But...
Over the past year or so, the leadership of this organization has fallen into the hands of a few former friends and colleagues, who have been greatly changed by their ascent to power. For little more than their own glory (since they are not earning any money running this organization- more about the money later on), they have moved to a rigid command and control model, and away from the model of transparency and collaboration that this particular organization literally espouses.
If you remember the old fairy tale about The Emperor's new Clothes, you recall that everyone but the Emperor knew his "clothes so fine only the Emperor can see them" were a sham, and the Emperor strutted around naked. That appears to be the case with my former friend and colleague. He is essentially the COO of this organization, which has seen its member base and revenue streams steadily dwindling in recent years.
A few people, myself included, have been telling the leadership for more than five years, that they are in an "innovator's dilemma." As the book of that name describes, many organizations get stuck when the conditions that once enabled their success, have moved on. As noted author and consultant Marshall Goldsmith wrote, "what got you here, won't get you there."
This is a story of global proportions, affecting tens of thousands of people. Yet it is a very personal story, in which I, and a handful of leaders who disagree with the 2-3 top chiefs, get branded as "boat-rockers," "trouble-makers," and of course "a very small but vocal bunch of outliers."
Well, if you are running a Toyota factory, you'd want every Camry coming off the line to be perfect - to exactly conform to the designer's specifications. Unwanted variations would usually be defects, and management would move swiftly to find the root cause, and eliminate it.
But we humans tend to work differently than a Toyota factory. We're complex, not just complicated. We can deviate from a plan in an instant, if some other path suddenly makes more sense to us. We can process an amazing amount of information in an instant, and reach conclusions just as fast. We're not always right, but we can learn to learn; and learn to adapt to the changes around us.
At least SOME of us can adapt and change. Charles Darwin did not really write "survival of the fittest." What he wrote was that those best able to adapt to changes in their environment would be best suited to survive. My former friends/colleagues who "drank the kool-aid of power" must have had the high-octane punch. The model of governance that they have imposed bears more resemblance to Napoleon's army, than it does to the modern management teachings of even mainstream thinkers like Peter Drucker, Jim Collins, or Henry Mintzberg. Forget about the "Thriving on Chaos" ideas of Tom Peters (and note that Tom published that stuff many years ago). The current trends, with such unique leaders as Yvonne Chouinard of Patagonia, and Ricardo Semler of Semco - "dangerous radicals" in the eyes of The Naked Emperor. Of course the Naked Emperor admits he has not read anything by Margaret Wheatley, Ralph Stacey, Peter Block, etc. Neither does the Naked Emperor use the new social media such as blogs, Facebook or Twitter. In fact, without ever having seen or used it, The Naked Emperor proclaimed Twitter "not suitable for serious business conversations." Oops. Someone forgot to tell His Nakedness that all of his key divisions and many local area leaders and volunteers, were actively, happily, having great conversations on Twitter every day.
There is more to this story, and I will tell more as circumstances permit. It is an unfolding saga.
Peace and fulfillment.
