by Mike Morrison
Fellow leader,
Here is what I am seeing (experiencing) after working in three dozen organizations over the last three years. For most organizations – the level of chaos and complexity in their external world is now matched with the same level of confusion in their work culture. They are in total alignment – and that is not good.
This is not working.
The center is not holding.
We need to rethink our way forward.
Our work cultures are losing their capacity to create enough gravitational pull to keep the organization “whole.” As a result, we are living at the outer edges. Without a connection to a unifying center, we play the smaller game. We live at the porous boundary of organizational life – where vulnerability and anxiety rein. Listen. Listen. In a world of complexity, chaos, and challenge – culture represents our best chance to thrive as we execute our aspirations with the full force of a totally aligned organization.
We will have to rethink our way forward – and it all starts with meeting our most core and foundational need: Our need for meaning.
Research reveals a clear void of meaning in our organizational lives – but also sees “meaning” as the primary pathway to reaching our true potential as both individuals and organizations. When it is present, meaning cuts through the complexity of organizational life by emphasizing values – the key factor that enhances the quality of the human experience. In this regard, meaning serves our most basic human need to make a difference. Meaning also provides stability in a world characterized by change.
For at least two hundred years – some notable scholars have been predicting the end of religious faith. It is based on the notion that faith will certainly lose its foundation with the certainty of science. The last 100 years has actually produced a more vibrant faith movement – with the majority of human beings sharing a faith in “something beyond themselves.”
Here’s why – religious faith is not concerned with the “what” and “how” questions of science. It wants to know the “why” of existence. This same human need carries over into our organizations. Why do we exist? What is our meaningful purpose? At our core, we seek meaning to fill the voids of our individual lives – and institutions that can begin to fill this void will ultimately win our hearts.
See you on the path,
Mike