It should be simple. Regardless of whether for a society or for a business, when there is a need, the right people should realize what needs to be done. Everyone works together and gets the work done. Then everyone moves on to the next thing. Simple.
Right?
Sometimes, but not always.
There can be any number of barriers – sufficient funding, obtaining the required resources, and lack of time to prepare and execute. On a personality level, egos and silos can be some of the greatest obstacles.
I like to think I am both a successful and smart person. I know I am far from perfect, but I always figured that if I worked hard, I could overcome most obstacles. I didn’t believe my ego was a problem, nor was I isolated in some kind of silo.
I believe that most people subscribe to that philosophy – some more than others. To survive, everyone needs a certain level of self-confidence and ego. In practice, something is missing because simply being hard-working and tenacious doesn’t always work. I found that quite often the harder I tried or the harder I worked the further away from my goals I seemed to get. It has taken me a long time to realize, understand, and appreciate what was missing. I also know from experience that other people encountered the same problem.
Self-confidence, ego, and tenacity all come with dangers.
The danger with self-confidence manifests itself when there is a sizeable gap between what you and your ego believe and what reality really is. People or organizations who have been successful in the past can easily develop complacency or even an expectation that this will continue. A quote I have heard many times is “We got so good at doing well; we forgot what made us good.” It is an easy trap to fall into. We all need “reality checks” to ensure we acknowledge there is always a gap and that we manage it and keep it as small as possible.
The second danger happens if you have isolated yourself and your thinking from other people and/or sources of information or viewpoints. Many conflicts in our daily lives and in the world exist because those involved refused to consider there might be more than one perspective on an issue. Appreciating other perspectives is vital to understanding and nurturing cooperation and connectivity. This is complicated – there are never just two perspectives to consider. Many people and organizations are lulled into only seeing issues from their perspective and creating silos of ideological isolation for themselves.
The third danger is believing that your perspective is always “right.” Believing this sets the stage for the classic win/lose scenario. In fact, though, win/lose situations become lose/lose situations very quickly because of the damage to each side, the other people, the organization, and ultimately the very people that the project is supposed to help.
Fortunately, in many cases, life has a way of imposing or restoring reality. Sometimes subtly and other times quite rudely. I have seen and experienced both or a combination of “life-equalizing” situations, usually at significant costs to everyone involved.
To emphasize and demonstrate how easily these dangers can occur, let’s examine two actual scenarios:
The first is about me. I have experience working, managing, and consulting with some of the most successful retail organizations in the country. Through time and training, I have gained a solid knowledge base in everything from sales, advertising, and marketing to aspects of human resources, logistics, merchandising, and customer service. Having spent more than thirty years developing and honing those skills, it should not have surprised me that I fell into the over-confidence and arrogance trap despite my efforts to remain humble and appreciative.
I didn’t consciously become arrogant and over-confident. I made assumptions, believed my skills were sufficient, and as a result made several mistakes in a recent interview. My ego stopped me from preparing more thoroughly and as a result, I lost an opportunity that should have been within my grasp.
The dangers can strike at an organizational level as well. Currently, I work and help volunteer food organizations deal with alleviating food insecurity. In our region, approximately 1 in 5 people suffer from food insecurity. I work on informing, educating, and correcting misconceptions while attempting to show the size and scope of food insecurity in my region of the country.
One of the tools available to food organizations is the Food Rescue program. On a national scale, Food Rescue helps to divert “safe and usable” food that is wasted to organizations that help alleviate food insecurity. I use “alleviate” because to solve food insecurity we need to find effective ways to end poverty and provide everyone with affordable and safe housing. Until society can solve the root causes, day-to-date there is a patchwork of dedicated volunteers who operate food banks, community meal programs, and community gardens.
Every one of these volunteers is extremely passionate and believes that their organization is making a difference. In most communities, these people also appreciate the work other organizations do as well. However, because of declining donations, rising inflation, and the lack of multi-year government support, the precariousness within the organization creates friction. Organizations vie for support and can create defensive silos for their volunteers.
Tensions accumulate and passionate people become entrenched in the fight for their “right way”. Battle lines are drawn, and people and organizations withdraw from communicating with one another. To an outside observer, the solutions seem obvious. To the people in silos, they can’t see the bigger picture anymore because their walls are too high and they have taken on a defensive mindset – they feel they are under attack. Each side feels the need to win and feels 100% justified in their positions.
Before continuing, let me remind you that each of these organizations does tremendous work. The people involve care about their communities, and they believe they are on the right side of the argument. But that is the point, they are failing to appreciate there may be other perspectives.
Each side has been guilty to varying degrees of not appreciating other viewpoints. In this particular case, the food bank volunteers really don’t understand that food rescue is 80-90% fresh fruits and vegetables with a very short shelf life. Rescued food needs to be used virtually that day or the next day and community meal programs are better suited to do this. As the food bank volunteers have rarely attended information meetings they have missed learning about other organizations’ shared experiences with food rescue and a host of other issues affecting food rescue. Their silo and belief that “they are right” has contributed to their failure to appreciate the reality of food rescue.
Without the external knowledge that food rescue builds on an existing relationship that has also mistakenly believed that their relationship with their grocery store is threatened, which is not the case. Again, because the walls of their silo are too high, they cannot see this.
On the other side, these volunteers have their own silos. Although the walls are somewhat lower, they have failed to take into account how threatened the food bank feels. Instead of focusing on how “wrong”, the first group a better approach would have been to listen, acknowledge, and reduce the tension by appreciating the fears the food bank has.
Diffusing fear and misconceptions takes time, can be very frustrating, and may create the community impression of “caving;” however, taking the high road is always the best action. Additionally, by refusing to engage in “baiting” they can keep focused on the primary goal, which is actually helping people experiencing food insecurity.
In this scenario, like many in the private sector, tearing down silos and looking at issues from other perspectives would have been the best way to approach this and any other issue. For these volunteers, there is still time, if they can be made aware of the dangers of continuing on their current path. Their conflict will create rifts in the community, discourage donors, and actually makes things worse for the people they are supposed to try to help.
This reflects the third danger of egos: believing that you or your organization is always right. This unhealthy attitude can stifle growth for individuals and organizations regardless of sector. It eventually leads to an organization having silos higher than those in the second example do. Every organization needs to realize that “No one has a monopoly on good ideas.”
As a consultant and in my business observations I have seen owners and managers who scoured their marketplaces for new ideas and concepts. Those same leaders even looked at failed ideas to see if a fresh approach might make a difference. These leaders and organizations grow by being innovative. They also surround themselves with people who are different and actively look for people who are smarter than they are. By minimizing their egos, they have learned to appreciate that their people are just as important in driving the organization as they are.
Conversely, I have also seen owners and managers whose egos are so immense that new ideas, feedback, and decisions are stifled and actually actively discouraged. One owner exercised so much micromanaging that, although on vacation thousands of miles away, they be the ones to dictate whether an organization remained open or not during a major winter storm. Despite having a management team in place who had the skill and judgment to make the call. This lack of trust eventually contributed to many of the managers leaving for other opportunities.
Thinking that you are right all of the time creates not only increases your ego, but it can also create crippling blind spots. Your reputation will negatively affect how people around you treat you and affect your ability to achieve your goals. Effective people and leaders acknowledge when they are wrong, own it, and are consequently able to work more effectively with other people.
Working effectively with people is fundamental to any success that you or your organization will achieve. Learning to recognize and give people around you permission to reign in your ego is a great way to avoid the first danger. The second can be avoided by being constantly vigilant to prevent walls and silos from being built around you, your people, or your organization. Finally, appreciate that you and your organization will succeed faster and longer by realizing that you make mistakes and can learn from seeking out fresh ideas from the people in your organization and from other organizations as well.
Good luck,
Paul.
Itís nearly impossible to find educated people for this topic, but you seem like you know what youíre talking about! Thanks