I studied with Peter Drucker in the late 90's and he pointed to two things that he said would irrevocably rock the employer-employee relationship, and have massive ripples across society at large: 1) executive/CEO compensation:average employee wage ratios and 2) layoffs. Where we are now is so far beyond what he predicted I often picture him rolling six feet under.
From The Drucker Institute:
"Drucker had seen firsthand what happens when society stops functioning, having witnessed the rise of the Nazis in the aftermath of the Great War and Depression. This was the central theme of the first of the 39 major books – The End of Economic Man – that he would publish throughout his extraordinarily long and productive career. “These catastrophes broke through the everyday routine which makes men accept existing forms, institutions and tenets as unalterable laws…They suddenly exposed the vacuum behind the façade of society.”
Drucker was determined never to let things break down like that again and set out to help leaders build effective and responsible institutions, learning much from rising corporate leaders, which helped inform the writing of some of his most popular books – The Effective Executive, The Concept of the Corporation, The Practice of Management."
Reading this paragraph "Mission command works when some sort of social contract or binding narrative exists. Mission command works through "trust, shared awareness, and understanding of the commander's intent." When that contract breaks, mission command breaks."
I immediately thought that this is true for our open and liberal societies (or nations) too, as the Mission Command organizational structures and operational models also apply to our governments.
We can see it happening right in front of our eyes everyday - in our Western societies, a rising number of people doesn't believe in the binding narrative that had us connected on a fundamental level (individual freedoms, democratic decision making, peace and prosperity for all) for so long. Distrust in governments and each other is on the rise. Governing becomes more and more difficult as we can't agree anymore as to how the future should look. The post talks about the impact of layoffs and I had this idea that many groups, which we often describe as "left behind", may feel as if they have been "laid off" from society. Not sure though, if drawing that analogy is withstanding a test, just a first thought.
Love the article and looking forward for part 2. One thing always coming back to me in the last few years is the notion of trust as the remedy for any organizational trouble. Although it makes sense at first, I started seeing it as the wrong basis. At first, trust seems to be unactionable: lack of trust isn't solve simply by trusting more. Then it seems to be a broken lever: if you don't have trust in place, trusting people would unlikely creating more trust. But in the end, I think trust is not a mean, but a measure, a signal. The presence or lack of trust is a symptom, not a force. And, for me, this start to put things in place.
Lack of transparency is decreasing trust, more transparency increase it. Unfair punishment and shooting the messenger decrease trust, but training the messenger and fair inquiries on failures increase it.
So, in the end, I think trust is more like a thermometer rather than a thermostat. I'm still uncertain how to measure trust properly, but I'm now more convince that trust (or lack of trust) is the consequence rather than the cause of many org problems, and focusing on such cause is a way more productive endeavor over just asking for more trust.
Turn that Ship Around is an excellent book I'd also highly recommend, but since you mentioned "The Few, The Proud" I'd also suggest reading USMC Warfighting https://www.marines.mil/portals/1/Publications/MCDP%201%20Warfighting%20GN.pdf (~100 pages and well worth your time) for a deeper understanding of how military organizations thought of and run (and yes politics is involved)
I think you hit a great point here. What often gets neglected in organizational theory is that businesses are social organizations. They are held together by soft tissue like trust, shared values, communication, „chemistry“, etc. If times get more volatile people are less relaxed and tension gets more exposed. We act unsurprisingly irrational.
Take away layoffs, lucky I my org is fairly good at keeping that issue to a minimum, the issues you’ve shared over the last two weeks are apposite… as always. The lower to middle manager layer is asked to lead, with often ambiguous direction and without anyone at senior level ensuring they are “on board” and if not why not and what good reasons they hold.
Thanks for sharing this, John. I think there’s a connection between two things you mention here: legitimacy of the system & competing narratives on what is “true”. We’re unfortunately seeing this tension play out in our industry but also in society broadly.
It feels like mutual truth-seeking at all levels is the core pathway to solving this tension? Easier said than done, of course.
I studied with Peter Drucker in the late 90's and he pointed to two things that he said would irrevocably rock the employer-employee relationship, and have massive ripples across society at large: 1) executive/CEO compensation:average employee wage ratios and 2) layoffs. Where we are now is so far beyond what he predicted I often picture him rolling six feet under.
From The Drucker Institute:
"Drucker had seen firsthand what happens when society stops functioning, having witnessed the rise of the Nazis in the aftermath of the Great War and Depression. This was the central theme of the first of the 39 major books – The End of Economic Man – that he would publish throughout his extraordinarily long and productive career. “These catastrophes broke through the everyday routine which makes men accept existing forms, institutions and tenets as unalterable laws…They suddenly exposed the vacuum behind the façade of society.”
Drucker was determined never to let things break down like that again and set out to help leaders build effective and responsible institutions, learning much from rising corporate leaders, which helped inform the writing of some of his most popular books – The Effective Executive, The Concept of the Corporation, The Practice of Management."
One of your best pieces!
Reading this paragraph "Mission command works when some sort of social contract or binding narrative exists. Mission command works through "trust, shared awareness, and understanding of the commander's intent." When that contract breaks, mission command breaks."
I immediately thought that this is true for our open and liberal societies (or nations) too, as the Mission Command organizational structures and operational models also apply to our governments.
We can see it happening right in front of our eyes everyday - in our Western societies, a rising number of people doesn't believe in the binding narrative that had us connected on a fundamental level (individual freedoms, democratic decision making, peace and prosperity for all) for so long. Distrust in governments and each other is on the rise. Governing becomes more and more difficult as we can't agree anymore as to how the future should look. The post talks about the impact of layoffs and I had this idea that many groups, which we often describe as "left behind", may feel as if they have been "laid off" from society. Not sure though, if drawing that analogy is withstanding a test, just a first thought.
Great takes, John! Looking forward to Part 2!
Smashed that heart button hard after reading this. This is a fantastic synthesis and simply rings true.
Love the article and looking forward for part 2. One thing always coming back to me in the last few years is the notion of trust as the remedy for any organizational trouble. Although it makes sense at first, I started seeing it as the wrong basis. At first, trust seems to be unactionable: lack of trust isn't solve simply by trusting more. Then it seems to be a broken lever: if you don't have trust in place, trusting people would unlikely creating more trust. But in the end, I think trust is not a mean, but a measure, a signal. The presence or lack of trust is a symptom, not a force. And, for me, this start to put things in place.
Lack of transparency is decreasing trust, more transparency increase it. Unfair punishment and shooting the messenger decrease trust, but training the messenger and fair inquiries on failures increase it.
So, in the end, I think trust is more like a thermometer rather than a thermostat. I'm still uncertain how to measure trust properly, but I'm now more convince that trust (or lack of trust) is the consequence rather than the cause of many org problems, and focusing on such cause is a way more productive endeavor over just asking for more trust.
Fantastic article.
Turn that Ship Around is an excellent book I'd also highly recommend, but since you mentioned "The Few, The Proud" I'd also suggest reading USMC Warfighting https://www.marines.mil/portals/1/Publications/MCDP%201%20Warfighting%20GN.pdf (~100 pages and well worth your time) for a deeper understanding of how military organizations thought of and run (and yes politics is involved)
I think you hit a great point here. What often gets neglected in organizational theory is that businesses are social organizations. They are held together by soft tissue like trust, shared values, communication, „chemistry“, etc. If times get more volatile people are less relaxed and tension gets more exposed. We act unsurprisingly irrational.
Take away layoffs, lucky I my org is fairly good at keeping that issue to a minimum, the issues you’ve shared over the last two weeks are apposite… as always. The lower to middle manager layer is asked to lead, with often ambiguous direction and without anyone at senior level ensuring they are “on board” and if not why not and what good reasons they hold.
Thanks for sharing this, John. I think there’s a connection between two things you mention here: legitimacy of the system & competing narratives on what is “true”. We’re unfortunately seeing this tension play out in our industry but also in society broadly.
It feels like mutual truth-seeking at all levels is the core pathway to solving this tension? Easier said than done, of course.