A rchive Date
[ 05-06-2000 ]
Category
[ Psychology ]
sub-Categoy
[ Cultures ]
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[http://unquietmind.com/dontwork.html
Why Things Don't Work
By: Cliff Havener | 11Feb2000
We normally think the reason things don't work is because the people in charge are stupid, right? That's not the reason. Things don't work because the people in charge are "normal". In fact, in most organizations, of any kind - education, business, organized religion, government, social clubs, you name it - the people in charge had to demonstrate exceptional "normalcy" in order to be in charge.
"Normalcy" is a demonstrated willingness to conform to established norms without questioning them. It's all about "do", but don't "see", don't "think".
Our world is predominantly composed of "normative" social systems. These systems began as a concept, an idea, a philosophy. At first, it was fun to materialize these ideas, to give them tangible forms and process that accomplish their purpose. But once the system defines the forms and processes that accomplish its goal, it begins to concentrate exclusively on refining their efficiency. Now, its priority becomes predictability. Its goal is to do the same things, the same way, over and over, more predictably, more efficiently. To do this, it established rules - "norms". It enforces conformity to them.
Questioning their validity is forbidden, even when they obviously make no sense. The consequences of questioning existing norms is, at minimum, personal ridicule and, at maximum, exile. In a company, for example, it's a sure way to end any career path. It's usually a sure way out the door, too.
Normative systems forbid the question "Why?" because it threatens the norms. They also punish creativity, especially creative problem solving that is likely to create new ways to do things because that's the ultimate threat to the system's norms.
In the name of "efficiency", these systems specialize, which means they break each process down into smaller and smaller pieces. The "big picture" can get so fragmented that two people working side by side may have no idea what the other one does.
The method of control that enforces conformity to the norms is always personal attack. Anyone suggesting deviation is accused of being "stupid", "crazy", "flaky", "alien" (or an alien). Why? Because this kind of attack destroys their self-confidence. People with low self-esteem are a lot easier to control than people with high self-esteem.
As a result of concentrating only on form and process and deliberately ignoring the purpose or meaning behind them, no one in the system has any idea why it exists. Their primary purpose is not to accomplish some end result. It's to faithfully reproduce existing forms and processes.
The folks who rise to the top of highly normative organizations are the ones who have demonstrated the greatest fervor for not only upholding the norms themselves, but for making sure everyone else does, too. They are the enforcers of the norms - rigid, mechanistic - the "supernormal". They are not concerned with outcomes. They are literally blind to the effects the forms and processes they stringently enforce have, not only on the people inside the organization, but on those who receive the output of all this activity. Companies lack of concern with customers is a perfect example.
Normative companies have their forms and processes to follow. The relevance of these activities, and their outcomes, to the company's customers is of little importance to the companies - until, of course, they begin to fail. But even then, they don't see the real cause of their decline. They look to further increase the efficiency of their internal processes. They go "back to basics" - but only to the basics of what they've always done, not the basics that founded the business in the first place - the unique usefulness it originally provided to its customers.
Without a purpose that embraces the customer, which establishes "An exchange of mutual benefit" between supplier and user, the company declines and often dies. That's what happened in "Detroit" that allowed the Japanese auto makers to capture over 30% of the U.S. automotive market. That's what happened to Control Data - which has been dismembered - and to IBM, which has finally drastically changed the way it looks at customers.
The alternative to "normative" systems are "integrative" systems. They both "see" and "do". They recognize that their originating purpose is to provide some value to some community outside themselves - and they never forget it. Of course they create forms and processes to accomplish that purpose, but they don't create "norms". The forms and processes can be changed at any time to adapt to either internal or external changes. Forms and processes are flexible. Only Purpose remains constant. These systems grow and develop, but they don't fragment. Remembering their original purpose keeps all the pieces together. People that work in these systems know what each other does, and why they do it, that is, what contribution it makes to accomplishing the organization's reason for being. People constantly ask "Why?"
As a society, we know very little about integrative systems. We need to get a lot smarter about them because they are how things work.
A book that reveals how the nature of our social systems affects our "human condition", and also shows how to make things work a lot better, is Meaning - The Secret of Being Alive. It can be previewed at http://www.forseekers.com. Its Introduction and first three chapters can be read/downloaded at this site.
© 2000 Cliff Havener All rights reserved.]
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