by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®

“A Toxic Work World: Only the young and the childless can keep up. – For many Americans, life has become all competition all the time. Workers from across the socio-economic spectrum, from hotel house-keepers to surgeons, have stories about toiling 12 to 16 hour days (often without pay) and experiencing anxiety attacks and exhaustion.” Opinion by Anne-Marie Slaughter, NY Sunday Times Review article, September 2015.

 Slaughter’s premise is highly poignant, but her solutions are likely to place the cart before the horse. In other words, she is rethinking the work-world, in terms of providing an infrastructure of care (for the elderly and families),  so that women can pursue their  careers and have paid leave, too. However, she does so before rethinking the mode of future enterprises such that they or society can pay for these goodies. She argues a great case for social change, but the USA is in considerable debt and a tepid economy doesn’t generate the taxes needed.

Beyond this, our question is: Can we build a business or organizational model that will facilitate these aspirations AND bring enterprise prosperity for expansion and growth to underwrite such desirable needs? Passionate discussion related to work burn-out and pressures is far from new.

Similarly, discussions about organization performance to fund such initiatives constantly make the rounds. Also, debates about how good things used to be, relative to a rather bleak future, abound in some quarters. Again, they all beg the question: ‘Can we evolve our work-world thinking to fund and facilitate such pleas and make things better going forward?’

Consider a recent article about semi-conductors and  transistors, which morphed into the microchip industry over the past forty years. Microchips drive so many of our day-to-day communication tools, like cellphones, laptops, notebooks, and now digital watches. We take the power they deliver for granted nowadays. However, the article articulated that we are reaching the limits of microchip technology, without moving from silicon to another medium.

Apparently, there are some new possibilities on the horizon – things that we have hardly heard about: But when this writer, in his infinite wisdom, started to think about alternatives for microchips, he couldn’t help thinking about fresh combinations of what we already have. “Static-thinking” is a phenomenon we’re all guilty of – we prefer to keep working with things we’re already familiar with. We find it difficult to appreciate new possibilities.

We know we’re creatures of habit. An 18th-century philosopher noted this when he articulated a truism which is still rampant today: “There is no expedient that man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.” But like the microchip industry, which has to step-up to a new level; we also have to step-up  to fresh organizational thinking, if we’re going to realize Ms. Slaughter’s dream: as well as find a way to pay for it.

Good news for all of us: our thinking powers are phenomenal, if we’re challenged to utilize them in an optimal way. There’s absolutely no doubt that our work-world will look quite different in 50 years from now: in the same way ours is quite different from our forebears 50 years ago. So why not do something now, rather than fight it?

Hopefully, we will find the right course. Early areas to explore include:

 »Throw away Org. Chart Boxes and Straight Lines –  Very few things in our natural world portray boxes or straight lines. They are more likely rounded or even have crinkled edges, or look like weird jigsaw pieces. And don’t they catch our attention when we see them because our intuitive minds are intrigued by their unusual shapes. Far more so than the way our rational minds yearn bland cubes, rectangles or straight arrows.

Organizations are living communities which don’t fit into our stereotypical box shapes. Fortunately modern architects are designing much more elegant building shapes, that are rounded, egg shaped, weird icons and so forth – go to London or Beijing. Maybe these will inspire our organizational thinkers to move away from boxes?

» Mothball the Traditional Hierarchy – Top-down thinking is so antithetical to our organic world. Pretty well every other organism grows from the bottom-up! Communities are not pyramids; they’re sprawling centers and suburbs. Mountains were raised from the bottom-up. Aircraft take-off and reach for the skies. Even pyramids were built from the bottom-up.

Most communities spread out from the center and they’re always looking outward for opportunities to grow or invite outsiders in. By attracting or serving outsiders they flourish and prosper. Perhaps our reason for having hierarchies is because eons ago armies were expected to be led by warriors from the front and worshipers were expected to exalt their priests on high.

However, in the past century or so, warfare has changed and armies are orchestrated from behind the lines, even if the generals have to visualize what’s going on out front. Equally, a recent papal visit to New York, showed a whole phalanx of security and lower church dignitaries preceding the pope. In fact, he was cocooned at the center rather than being out front, except for when he was at the altar. Do we expect our leaders to be at the altar in this day and age?

That model doesn’t seem right in the modern work world. Collective brainpower and experience of entire workforces can far outstrip that of their leaders in today’s enterprises; especially within the western world where considerable numbers of people have received a decent education. With such an abundance of capability, we need facilitator-leaders to orchestrate their enterprises and draw on their people’s organizational-competence. They can do this by involving people in their enterprise’s vision and thereby maximize workforce commitment.

» Today’s Organizations will work best like Towns or Cities – When city leaders position themselves at the center to orchestrate events, rather than acting in an imperious manner, they will have vibrant communities. Similarly for enterprise leaders, who place themselves at the center and work with their strategic leaders to orchestrate a compelling vision –  one that the rest of their workforce can buy-into and jump on-board.

Optimum city and business leaders are those who genuinely listen, absorb and consult, and then release the energies of constituents and workplace-people to participate and contribute This is where leaders facilitate – not dictate – in every way. Most of the better cities and enterprises are under-performing by at least 20%, with today’s hierarchical model, so there’s much to go for.

Getting back to Slaughter’s social dream, we have to create the chicken before it can lay the golden-egg. We have to organize our “chickens” better, so we can better draw upon our enormous people talents for generating the “golden-eggs,”  resources and atmosphere for her wishes to come true.

Community organizations are one clear alternative to our current hierarchical thinking; which doesn’t mean to say there aren’t even better alternatives out there. The only thing holding us back is our static-thinking – the same that’s holding Silicon Valley back from its next breakthrough. What are the likely advantages over our current situation? These include:

» Natural Flow – Forming genuine teams, clusters or work-community groupings is far more natural than hierarchical pyramids. They are far more flexible and sensitive to market-enforced changes. They will encourage participants to look outward rather than inward, as they co-opt others to join them and customers buy the fruits of their labor.

» Greater Empowerment – Without the heavy burden of hierarchy, people will feel a greater sense of equality and respect. Consequently, they will feel freer to contribute and utilize their talents to the full. They will also signal those executives who they feel aren’t equipped to lead…some are just there as favorites to their bosses.

» More Resources – As workplace people sense their capacity to think and enrich their enterprises – since most are under-performing with today’s models – performance will explode due to compounding productivity. Outcome: Such enterprises will possess most of the resources they need to grow and prosper. Just think of Silicon Valley going from wafer technology to silicon to produce microchips: the leap was explosive both in terms of miniaturization and capability.

» Greater Work-Life Balance – If people are smart about the likely leap forward in organizational prosperity, there will be greater opportunity for people to enjoy the fruits of their labor. This writer is aware of a software company in the mid-west, which has a community organization where specialists work in pairs. The company is profitable and its pairs only work forty-hour weeks. They are better compensated than most and always enjoy their full vacation quota without interruption.

Over the next month, why don’t you take the time to revisualize your organization and how you can “mothball” your hierarchy. Now share your options with your key team and it is likely that between you,  you will find a more productive model going forward. It might even make Anne-Marie Slaughter smile.

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