Image by Midjourney prompt by the author.

Are we getting more stuck?

I find that the reaction to there being more need for change, creative and critical thinking is that we do less of it.

It’s as if the world got real, and we are not doing this for fun anymore .. ‘change’ is not a creative workshop, offsite or event. It’s gnawing at the pillars supporting our jobs. So the mindset changes from: let’s do something unexpected to see if we can deliver new results, to: let’s secure our harbor, moor all the boats and make sure we can ride out the storm.

Fishing boats moored in harbour during storm. Image by Midjourney prompt by the author.

Maybe it’s me 🤩. I ‘grew up’ working in the late 2000s and early 2010s and back then “change” was all the rage and we were all investing in it with big ideas and ‘moon shots’.

Illustration by Matt Davies.

Now it’s about keeping the lights on. That is why ‘AI’ and ‘efficiency’ is getting all our attention.

A. From an organizational perspective we are taking the opportunity (the storm) to improve the organizations efficiency with the goal of making it lean enough to have spare change over to invest in moving forward at the pace of our competition (FOMO).

B. But from a people perspective, I’m getting this assumption that we are responding to the crisis very naturally by becoming more attentive to our own job security instead of our work community.

And this is where I think our organizations have failed us over the last twenty or thirty years. Because they’ve become so focused on the simplistic nature of their data, spreadsheets and e.g. sales numbers (the numerical reality of doing business) (1) that they’ve ignored the people part of getting stuff done together as communities (2).

Instead of becoming better by banding together we are breaking apart.

And when in an environment where people rightfully are worried about loosing their income, we build strongholds instead of springboards.

So, is it just me or are we getting more stuck?

Sources and references:

(1). Vandebroek et. al., Impact quantification and integration in impact investing, The Routledge Companion to Anthropology and Business

(2). Yves Doz, Dsign flaws within organizations, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBQc3Oecu4M&list=PLF2B2F06709D33067&index=4