Do Managers Eat Their Young?

Saturn Devouring His Son

I’ve become a skeptic regarding the power of knowledge. 

The remarkable trait of humans that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom is our capacity to accumulate knowledge.  For example, I can tell children to not touch a hot stove.  This is a piece of knowledge that I’ve never experienced but I believe it to be true so I pass that knowledge along.

This is not so for other animals.  Watch a lioness teach her cubs to hunt.  All she can do is transfer her direct knowledge to those cubs.  She can’t sit around and say, “hey, I was talking with your aunt yesterday and she thinks it’s a good idea to stay away from the horns of the water buffalo.”

So we’re blessed with a special gift that has driven the history of humanity, right?  Well maybe “not so much.”  The human race has lots of knowledge that it constantly ignores: kids do touch hot stoves; 20% of American’s smoke; and our eating habits are so atrocious that the average American is 25 pounds heavier than in 1960.

The Myth of Listening
I bring this up because of a barrage of books, articles, and blogs I see that discuss the known virtues of “listening” – almost as a panacea for all that ails organizations.  We know that the simple improvisation technique of “… yes – and” performs miracles at work.  This simple technique invites diversity into the conversation and allows ideas to emerge, bump into other ideas, and become innovations that save the world. 

You don’t have to believe me, just read authors such as Stephen Johnson and his seminal book: Where Good Ideas Come From.

Yet managers consistently behave counter to this known wisdom.  In fact, my experience tells me that most “successful” executives are bad listeners.  They know how to control and they know how to direct.  Much of their success emanates from their capability to get things done by only listening to those who are on the same narrow path.

Why is this?  Why is asking a manager to listen akin to asking a diabetic to forego dessert?

I’m not sure that I have the definitive answer; however, I recently had an insight that let me form an opinion. Here it is.

The Myth of Saturn

I was in the Museo National del Prado in Madrid.  Spain is the home of Francisco Goya so I decided to learn what I could about this famous artist.  In so doing I stumbled into his period of Black Paintings.  I was specifically struck by his rendering of Saturn Eating One of His Sons.

The mythology says that Saturn, who was the Roman god of time, would be deposed from power by one of his sons, just as Saturn deposed his father.  Saturn’s survival answer was simple; he would devour his sons as they were born.  However, through trickery one son, Jupiter, was hidden and did in fact bring Saturn his fate.

There are plenty of art experts who have interpreted this work; however, when I saw it I immediately saw organizational dynamics.  It gave me a possibility for why many managers do not listen.  Why managers don’t let go.  Why managers revel in being the smartest person in the room.  Why managers feel the compulsion to have the final word with the final answer.

I know I’m speculating but am I really that far off the mark?  Managers like to be in control.  They fear randomness and chaos.  When ideas other than their own come to the table the idea and the advocate are threats – not just to the issue at hand but to the security of the manager’s job.  The young are seen as challengers to the manager’s ESP – Ego, Status, and Power.  Survivalism trumps listening.

That’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

1 Tip For Leaders Of Innovation

If you want new ideas you need to think differently.  Try joining the Improv theatre.

I read a lot about the theory and practice of developing leaders.  I'm also a practitioner.  Last year, in conjunction with a client team, I designed and helped deliver a Leadership Development program for 300 vice-presidents at a public company in Korea.  The program was titled Creating Leaders of Innovation. 

Making the program effective was a difficult challenge.  Korean’s are immersed in education, relationships and their national culture that values hierarchy, respect, and even deference.  These are great personal values for managers but are barriers to creating leaders of innovation.

To develop our managers into leaders we organized the 300 vice presidents into classes of about 15 students.  Each class had seven days of classroom training separated into three workshops over about four months.  We provided four days of instruction around Innovation tools – from idea generation to initiative selection and experimentation to pipeline management. 

The other three days of classroom instruction were devoted to leadership development, but not generically.  The Leadership program was aimed directly at the innovation approach and tools.  We stressed the need for leaders to: listen, summarize, and ask questions.

We also designed homework between each of the three workshops so the students could test their learnings in practical, but non-threatening situations.  Homework was done in teams of classmates.   And then at the end of the workshops each student had to do an “on the ground” project where they did a live innovation project with their real teams.

This mix of adult learning models provided some interesting results.

Our students quickly absorbed the course information, from an academic point of view.  Koreans are reputed to be the highest IQ people in the world.  The live practice was a different story.   They had difficulty transitioning from managers to leaders.  Their instinct was to stay in control.  Their career experience told them it was their job to have the idea; to have the answer.  Soliciting input from others was a show of weakness.

We had taught them what to do and intellectually they understood their lessons; however, we needed a technique to put their learning into practice.  Our most effective tip was to give them:

·      The #1 Rule of Improv: Go with the scenario

Improvisation works because the actors follow this basic rule.  The first actor throws out a ridiculous scenario.  The receiver has to go with it.  They may eventually turn it and reshape it, but they have to start with and absorb what was thrown at them.  If they reject the scenario then the Improv goes into a death spiral. 

My observation is that we haven't learned this Improv lesson in business.  As we go through our day we tend to reject scenarios, not go with them.  I think we learn this early.  Watch children.  Their first expression of independence is “no.”  That stays with them, and us, for life.  By the time we get to business we have learned that identifying the “fatal flaw” has more immediate rewards and less risk than identifying the “outstanding opportunity.”

Try your own mini-research.  Say to someone: “it’s a nice day.”  The odds are that after they acknowledge the statement they will reject the scenario: for example, “yeah, but it’ll rain tomorrow.”  So much for a positive discussion of today’s weather.

Scenario rejection tends to be a survival skill for managers.  Managers want to take control and be in control.  They want to demonstrate their knowledge.  They want to give an answer and direction.  This leads to interchanges such as this:

• Staff: I have an idea on how to bring together online and off line sales.
• Manager:  You know, that idea has been around for years.
• Staff:  Yes, but a lot has changed.
• Manager:  I was on the task force that studied that idea three years ago.  It doesn’t work within our sales channel strategy.
• Staff:  We have analyzed some new research and we think …
• Manager:  Research will never make that idea work.  Our compensation and commission arrangements support two distinct channels.
• Staff:  Yes, we know but …
• Manager:  Here’s what I want you to do: go talk with Sally Smith.  She will help you understand our sales strategy so you can help her develop new ideas that are aligned with it.

The staff member could be wrong, but we'll never know.  

The Improv technique changes the dynamic.  Leaders will go with the scenario.  They will listen, probe, and give guidance.  When leaders look for an opportunity, rather than a flaw, the discussion changes.

• Staff:  I have an idea on how to bring together online and off line sales.
• Leader:  We've looked at that idea several times.  What has changed?
• Staff:  Well, we have new research that shows a growing niche in the SMB market.
• Leader:  So you want to target a slice of SMB?
• Staff:  Yes, we’ll have to make some pricing changes and redefine our relationship with our retail partners, but it can work
• Leader:  Sorry, but I’m having trouble with the idea.  How will we ensure that both channels are compensated properly?
• Staff:  That’s the great part.  We will distribute profits and commissions on a total revenue basis.
• Leader:  I’m still not with you.  Can you do an experiment to de-risk the decision?
• Staff:  Sure, but I’ll have to get back to you on that next week

In this case we still don't have an answer but we're still open to one.

The Improv technique dramatically changed how our students used the classroom training.  It gave them something to hold onto as they leapt over the chasm from management to leadership.  It gave them a procedure, a safety net, so they could accept an idea and then let others roll with it to build it into a bigger and better idea.

Improv.  It’s a simple lesson for leaders of innovation, but it works!