How Creation Companies differ (New Science, New Thinking)

Barry Mapp — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:52:52 +0000

How Creation Companies differ from Compliant Companies (New Science, New Thinking and Creation Companies)The concepts and research from the “new sciences” challenge our current thinking (theories-in-use) and challenge some sacred beliefs and ethos about how best to do good business. Creation companies (whether they realise it or not) embrace new psychology and new science ideas. This thinking is in line with other iconoclast thinkers of our time such as, Russell Ackoff (Systems Thinking), Edward de Bono (Design Thinking), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow Thinking), and Eric Jensen (Brain-Based Thinking)Let’s look at some of the major differences between Compliant and Creation Companies:COMPLIANT Companies tend to have the following characteristics:

Leadership Style that is Command and Control
Order maintained by Policies and Rules
Competitive Internal Departments leading to sub-optimisation
Focus on Activity and the need to work faster, and measuring the things that can be easily measured but may not be that important
Asking people to improve but not giving them the method or means by which to do so (carrots and sticks offered rather than a method for improvement)
Lack of Trust (Old Psychology suggests that people cannot be trusted -extrapolated from the 1% or less who can never be trusted)
A Blame (and Fear) Culture. Asking, “who went wrong” (If things are not working, look for what the people are doing wrong and then give them a rollicking). Little opportunity to learn in a Blame Culture
People (particularly the leaders) confuse models with reality
The valued thinking is “Expert Mind”
Risk Avoidance
Black and White Thinking (shades of grey are discouraged)

Creation Companies tend to have the following charateristics:

Leadership Style - Freedom from Command and Control
Order maintained through Principles and Relationship
Co-operative, Whole System approach (optimising the whole)
Focus on outcomes and improving outcomes. Aware that most of the important things can’t actually be measured through “activity”.
Allowing people to improve the systems and processes by giving them the methods and resources by which to achieve the improvement
Built on Trust (New Psychology suggests that people can be trusted – extrapolated from the 99% who given the right conditions can always be trusted)
A No-Blame Culture. Asking “what went wrong”(If things are not working, find out which processes need to be changed. In a no-blame culture the business can learn from mistakes
People understand modelling and use many models
The valued thinking is “Beginner’s Mind”
Opportunity seeking
Multiple Possibility Thinking

Summary

The focus of Compliant Companies is on “conformance”. Compliance is maintained through the rules and structures, the management mechanism is mainly command and control, there is a blame culture for mistakes. Conformance (to standards and best practice) is a cultural principle. The focus of Creation Companies differs, in that the people have guiding principles rather than rules, there is a noticeable freedom from command-and-control mechanisms, there is a no-blame culture, and there is continuing positive change and joy in the work.End Piece: And of course Creation Companies will know about and understand the factors that encourage humans to be creative. The next posts in this series look at some additional to creativity ‘Identifying and Nurturing Personal Creativity’ and ‘The Circumstances for Creativity’. The real Creation Companies are also likely to be very aware that the reward culture sabotages creativity and also the consequences of paying large bonuses to make things happen (unfortunately they make the wrong things happen and select the wrong people to best do the intended work)

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How Creation Companies differ (New Science, New Thinking)