Written by: Janet M. Harvey, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Pause a moment and reflect on how you perceive your workplace. Do employees play it safe, keep their heads down and mouths shut, doing the work? Do they stay silent, conforming to the status quo instead of sharing ideas and innovation? Might you be a leader longing for more engagement and Contribution from your team or an employee who wishes you worked with a leader who wants that? These are common dilemmas that leaders face in the workplace every day. The tension between Conformity and Contribution has been part of the workplace fabric since the industrial age. It has become more acute today with the influence of technology that spotlights the challenge now to ignite loyalty and motivation for the workforce to use their discretionary energy daily.
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Albert Einstein
Conformity was the norm in the industrial age and, in many ways, carried the seed of today's emphasis on Lean and Agile principles. Employee conformity is the platform at the foundation of business because taking variability from the work process saves money, improves productivity, and generates growth more quickly. Unfortunately, this influence in the workplace environment created an unintended consequence that everyone struggles with today. How people show up, interact, and make decisions at work can be tied directly to their mindset. Mindset includes the frame of reference, thoughts, beliefs, values, habits, and attitudes. Guess what? That's unique to each person in the form of their personality and personal character. You can see now why the desire for diversity and inclusion often invisibly conflicts with the benefits of Conformity.
As I entered the workforce in the 70s, I recall hearing that it was best to "not rock the boat" and to "focus on delivering on expectations." But, of course, with time, I began to see two unintended consequences. First, the environment constantly changed, and some of those expectations no longer created the needed results. Second, my unique skills, the ones somebody hired me to contribute, were not fully used, and frankly,I was bored and a little resentful. These two consequences awakened me to choose contributions that achieved Conformity through following principles rather than formulas and through forward-thinking relationships and dialogue rather than only reporting on what happened to justify actions.
The central idea offered here is for leaders to answer this question for themselves: "How do I learn to tolerate the tension of presence?" We all know what it means to let things go and trust the unknown. We also know how to build on what we know. There is a line between the two states of being: the tension of presence. When I started working with this idea, I explored each dilemma as a polarity and then as a paradox, which was utterly unsatisfying. This kind of dualistic thinking, getting caught in the pendulum swinging between two states of being, didn't work to generate new solutions. Leaders who try to reconcile this tension waste a lot of time. They end up focusing attention and energy on stopping the swinging rather than seeking valuable solutions.
The diagram below introduces a set of everyday tensions that our research with over 250 leaders revealed. The presence of tension tolerated for a little bit longer became a way to see how to foster freedom, turning what appeared to be damaging as a resource to see what change to invite and, through that, generate a more desirable state, e.g., momentum toward desired Contribution with something new by embracing a dynamic adoption of beneficial Conformity rather than suffer the destructive effect of paralyzing norms that no longer produce desired results.
When we put Conformity and Contribution on opposite ends of a line, we recognize that sometimes Conformity is healthy. It suggests that the thing we've been doing is stabilizing and scalable. As the feeling of tension arises to contribute something new and different, that requires bravery to speak up, speak out and step out of the norms.
Our best resource is to remember that pause gives more time than it takes. As Einstein said, leaders who stay with a problem in discomfort from a mindset of curiosity and wonder can see that many more than one valuable and worthy answer exists for every situation.
Examining problems more deeply through the lens of either of the tension qualities gives a giant playground to determine what solutions to thorny issues could be. There's always a ratio between the two that works. When we can physically stand somewhere between them, feel both of them and sense what's useful and what's not known or misunderstood, we stay alert to what's happening right before us, and we will make better decisions. As we shift our mindset, we think about resources differently.
Ultimately, a more deliberate decision-making process mitigates many things that cause expensive rework and emotional frustration for all involved.
Three ideas for the tension of presence: Conformity and Contribution
1. Begin with reflection on your current mindset to discover the habits, thoughts, beliefs, values, attitudes, and frames of reference that operate on autopilot in your daily work. The first step of noticing makes you curious about what motivates your choice of action and interaction and what’s more practical and wanted for the current environment, situation, or relationship. Once you add this reflect and notice rhythm in your day, your personal patterns become clearer to recognize, along with the impact those patterns generate. Use the three questions below to invite change in your rhythm and be more deliberate with your desired impact. To extend the value of this idea beyond yourself, explore and answer these questions with every team member during one-on-one meetings and watch the exponential growth in Contribution that occurs!
What are ways that you conform that work for you and your role?
What are some ways that no longer work for you and your role
What is the new road that you want to take? What best represents who you have become, your talents and strengths, and how you want to contribute those now and into the next role you aspire toward?
2. Managers and leaders alike report that after reflecting, they realize they don’t fully know their team members beyond what they “do” on the job. They usually know a few personal details, and what’s missing are all those elements of a mindset that operate invisibly for all of us. When any team member chooses Conformity because that provides both emotional and economic security, the enterprise does not have access to the unique Contribution available through that person. Multiply this phenomenon by the number of people on the team, and you can recognize the drag on productivity and ingenuity that executive leaders regularly acknowledge. Give attention toward play, purpose, and potential, bringing team members together to share more about themselves and get to know each other beyond their roles. By this action, you, as their leader, signal your interest, support, and respect for each person’s unique presence on the team. Leaders who adopt these behaviors satisfy what Tim Clark defines as the first stage of psychological safety, Inclusion Safety.
3. Would you like the key to stimulating new ideas, solutions, and full engagement by your team? Remember that when a team member chooses to step up and step out requires bravery to be seen and experienced as different. Leaders who sustain this understanding create psychological safety for the following two stages, Learning, and Contributor Safety. When team members feel unsafe expressing their unique skills and capability to make a meaningful contribution, ingenuity, and productivity improvement stalls. Why is it essential for a leader to master how they influence the workplace climate? There is a fourth stage of psychological safety. You want to achieve.
Challenger Safety motivates team members to speak up and challenge the status quo when they notice an opportunity to change and improve.
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Janet M. Harvey, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Janet M. Harvey is CEO of inviteCHANGE, a coaching and human development organization that shapes a world where people love their life’s work. Janet is a visionary leader in the global professional coaching industry with an International Coaching Federation Master Certification. Janet is an accredited educator who has engaged adults, teams, and global enterprises for nearly 30 years to invite change that sustains well-being and excellence. Janet uses her executive and entrepreneurial experience to cultivate leaders in sustainable excellence through Generative Wholeness™, a signature generative coaching and learning process for people and systems. Janet has served as a global board leader for ICF, as a director.
Source:
Tim Clark, The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: The Path to Inclusion and Innovation, Barrett-Koehler 2020
