How’s that for a title with alliteration! I’ve been working in a corporate environment for the past 14 years, and one
Corporate Cruelty Crushes Creativity
thing that I’ve learned above all else, is that corporate culture crushes creativity. It’s probably not a conscious decision, but it is definitely a bi-product of control. Corporations are all about control. Trying to set policies and procedures that the worker bees can’t deviate from. There is too much ego, too much posturing, too much control, and not enough trust.
How many jobs ask the employee to leave their brain at the door? I’ve been in meetings where the managers actually say, “We don’t pay our people to think.” If I didn’t care about keeping my job, I would reply, “Well the CEO pays you to think, and if you actually did, you’d realize that you are an idiot!” This mindset is brought about by managers thinking the employees are just going to F things up. When in reality, it is the manager’s poor management that causes the issues.
This creativity crushing problem starts with the entry level position and creeps all the way up the corporate ladder. By creativity, I don’t mean art, music, or design, I’m referring to problem solving and creative thinking.
"Danger, danger, creativity being smothered!"
This problem begins as people are first brought into the workforce. My first position was in Customer Service at AT&T Wireless. In customer service, you need to have set guidelines. You need to have structured decision trees. But, you don’t need to treat employees like mindless drones, trained to read scripts and sound, “danger, danger, service termination” alarms.
I thought that this may just be an issue in customer service (and similar) environments. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The same people that take entry level positions, are often the ones that move up into supervisory and management positions. The skills learned and culture forced upon you in the entry level position hold tight as you muve up the chain. How many times have you asked a manager why something can’t be improved, only be told, “Well, that’s just the way it is.” If corporate culture breed creativity, the manager would respond, “That’s an excellent point, let’s figure out how to get that improved!” Too many managers only look at their little responsibility and lose sight of the bigger picture. Focus should ALWAYS be on the goal, and as managers we MUST claw, bite, and kick to meet the goal.
How can the corporate culture be improved? I think the first step is flattening the organization! Does any employee six or seven layers down in the organization know what the true objectives are? Can they give the elevator speech on where the organization is going? I doubt it. By the time the message gets down a layer or too it gets diluted and transformed in the corporate version of the telephone game. I much prefer a team structure lacking hierarchy or chain of command. Roles can be designated based on capabilities, but everyone succeeds and fails together. The team structure supports and fosters creativity, because everyone knows they MUST achieve the goal. The team will work together to get it done. Those employees that don’t, will get voted off the island.
In the coming months, I’ll be going into more detail on the issues with corporate culture, and how the focus should be on the people.