By Stephen R Balzac
July 29, 2010
“Destiny! Destiny! No escaping that for me!”
- Gene Wilder in “Young Frankenstein”
As fans of Mel Brook’s classic comedy Young Frankenstein know, Gene Wilder’s destiny as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein is to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and create the monster. This being a comedy, things do work out somewhat better than they did in the original story. Destiny, it appears, can be changed with sufficient effort. Indeed, precisely because Frederick Frankenstein realizes that he’s following in Victor Frankenstein’s footsteps, he is able to turn things around at the last minute and bring about a happy ending.
In my consulting projects and in conducting leadership training with various groups, from college students through executives, I’ve frequently observed destiny in action. People play out the roles that they believe they are supposed to play out. Organizationally, we act as we’ve been taught to act in our various roles: CEOs are expected to behave in one way, managers another, engineers yet another. For example, in some companies it’s perfectly normal for engineers to show up to work in jeans and T-shirts, but totally inappropriate for a manager to do the same.
At a much broader level, organizations learn lessons about how to deal with a variety of issues: conflict, negotiation, challenges from subordinates and peers, competitive threats, and so forth. Those lessons become stories that are passed down over time. IBM founder Tom Watson driving to a train wreck in the middle of the night to organize and supervise the emergency crews is one such story. At another company, how the board dealt with a challenge from an employee who eventually left to found a competing company became the stuff of organizational legend. Decades later, the then president is remembered as both the hero who stood up for the company’s values even at the cost of creating a competitor and as a tin-pot dictator whose egotism cost the company many of its most creative people. It all depends on whom you ask.
These stories frequently become the model for dealing with new situations. In one organization, the developing conflict between two senior managers is becoming increasingly intense as each one takes on the roles of the people in their departments who fought similar battles a generation ago. Each one is making assumptions about the motives and goals of the other and simultaneously avoiding any face-to-face conversation. Like Frankenstein, they are each creating their own monster.
Fortunately, destiny can be averted or changed. The first step is both the simplest and the most difficult: recognizing that you are playing out a story. Frequently those organizational stories are so taken for granted that we don’t even realize that we’re reenacting a role. Periodically ask yourself and those around you about how the organization did things in the past. Did a similar situation come up? If so, how was it dealt with? If not, what are the stories about how the company deals with novel situations? It can help immensely to involve a third party in the discussion, someone who will question the things that you might take for granted. If it turns out that you’re not playing out a story, great! But if you are, knowing the story will give you the advantage of knowing what implicit beliefs and assumptions are in play: not just your own assumptions, but those of the other actors in the story.
The second key step is to stop and ask yourself what you really are trying to accomplish. What are the organization’s actual needs and goals and what are your actual needs and goals? What will satisfy them? Find someone to help you brainstorm; you never know what creative solutions will let you change the ending.
Finally, resist the urge to engage in mindreading. That manager who is busily making statements about the other guy’s motives, desires and goals is demonstrating his vast skill at mindreading. Sadly, he has not honed this skill through such activities as winning a fortune playing poker. In short, he is creating his own monster, fashioned from his own beliefs, fears, hopes, and so forth, and projecting that on to the other person. If the other person responds, then before long neither will be dealing with a real person; rather, they will each be playing out a story in which they are the hero locked in battle with a villain out to destroy the company.
Take the time to talk to the other people involved in your story. See them as individuals, not as actors. Find out what they’re really trying to accomplish. It may not be so unreasonable after all. If nothing else, solutions are much easier when you understand what’s really motivating the other party. The ending really is under your control.
Stephen Balzac is a consultant and professional speaker. He is president of 7 Steps Ahead, an organizational development firm focused on helping businesses to increase revenue and build their client base. Steve is a contributing author to volume one of “Ethics and Game Design: Teaching Values Through Play,” and the author of “The 36-Hour Course in Organizational Development,” due out from McGraw-Hill in Fall 2010. Contact him at steve@7stepsahead.com.