This blog is about improving the relationship between organizations and the people who work for them. And, it’s dedicated to the millions of people around the world who go to work every day wanting to do a great job.
Design thinking
Tension that’s good for you
This past week two of my favourite blogs have posted about tension – In over your head and Six pixels of separation. They both refer to the need to create tension if you want to create. And the second, refers to a conversation I had with Mitch Joel the other day. I thought it would be worth expanding on that discussion here. Even Internal Communicators are creators at heart [and often in reality] after all.
So what is this tension? This tension isn’t emotional tension. It isn’t the kind of tension that’s caused by stress, anxiety, or fear. It is the kind of tension described by my friend and teacher Robert Fritz as structural tension. And, what’s great about this kind of tension is that once you know about it you can use it, design it into your life, your projects, your business to increase the likelihood of your achieving what you want.
Hmmm. Sounds a bit like magic doesn’t it. Well, it’s not. And on some level it will seem so obvious you will be scratching your head. And yet to master its force takes discipline and focus. Here are the basics.
First, know what you want to build, create, bring into being and by when [ Time is a powerful force for good in creating]. You can’t fake this part. You either really want it or you don’t. In the case of the discussion with Mitch that could be something like:
A fun, visually interesting blog for people like me who love baking and where I can share my favourite recipes ideas on healthy eating and observations on life [inspired by my friend Helen's blog]. My friends like it and are sharing it with their friends. I’ve posted [insert real number] posts and have [insert real number] followers by September 15, 2010.
Second, know where you stand in relationship to that end state. To me this is always the part that’s a bit tricky. We like to fool ourselves by making things a bit too good or bad about where we are in relationship to what we want. And that, can really muck up structural tension.
I have a cupboard full of recipes. I’ve got lots to say about my passion for baking and life. I have a handful of friends that I know will love this. I don’t know anything about publishing on line. I’m good at taking pictures but I don’t have a camera.
Now here’s the interesting thing. The more you really want and are passionate about the thing you’re trying to create and the more discrepant the end state and the current state are the more power there is in the system. And the actions you need to take just pop out [trust me, it's true. And that can create emotional tension. You'll get over it if you really want what you want.].
I need to start commenting on others blogs so I can get a feel for what it’s like. I need to find out about wordpress. Get a camera. And, get technical advice. And,….
So that’s structural tension. And that’s a very good thing.
In the conversation with Mitch we were talking about web analytics and how it can get you off track. How is that?
Well it doesn’t have to, but if it does this is what happens.
I want to create a blog that attracts my friends and people who love baking the way I do, so I create the blog and have a 100 followers.
And then you start tracking the analytics and realize that 100 isn’t a very big number of followers. After all Mr Big Blogger has 175,000+ followers and can get speaking gigs for $15,000 a time and…book deals and….
I want to get my numbers up, so I start doing things to get the numbers up.
Your focus shifts to building the numbers and away from the original spirit and intent of your blog. You start manipulating yourself and your readers. And when they’re not they create a structural conflict. Over time these competing forces will drive you away from the thing you wanted in the first place and kill the power of structural tension.
Now, here’s the good news. Once you’re aware of structural conflict you can choose. You can decide if you still want what you wanted when you started – a fun little blog with a few loyal followers. And if it is knowing where you stand against your end state is a good thing. Web analytics can help.
And, if not, it’s time to go back to basics and consciously build some structural tension.
Are your Internal Communications driven by structural tension or structural conflict? How can you tell? Something to think about.
Random Posts:
Your washroom. Your culture.
In an all but forgotten corner of every office is the washroom. And, in the places I’ve worked they have been the most sterile, cold and soulless places in the office. And that’s saying something given some of the spaces I’ve worked in.
Kate Rutter believes ‘office bathrooms are key indicators of team culture’ because they should “…signal what’s important to the team…” On May 8th DNTO’s Tori Allen took this insight to CBCs workplace washrooms. The episode is fun.
Years ago one of my brothers-in-law, Richard, who at the time owned a gas station in Toronto, replied when I complained about the state of station toilets – “A dirty station is a busy station”. Enough said.
And it got me thinking. If workplace washrooms are key indicators of culture then they must be a key lever of change. And, maybe washrooms are something we should be paying more attention to.
I’m serious. It doesn’t need to take much. In the DNTO episode they added a plant [a cactus to be exact], some 3-ply toilet paper, tic tacs, gum, dental floss and post it notes. These small changes humanized the space and created an almost immediate uplifting affect within the team.
While we’re busy trying to create collaborative and innovative cultures how much effort is being put into designing spaces [including washrooms] that humanize the workplace and encourage employees to interact, share ideas, and create together.
Funny since our work spaces are the most visible reflection of our organizations with employees and other key stakeholders. You’d think it would be the first we’d place to start.
What do you think? Should we start in the workplace washroom?
Random Posts:
“Can organizations be beautiful?”
Tim Brown, CEO of innovation and design firm IDEO and author of Design Thinking, asks this question in his most recent blog. “Great design thinking results in functionally and emotionally satisfying solutions where the emotional value is generated through the creation of meaning.” He goes on to express his frustration that “current organizational design practice… seems to largely be about arranging boxes in an organizational chart.” And, then he goes on to ask whether there’s room for design thinking in organizational design?
There’d better be! How else can we support employees doing their best at work?
And yet with few exceptions and after two decades in OD, brand marketing and communications [where you'd think the expression of the organization would be compelling] I can come up with only three examples where I think the representations were “functional and emotionally satisfying solutions that had potential for creating meaning.”
The first was in Henry Mintzberg’s book ‘The structuring of organizations’. It was a complete revelation for me when I first saw it. Granted the boxes are there, but the overlay of loops to show the different functional emphasis for different types of organizations is quite beautiful and simple if not too emotional. That said, it was a heart pounding experience for me when I first saw them. I’d even go so far as to say career changing.
The second was work done by Russell Grossman and the team at BBC a few years ago where their interpretation of their new structure was depicted as a colourful flower. Emotionally compelling. Perhaps not that functional though. We’d have to ask Russell.
The third, strangely enough happened just last evening. I was at the Canadian Centre for Architecture for a tour of Other Space Odyssey, their latest exhibit, and my second visit. This time I noticed something I hadn’t before in the room devoted to Michael Maltzan’s latest designs for the American Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
There among various maquettes and interpretations of the building was a startling blue and green model of the building based on the functional and working relationships [organigram] of the people who will work there. It simply pops! [check out the images of the exhibit and look for the blue and green jewel]
The architect’s objective was to have the building and it’s work spaces reflect the scale of the work these people do – in time [the outcome of the work they do today won’t be known for 10 years or more] and space [they are doing projects as far away as Saturn] and to breakdown hierarchy to better reflect the way that work is done. The result is an organizational design that is definitely both functional and emotionally compelling.
Imagining and representing working relationships – as this is within the context of a physical working space or virtually – can be functional and compelling. We have the technology today to express both formal and informal organizational relationships in beautiful and meaningful ways. I think the implications from a communications point of view are pretty amazing. What are we waiting for?
I’d love to hear what you think. Do you have any other examples of organizational design that is heading in the right direction?