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Recovering backpacker, Cornwallite at heart, political enthusiast, catalyst, writer, husband, father, community volunteer, unabashedly proud Canadian. Every hyperlink connects to something related directly or thematically to that which is highlighted.

Monday 11 June 2012

Creative Destruction: Motivating Employers



You can lead a horse to water - but you can't make it drink.  So, lead two horses to water.


Most employers don't understand work.  They don't understand employees, either.  Like domineering parents or dictatorial heads of state, they don't feel the need to - he who has the gold, after all, makes the rules.  Those who want access to the fruits that gold can supply simply have to fall in line.

Ironically, the history of work suggests it's actually the reverse that happens.  It's not the people with power who have innovated, created and marketed new opportunties that have made and remade the rules, redefining and adding to what defines status.  It's the people in the middle.  As they rise up the pyramid, the water hole shrinks; divisions over resources lead to social friction and conflict.  This ends up burning off the dead brush of the old models, creating space for new, innovative growth. 


The new water hole looks a bit like this - an aggregate of  complex, counter-intuitive understandings of the nature of work, motivation and creativity and turning them into easy-to-understand slide-presentations and video clips.

How do you get today's leaders to take a drink?  By advertizing the crap out of it via social media.  The early adapters will climb on board, setting positive exmples their teams can tweet/Facebook/Pinterest to the high heavens about, building demand for effective leadership elsewhere.  Those who don't will find it a lot harder to compete.

Creative destruction is just as integral to the evolution of social systems as it is for the continued growth in the ecosystem

It's those who adapt that will lead the way.



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