
As in groupthink in a declining organization that may not realize it yet?
“4” Steve Carrell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “It’s going well. It doesn’t mean that all the lights are green or that the journey is comfortable, cool and frustration-free. It just means that you are actually getting somewhere.” Leo
I once was told that Start Ups don’t realize they are out of business until 6 months afterwards. He never told me how long it took for Mature companies to realize they peaked and were on the downside of their incredible run. I’m sure a thought leader could reveal how much time was left.
“3” Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “When you know where you want to go but not how to get there, don’t worry. You’ll figure it out. If you don’t know where to go, then wait until you get an idea. Better to sit and conserve your energy than to aimlessly wander.” Virgo
In mature organizations on the decline require thought leaders to help provide the “where” and idea packagers to help select which wave of change to embrace and how to surf it to shore.
What’s Going On …
Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll
-
- @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4733 to 4807.
Foresight
Quality-of-Life
Long-Form
-
- Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate
CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION
The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip