The Corporate Blindspot

Beyond START and FINISH.

Corporations on a massive scale are struggling to increase their adaptability and their capability to transform themselves. Within all the actions and responses that organizations are undertaking I have witnessed that one crucial thing is often overlooked; The Corporate Blindspot. With this post I want to shine a light on a highly undervalued component that is crucial in creating adaptable and transformative organizations. Let me know your thoughts about this.

VUCA RESPONSES OF CORPORATIONS

Large corporations are confronted with a VUCA world and have tremendous challenges to adapt to this “hostile” context. The response of corporations to this world can be categorized in three main responses:

FINISHING RESOURCES: There is a forced corporate exodus going on. People are being pushed out of the systems. A typical “defend” strategy. This creates a constant paralyzing state within corporations. Newspapers are full of businesses closing their operations and massive lay-offs.

STARTING NEW THINGS: Every self respecting corporation has an incubator or accelerator program these days. Atleast there is an innovation department. These entities typically run on 6 month programs squeezing out new concepts that have difficulty finding ground to blossom.

AGILE WAY OF WORKING: Corporations have doubled down on Agile. Every corporate is integrating this development methodology inside every process there is.

These three subjects are all valuable actions in itself. Yet in order to transform a corporation they needs to continuously do all three and work together in combination with a fourth response.. The one response corporations have the most difficulty with to recognize and to embrace. I call it The Corporate Blindspot.

WHERE IS THE BLINDSPOT?

Between STARTING and FINISHING most corporations have implemented some sort of Agile Way of Working. The Corporate Blindspot shows you there is something before STARTING and after FINISHING. The moment a corporation sees this blindspot they see they are in fact part of an infinite game and not a finite game(with a start and a finish). It connects the end with a new beginning.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE BLINDSPOT?

There is a reason why corporations have difficulty seeing the blindspot. The main reason is that it happens within people. It is a process of relating yourself to situations and choosing your own path. Be it on an individual, team or company level. It is a continuously flow of re-inventing yourself. Of questioning your loyalty to your beliefs and affiliations. It is a process of adapting to changing conditions. Challenging your level of consciousness. Digging deep inside you. A process of mindfulness. This is the moment we let our hearts speak and choose the adventures and journeys we want to be a part of. In this place people switch jobs, join other teams, change their path or decide to learn a new skill. It is a place of safety, trust and acceptance. It is a free space where people can try out new “futures”. A place where we are all seen as equal, where we can leave our corporate badge outside. Within the Hero’s Journey it is the process The Call to Adventure. The process where an individual can choose to take the red pill or the blue pill. This is space where the real transformation takes place. This is the cocoon where the moth becomes a butterfly. Where from the ashes of old jobs new ones are created.

Every large business is seeking ways to make a flexible machine with fixed components. Impossible!

THE PROBLEM OF JOB TITLES

Corporations cannot find a way today to integrate the above mentioned space within the walls of the corporations. It is seen as unsafe to question your job. It is not done to say you don’t like your job anymore or even say that your job is not relevant anymore. Therefor this process of relating your identity to your work happens mostly at home or in the heads of numbed out employees during office hours. This way job titles start to function as masks, where the identity drifts further and further away from the mask that is still visible around the office. Your identity is not welcome at work. The unwillingness of corporations to recognize this prevents them from transforming. Every large business is seeking ways to make a flexible machine with fixed components. Impossible!

THE SOLUTION IS ADDING AUTONOMY

The main task at hand is that corporations need to allow for Autonomy within the walls of the corporations. With Teamily we have investigated several ways to integrate “Autonomy” within organizations. One of the simple solutions is to always work with temporary labels for employees. This way it is clear for all that the works is of a temporary nature, which creates an automatic “AFTER FINISH” moment. Another very logical step is to integrate a flexible family around the organizations. A layer of people that are between 25% to 40% of their income dependent of the organization. The nature of this relationship harbors already a dynamic of continuously stepping in and out of presented work. Also the less dependent nature of the relation allows for a healthier more equal relation between work supplier and work ‘customer’. A way to have people work with intrinsic motivation is by publicly sharing corporate challenges. This requires the organization to present itself in a vulnerable way, showing it is lacking something. Inviting employees to step in and help.

These are a couple of the ways to integrate Autonomy within organizations. If you are interested to learn how you can turn around the Corporate Blindspot and integrate Autonomy within the workplace please mail me at raimovanderklein@gmail.com.