Barry's SuperBlog » Connecting Companies

Creation Companies: Apply the principles of New Psychology to Business

Barry Mapp — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:21:33 +0000

Applying the principles of “New Psychology” to BusinessBoth New Psychology and New Science are underlying themes in this Superblog. Let’s just take a first brief look at what we mean by the terms New Psychology and Old Psychology and next time we’ll look at “New Science”.

The following is adapted from a Paper presented by Barry Mapp in 1994 at the ERIK Network European Conference “Regional Successes in Creating and Connecting Companies – European Union Perspectives”

Psychology has always been important in BusinessIn Business, psychology (i.e. our understanding of, or beliefs about, human behaviour) has always been an important factor in “how we do things around here”. Psychology thus underpins the workings of both the old and new style company paradigms. The Psychology of Compliant Companies is “Old Psychology” (behaviour that is predicted primarily from studies on starving animals or unhappy or sick human beings). The Psychology that underpins successful Creation Companies is “New Psychology” where people behaviour is predicted from the studies of animals that were happy and cared for, or from research on human beings that are living happy and fulfilled lives. Note that nearly all textbook psychology is “Old Psychology” – so you won’t find much about new psychology from standard psychology books.It is interesting to note that most of our business advisory groups (like Business Link in the UK) still promote business systems based on old psychology and indeed their own organisational structures and processes are rooted in old psychology. Most Government strategy around influencing business and services is based on old psychology and even most business consultants (including those who profess to be thinking outside the box) are often using “old psychology” techniques and theories. The following table shows some of the fundamental differences between Old Psychology and New Psychology approaches.Old Psychology Principles (this includes):

(extensive use of) Extrinsic Motivators (Carrot and Stick)
People Treated like children (heavy on rules and regulations)
External Targets set from above (nearly all are arbitrary!)
Blame culture. Whose fault? Whose head must roll?
Visible are many of the Seven Deadly Diseases of Management

New Psychology Principles (this includes):

(Mostly) Intrinsic Motivation (very reduced use of punishment or rewards, work not bonus driven)
People Treated like adults (owning the work principles)
Goal setting by the people (seeking alignment with the leaders goals)
A ‘No Blame’ culture. What happened? What can we learn?
Cured, or nearly cured, of the Seven Deadly Diseases of Management

In many ways the Old Psychology is the Psychology of the exceptions – the study of the minority studied under unusual or poor conditions.

New Psychology is based upon understanding how the majority will behave under good conditions. So Old Psychology does hold true under stressful or fear conditions, and likewise New Psychology holds true under joyful and happy conditions.

The New Psychologies embrace ideas like those of Glasser (Choice Theory), Kelly (Constructive Alternativism) and Griffin and Tyrell (Human Givens approach). New Psychology is congruent with Kohn’s research on Co-operation and Motivation, with Dweck’s research on “Self-Theories” and with Deming’s ideas on the transformation of management. (More about each of these Psychologies in later blogs)Coming Next: New Science, New Thinking and Creation Companies

Tweet This Post

What makes a “Creation Company”?

Barry Mapp — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:29:55 +0000

Adapted from a Paper presented by Barry Mapp in 1994 at the ERIK Network European Conference “Regional Successes in Creating and Connecting Companies – European Union Perspectives”

A Creation Company can be thought of as a place (business) where the work systems, work processes, work culture, work management and work leadership are aligned with people and how people work best. Where such alignment occurs this can lead to extraordinary results. When the systems do not get in the way of the work, human spirit and human joy and passion unfold. When alignment happens between people and systems, the work can “flow”, unimpeded by artificial constraints, boundaries, controls or hierarchy. When the work is aligned with how people like to work, then every person in the business is able to perform at their very best, such that everyone has the opportunity to produce extraordinary results. When there is such alignment, individuals have a sense of control or influence over the work and a sense of responsible for their own work

The Fundamental Principles for creating a Creation Company

Tom McGehee says there are three fundamental principles for a Creation Company (and ANY company can generate the excitement, energy, confidence, and audacity of the “whoosh” of a Creation Company by subscribing to these fundamental principles):1) A leadership style free from command-and-control principles2) A corporate culture that values individual expression and collaborative work3) An understanding that success means creating the new not replicating the oldFrom my personal experience, I would also add two additional principles required for (long-term) Creation Company performance (this makes it five principles in all) and these will be discussed in the next blogComing next: Five Working Principles of Creation Companies

Tweet This Post

On Creating Creation Companies -an overview

Barry Mapp — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:22:23 +0000

Creating Creation Companies(Adapted from a Paper presented by Barry Mapp in 1994 at the ERIK Network European Conference “Regional Successes in Creating and Connecting Companies – European Union Perspectives”)Let’s take a preliminary look at the differences between a “Compliance Company” and a “Creation Company”. These are terms that I like, that were first penned by Tom McGehee in his book Whoosh. Today a key business challenge is to recognise and realise the full potential of each organisation. However when we continue to lead and manage our organisations in the same way as we have always done, we are going to get what we have always got. The call to lead and manage in a totally different way – to transform “western management”- was first issued by W.Edwards Deming. Many have cherry-picked from Deming’s ideas but few have attempted to transform management along the lines that he proposed. Most organisations continue to be run in “the old ways” based on “old psychology”,“old science” and “old management” principles (each of these terms will be explored more fully in later blogs). As Russell Ackoff pointed out a few years ago, most business schools are part of the problem because they still teach “old way” approaches. However more and more iconoclasts of our era, from different fields and domains, are backing the need to transform management thinking. Tom McGehee is one of many calling for a change in our thinking. He calls the transformed organisation a “Creation Company” and the old-style organisation a “Compliance Company” – terms that I will use also. Compliance Companies, whether they realise this or not, erect barriers to change and innovation by insisting on control of (1)information, (2)resources and (3)decision making, in order to preserve the status quo. In such companies (which remain the vast majority) people have never been trusted to supervise themselves and inspect their own work. People are never able to do their best efforts because the management systems get in the way.Coming Next: So what makes a “Creation Company”?

Tweet This Post