7. Anticipation

The Costa in Derby's Westfield centre had a dishwashing incident today. The consequence was that all coffees had to be served in take-away cups. The friendly Barista handed me the coffee and was about to put a plastic spill cap on it when I said: "I won't need that, I'll be drinking it in." The response, a friendly but firm: "I am afraid I cannot give it to you without one, in case you spill it and sue me."
This is the power of anticipation. At every table people were sitting with a substantial number of wasted and unnecessary spill caps promptly removed by all the patrons. The idiocy of this could not be explained to her. The chances of spilling a porcelain cup of coffee is just as high if not higher but they have no problem serving that without the legal loophole, or is that a stopgap?

It reminded me of the monkeys and bananas scientific experiment. A group of monkeys were put through a behavioural experiment to better understand the cultural acquisition of a specific learnt response. The experiment starts off with 5 monkeys in a large cage. In the middle is a ladder, atop which are suspended a bunch of bananas (at this point I started getting suspicious but I stuck with it). The researchers would stand with hoses, ready to douse ALL the monkeys as soon as one attempted to climb the ladder. When the monkeys grabbed a banana, the researchers would spray everyone with extremely cold water. Apparently cold water is something that monkeys really don't like so they were soon conditioned not to take the bananas. After a short period of time not a single monkey attempted grabbing a banana. First objective achieved.
Then they started swapping out monkeys. A new unconditioned monkey is introduced, and a conditioned one is removed. It didn't take long for the new monkey to go for the ladder and the bananas. The others, in horror grabbed him, snarling teeth and all and beat the newcomer up. It doesn't take long for the new ones to conform. This cycle goes on and on, until eventually all the monkeys are replaced. Now you have a room full of monkey that won't touch the bananas and none of them really knows why. None of the new ones would have experienced the ice cold water.

This story was wonderfully narrated to me by Dominique to explain how corporate mythology can paralyse thinking and stop people taking personal responsibility by using the excuse that "it is the way we've always done things here." My take-away was also that anticipation has the ability to completely block our present moment awareness. We stop taking in data from our real experience because our expectations are so strong that we stop questioning and experimenting. This phenomena is well known in psychology as observer bias. In extreme cases the researchers will literally be blind to data that does not confirm their expectations. In such cases expectations reinforce our established views and we get self fulfilling prophecies.

So what does this mean for one of management's favourite sports quotes: "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey players plays where the puck is going to be." Strategy is expectation. Anticipating and benefiting from what the competitive landscape will do in response to our actions is one of the things that sets great business leaders apart. For the best leaders this is not just an intellectual act of projection, but a real visceral emotion. The thrill of the hunt, blood rushing through flaring nostrils as the anticipation curve builds to frenzy.

Anticipation, as an emotion, engages our faculties with excitement, thrill and a real sense of feeling alive. The belief that the next hill is the last one to climb before we get the great Gin & Tonic of promotion, quickens the step and makes the extra effort easier to muster. Positive anticipation, like love, makes the world a more beautiful place. The subtle colour shifts in the sky become signs of the imminent spring. The second cup of coffee becomes proof that the client is on board. We interpret events in a momentum of good will.

Leaders as great story tellers are masters at harnessing the positive power of anticipation. Strumming up the symphony of hearts to march across the dessert to a promised land in song and celebration. (Or as prophets of doom, setting fire to the burning platform of fear and anxiety). Self help books from the Bible to the Secret have understood the pattern that anticipation governs intention. Intention guides attention and attention is the conduit of energy that shapes our actions, events and relationships to others. If my anticipation is driven by fear and anxiety the way I approach others and share ideas will be constrained by the need to protect myself. If however my anticipation is fuelled by a positive rush of acceptance, collaboration and growth, my actions will be more expansive. Anticipation becomes the ground tone to switch a melody into a particular key.

As a leader, how do you ensure that the sense of anticipation strikes the right balance between motivation and masticating monkeys? The heightened sense of 'next,' feeding off the clarity and presence of 'now.' Can you move beyond 'managing expectations,' built around the lowest common denominator of fear, to opening up the passion and 'shiver of antici..............pation'. Taking off the protective spill caps of fragile ego and seeding the celebration of cocktails all round.

6. Submission

Everything you see and touch which has been produced by modern man is the product of submission. It most probably started before the pyramids and will remain true long after spaceships take us to other planets. Mankind's greatest feats of collaboration are made possible by subjecting our individual efforts towards achieving greater goals. Through submission, the individual becomes part of the collective to exert an effort and create a synergistic impact. Your toothpick, your iPad, your shoes and so an, are all fundamentally the product of people saying: “yes, I’ll set my individual agenda aside for a while and submit my efforts to make someone else’s idea or a bigger idea work. I’ll follow instruction and take orders because I know that what will come out at the end is better than what I can achieve alone.”

Art and inspiration are at their core a process of submission; eschewing rational control to transcend the ‘logical’ boundaries of our experience. One of the purest forms of this personal submission remains for me the art and dance of Bali, where the performers submit completely to the art. The less there is of the individual ego in the performance, the more the ‘pure art’ shines through and connects the collective with something more profound. Only by letting go do we get to grasp something greater than ourselves.

Over the last year I have also been able to enjoy the creative and uplifting side of submission. My inherent bias has always been one of suspicion towards authority and imposing control over others. So it was with quite a bit of trepidation that I took up swing dancing last December. By dancing as I leader I had to confront my hang-ups and frustration with leadership in a new and unfamiliar territory. The dance only works if as a leader you feel confident and communicate your intention clearly. It also requires that the ‘follower’ submits completely to this intention. Not only do you have to be clear in providing direction, you also have to create a sense of trust, that you will not lead the follower into harm or make them loose face. When you are clear about creating a shared experience, that you are not simply dancing for yourself the music can begin to flow effortlessly through the steps. Contextual submission can have great rewards when second guessing, doubt and concerns are removed. Partners who have strong wills and have cut independent paths through life, can flow effortlessly into twists and swing outs when they sense that both parties are following the same goal. And make no mistake, as soon as they step out of the dance, the full independence and strong will is not diminished. 

In management there tends to however be the tendency to confuse submission with subjugation or servility. The fact that you have submitted your efforts and energies towards achieving a group and business goal does not mean that your thoughts, questions and feeling are enslaved or invalidated. Where status is defined by job descriptions and titles, people may be confused into believing that employees are submitting themselves to the authority of the role. In certain cultures this is accepted without question. The limitations and risks of this unquestioning submission to an authority, defined by title, has been clearly demonstrated in the studies of the impact of culture on plane crashes. The deference inherent in Korea’s culture was found to be a key factor in why flight engineers did not contradict the over-tired and exhausted captain’s instructions to fly the plane into the ground.

When submission is however aligned with a higher purpose we release the complete faculties of our ability to improve and iterate on the design. It may be strange but for this reason I like working with German teams. You can speculate about the drivers and causes of Germany’s specific sense of ‘fairness’ but I have found that it has a profound impact on team dialogue. The value I see in working with German teams though is simple: they provide push back. By submitting to the greater ideal of ‘fairness’ great effort is made to ensure team members are heard and that people don’t ride roughshod over the others just because of their title.

Over the last 15 years of working across the Atlantic I have noticed an increased submissiveness in the teams in America. At first I thought it was just political correctness or yesmanship cloaked as being agreeable. But in the last five years I have the distinct feeling the submissiveness is driven by a deep sense of insecurity. People are quite literally so afraid of loosing their jobs, health care or homes that contradicting the boss has become a serious career limiting move in many companies. The impact this has on innovation and implementation is disastrous. In the military an air force general will offer contextual submission to one of the lowest ranking officers when they assess if planes can take off and land. The junior soldier on the tarmac makes a call on visibility. The general up in the tower may see blue skies and rainbow unicorns but if the soldier says no, the greater goal of safety ensures contextual submission is respected.

In many businesses there is no clearly defined over arching goal. Submission defaults to status, legacy or social norms, making open contextual learning and exchange, especially around unpopular topics like risk and failure, extremely hard. More often than not the attitude will be “what exactly do you know? You’ve only been here two months.” One of the greatest strengths I observed when working with P&G was how they countered this impulse by always ensuring that the person with the highest status speaks last. This way the team had to express their views relative to the idea or facts on the table. Their comments being framed in terms of how it moves the team closer to achieving the shared goal. If the leader had spoken first they would instinctively try and subject their views to what garners favour.

The first rule in the way of the samurai is to lay down your body and mind and earnestly esteem one's master. This is extremely good advice, well placed. When we know what our efforts are in service of, what we are submitting ourselves to, we can release huge amounts of talent, energy and creativity in unexpected ways. Choosing the right beneficiary (in the Hagakure called 'retainer') is therefore not a task that should be taken lightly.

Does your team know what they are submitting their energies and thoughts to? An overarching ideal bigger than status, title or market share? Are you creating an environment of trust that allows both contextual submission of senior managers and empowers juniors staff to honestly share their insights? How are you designing for submission?

5. Anger

Anger is no stranger to management. As a matter of fact, the more I researched for this post, the clearer it became that anger in some way is almost a prerequisite for management. Not only do we ascribe higher status and power to people who display anger, it also contributes to better outcomes in negotiations. People who get angry get their way more often than people who don't... and we willingly allow them to do so. A well crafted and executed application of anger seems to be the golden ticket to the top. No wonder that studies have shown the C-suite to contain a disproportionate number of psychopaths. I don't think anyone has managed to escape a meeting with a manager who "flipped out," "freaked out" or simply used the stage of your attention for their unfettered blood rush of indignation. And since the publication of Steve Jobs' biography, just about every wannabe start-up CEO has no qualms about confusing passion with aggression. It looks like Steve's more lasting contribution to society will be a legacy of asshole CEO's. Should we simply accept that anger is part and parcel of the animal instinct or is there a more inclusive and useful outlet for this energy?

Anger's motivational capacity is an evolutionary necessity. Very few emotions can lead to such strong passion and action. It was anger that drove to the massive societal changes in the Arab spring. Episodic outburst of rage are great at mobilising the adrenaline and getting to action quickly. Whatever caused the rift between the brothers Adi and Rudi Dassler, the outcome was the birth of the modern sports marketing industry. The anger that triggered Rudi to storm out of the house and set up his rival Puma to Adi's adidas, fueled an intense battle for over 30 years. (Rumour has it that it might have had something to do with what happened between Rudi's wife and Adi while Rudi was at the war front).

In this story lies also a cautionary tale about the fundamental weakness to anger's motivation. Like a bull with a thorn in his side, we obsess about our perceived cause of anger. Neither Rudi nor Adi saw the tsunami of Nike coming.  The downside is that anger limits our capacity to take in and process new information that is not directly related to the target of our anger. We literally get tunnel vision. Anger also biases our perception of others, reducing our capacity to accept the help and support that may lead to a better outcome. The animosity between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates is another anger management story. In a battle to control the future of personal computing, both were blindsided by the collaborative power of the web (Steve Jobs perhaps less so). Like an athlete using anger in defeat to motivate greater commitment to training, we should channel our anger not to just beat the glaring target of our anger, but to improve the thing that led to our failure.

When anger is properly expressed and channelled into action it is very useful, almost essential in our work environment. If you care enough about something to get angry it means you have a desire to bring about change. The death and cancer of organisational culture however is unexpressed or passive aggressive behavior. Just look at the list of behaviors associated with passive anger: Dispassion (fake smiles from your Subway sandwich maker), Evasiveness, Obsessive behavior, Psychological manipulation and Defeatism. And why do employees feel this deep anger that leads them to adopt such negative behaviors? Lack of involvement? Not being listened to or supported? Unresolved issues being brushed under the carpet? The list goes on. Where do these life sapping issues find a forum and productive channel for expression? The fact is that if they are allowed to fester the outcome is a toxic work environment where more effort is put towards protecting egos than building value. If we use the Hindu perspective, that Anger is simply unrequited desire, we can start at the opposite end. What is the desire, what is the reality that people would rather experience, and let's work back from that actively.

What fascinates me about anger though is how easily it is manipulated and how incredibly sensitive it is to perceptions. Our sense of injustice, rage and anger is completely dependent on what we know. For example, you get back to your car in the parking lot and there is a long scratch on the passenger side. No note of apology, no sign of the person who should be apologising. Your anger shoots through the roof and you start thinking about all the way you'd like to get back at them! Damn assholes, how could they. You are fuming all the way home and slam the keys on the table. Getting angrier and angrier as your rage finds not outlet. When your partner walks in and says that they were really sorry but they haven't had time to tell you that they scratched the car last night on the way back from the office party. Aha, you have a new target and you can vent towards your partner for their consistent sloppiness and generally annoying disposition. However, the scratch came from avoiding a reckless truck driver trying to overtake another truck on a narrow stretch of road. If they hadn't swerved out, they would most likely been killed in the accident. In a few seconds your anger has gone from rage and visions of divorce to shock and sympathy. Flighty and fanciful this little daemon in our hearts. Framing and contextualising anger then becomes the first step towards channelling our emotions towards change.

Can we ensure that there is a constant and respected flow in the productive expression of anger as a desire to improve?  How do we broaden the framework of this dialogue to channel effort towards real transformation rather than an obsessive one-upmanship with our identified target of destruction? There is more to the management of anger than simple anger management.

4. Amazement

Amazement suspends us in disbelief. That critical moment where all your experience and expectations are proven wrong by something that seems illogical, out of this world... amazing. The doorway to a new path of experience that delights and astounds us. I think back at the first time I saw the internet. After years of isolation in apartheid South Africa, the idea of having unconstrained access to people all around the world simply went against everything we were led to expect. Here I was having a real time online chat with someone in Australia, in the same conversation as two people from America. It simply blew my mind. I was captivated and couldn't get enough of this amazing new feeling of connection and freedom.

When I think of amazement I also think of George Boole and how we apply our subjective logic to expectations. In a neutral case we start off believing that there is a 50/50 chance that two outcomes can happen. If we have never seen the sun rise, and landed on planet earth we would ascribe a 50/50 chance to the sun rising tomorrow. After repeatedly seeing the sun rise we forget about the possibility that the sun may not rise tomorrow. Repeatedly being exposed to one outcome gives us a belief in near certainty. We forget about all the options and so, we aren't amazed by the fact that the sun does rise again. Children don't suffer from this bias of deeply rooted expectation. They have not become blinded by repeated exposure to "the way gravity works." Dropping a spoon is amazing! Dropping it again is still amazing! Watching mom get upset at picking up the spoon every 3 seconds, marvelously amazing!

Amazement however is not written into the corporate vision of many companies. We associate this pursuit with the creative industries like Disney and Pixar, who function as imagination factories. But what about the solid performers that serve to fill so much of our life with the mundane? What role can mystery and surprise play for the Unilevers and Proctor & Gamble's of the world? Why do they ignore an emotion that so captivates us? That shakes us up so deeply and prompts immediate curiosity and engagement? There is a lot of lip service to "you'll be amazed at how clean your kitchen surfaces are," but what about a real emotional shift in the experience?

Creating this magical feeling in consumers is not an accident. It requires a very special sense and corporate culture. "Good" is simply not good enough if your objective is to amaze. Cirque du Soleil has it written into their mission statement. A core value is "to extend the limits of the possible." Apple recruits the best and brightest on their ambition to make a dent in the universe. You have to believe that magic is possible if you want to make it.

Amazement is by its very nature extra-ordinary. "Business as usual" is the antithesis of amazement, wonder, awe. For a manager amazement is unnerving, because by it's very nature, the pursuit of amazement will take you to an unpredictable place. By letting go of firmly held beliefs of "how things are done" you don't make many friends in the predictable, rational world of quarterly reporting. Perhaps the route back to amazement can be understand through good old Mr. Boole and the sense of wonder unlocked by a child like beginner's mind. To pursue the beginner's mind where we can see a 50/50 world of possibilities, untainted by "the way we always do this." In my experience you don't reach this state of awareness by doing simply rational activities like "blue sky thinking" or "imagine the business burnt down and you could start from scratch." These activities are useful but don't shift the emotional space in which the employees expectations reside. You have to shake them out emotionally and for this there are few tools as useful as analogous immersion.

Three years ago I did a project with the maternity unit at a large New York hospital. As you can expect the nurses were very empathetic to the experience of their patients, this being one of the most wondrous and beautiful moments in any person's life. The Boolean trap however meant that the nurses became jaded and disconnected from the patient's view. The sense of amazement and awe was gone and the service quality suffered accordingly. We ran a workshop where we took the nurses through 5 ananlogous activities, to simulate the emotional state of a patient and bring about empathy for the real emotions at play. One of my favourites was a sensory conflict activity. The nurses had to read a short story while listening to a James Bond audio book. They were told that there would be a multiple choice test afterwards. The had all the time they needed to read through the story. It was after all difficult to pay attention with the distracting noise of the audiobook in their headphones. Once everyone had read the story, they received the test, based as you would expect on the James Bond audiobook. Why? Because this simulated exactly how nurses were verbally giving instructions, whilst patients had to read through admin papers and fill out forms. The standard quote: "I don't understand why the patients don't 'get it,' I told them a hundred times." Once the nurses were confronted by their own sensory overload, they were at first stunned, then amazed at how much impact such a small detail can have. The experience brought real amazement, but what is even more powerful is the level of engagement and creativity the nurses then applied in redesigning the patient experience. By shaking them up emotionally, through an analogous, yet relevant experience the sense of mystery and awe could return. They were brought back to the beginners mind and could view expectations and outcomes in fresh ways. Amazement as a design tool.

What are the analogous experiences you and your team can undertake to bring back the sense of awe in what you do? How can empathy unlock creativity in things that you have become blind to?  Can you see the experience again for the first time? Can you find delight by dropping a spoon? Let go of expectation and take a road to the destination you can't see.

3. Joy

I have never witnessed a purer expression of joy than I did last year in Pilanesberg national park. It was close to sunset, the wind was picking up and you could sense the electricity of a storm in the air. As we came around a corner I saw a baby Rhino, not more than 4 or 5 months old dancing. Imagine the sight of a Rhino jumping from hind legs to front legs, as much as the podgy little body can muster. Every now and again he even managed to get all four legs in the air. A pure celebration of life in every pore and fiber of his existence. 

This type of experience, where joyful expectation spills over into boundless ecstasy is exactly the kind of feeling most offices and managers try and avoid. Joy is usually part of an after the fact celebration of achievements. The process and experience of work does not receive attention when it comes to the introduction and sustenance of joy.

For me however, joy is the engine of learning. Rudolf Steiner understood this and it has been practiced in Waldorf schools ever since. When you honour the human, the objective of the teacher is first and foremost to provide a path for students to find their own joy in the subject matter. For instance in music education the children are first exposed to music unconditionally. They find the rhythms and patterns themselves. If their interest grows from the joyfulness of the experience, they will add theory and more nuanced abilities in making music. The heart leads the lesson.

This view was also supported by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers. The emotional pleasure that people received from their commitment towards mastering a discipline, provides the engine to completing their own personal 10 000 hours. If it ain't fun, it won't get none. Joy keeps you learning.

The process of work is extremely good at killing this kind of joyful discovery. When consulting Pharma companies I found time and again that my client counterparts started of pursuing a career in Pharma because they saw deep meaning and the opportunity to impact many lives. As the years go by they become jaded and chase numbers and market shares. The human connection that at first gave meaning to their jobs is completely lost. 

Here are five ways in which a manager can enhance the ability of joy to affect commitment and performance in an organization:

1. Making work a pleasure. This is a strategy used by many tech start ups keen to keep top talent. Great free meals, massages and a bar is usually thrown into the mix.
2. Ensuring personal engagement. This is harder to do as it requires a bottom up collaborative effort. The inherent motives of staff are aligned in strategy and the team all know how the collective effort satisfies their higher needs. This is time consuming and tough but very successful in values based businesses like Etsy.
3. Strengthening personal relationships. The social contract of work is a strong incentive. By ensuring that their is a healthy personal dynamic between the team members, work becomes more rewarding. This is the unintended pay off from office christmas parties and picnics.
4. Building a business around real meaning. When employees feel that their efforts are contributing to the word in a meaningful way, every effort and late night becomes its own reward. They don't feel tired but even more motivated to make a difference. Apple operated on this principle for years. Increasing organisations are realising the importance of this factor when hiring millenials. For them work must equal meaning. Companies are judged on their values as much as their products.
5. Celebrating accomplishments. This has to move beyond the "employee of the month" mode of recognition. Quite often these schemes can become exclusionary and political. When a transparent and progressive system is found where real world impact is included in the measurement of the accomplishment, everybody benefits from positive norming.

Looking at this list there are many ways to ensure that joy becomes a journey and not just a destination. A central part of the organisational culture, rather than an isolated fringe experience. Perhaps we can all feel like the little Rhino a little more often when we face new challenges or explore new opportunities.

2. Pride

Walking through the Alpine village of Bezau you are constantly reminded of the pride that locals have in their traditions and the beauty of their environment. The houses are meticulously preened and maintained with beautiful flowers blooming into late September. When you look at these houses it is easy to understand why Aristotle called pride the crown of virtues. Something which makes virtue shine more brightly as the individual fills their potential without hesitation, believing and proving themselves worthy.
Pride can also serve as a strong unifying force, when we express through rituals and symbols that we believe in the same greater goal. Pride for a sports team, a country, an ideal or even a special personality  signifies and bonds people in powerful ways. Just as the flower boxes in Bezau become a strong symbol of proud belonging, expressions of faith through clothing or wearing insignia can sustain the power and influence of an ideology.

We are quick to point out how national pride led to the disaster of Nazi Germany or even the Apartheid regime of South Africa. We are not so quick to see the limiting force of what we consider "good" pride. The pride of technological and economic progress in the West. Who dares raise critique or questions in the face of something that is so obviously revered? The radiance of pride can blind us and isolate us from the changing world around us. It is no wonder that Pride is also called "the original sin." Lucifer's pride led him to upset the order in heaven, starting a rebellion that ended with the downfall of God's most beautiful angel. How do we find a balance where pride can serve to align and unite people whilst maintaining a critical and sensitive spirit, understanding the boundaries of our perceived truth?

When I started working in advertising, the agency had a giant wall in reception plastered with prizes. The golden lions and sparkling effies radiated through the entrance, telling every client and employee that this was no ordinary agency. In this place only brilliance is desired and required. Pride can quickly flip into hubris when someone is blinded by their successes and adoration. Over-extending their opinion of themselves through a lack of honest self-evaluation. Walking into that reception area every morning I am sure many employees took pride. They took pride into meetings and stopped listening to subtle signals of misalignment. Their pride did not allow them to admit mistakes, failure or even a lack of understanding. And so, building a sense of pride based purely on a glorification of past successes is a certain way to crash into the wall in front of you. Pride comes before the fall.

In my experience, two attributes limit the usefulness of pride. On the one hand it creates a boundary between people. Where one group believes they are more special or hold a more important truth. As Philip Zimbardo explains in the Lucifer effect, the separation between people is always the first step in a genocide. A strong sense of identity coupled with the pride of providence or belief quickly reduces the "other" to a less worthy being. By doing this we limit our ability to learn through empathy. We become blind to their plight. As a business, the more proud you become of your success, the harder it becomes to take the concerns and complaints of your customers seriously. It becomes "apple's word" against the consumer's concern. In this scenario the business looses the opportunity to turn "mistakes" into business opportunities because pride drives a divide between employees and consumers.

The second force is the blindness pride brings when confronted with new ideas or a shifting context. We have all encountered the out of touch CEO or senior manager. Proud of their accomplishments they believe that past success proves them right in current contexts. They become uncritical, and unable to question the first principles of their firmly held views. By believing their own mythology they begin to drift further and further away from the pulse of the present moment. The truth is that the world today is far too dynamic and complex for any one person to be "right." Information and competitive actions are flooding into a business at multiple points before any report can be filed or a board room meeting held. By the time a senior executive gets to weigh in with their opinion, the data is outdated. Responding to uncertainty with pride in such a situation is the certain road to nokia, motorola, or any company that believed for too long in their own myth, supported by pride.

How do we avoid that pride becomes a circle around our hearts? How do we remain critical of our beliefs, and maintain the curiosity of "beginner's mind?" The design process of prototyping and iterating is a great step in the right direction. Prototypes are designed to fail fast, thereby avoiding the pride and emotional commitment to little dinosaurs. Iteration brings a constant dialogue, ensuring the shifting situational signals are captured towards improving our design. No business plan has ever survived the first contact with a consumer. Letting go of pride allows us to be vulnerable in our curiosity, to open new doors and unexpected collaborations. By constantly engaging, with empathy and alertness, we can break through the blindness and solitude of pride to enjoy the connecting and uplifting elements more consistently.

1. Fear

As governments and politicians have known for millennia, there are few forces that can move nations as much as fear does. Paradoxically there are also few forces that can paralyse people as much as fear does. Rooted so deeply in our fight or flight reflexes, fear is almost more of an instinct than an emotion. On one hand fear made me procrastinate writing this blog for days; the fear of looking stupid, irrelevant or out of touch. What happens if the words just wont come? On the other hand fear also motivated me to write it. Especially after I publicly committed to doing so. On a societal and individual scale, fear is part and parcel of what makes us human.

However, I have yet to see an executive openly acknowledge fear as part of a business strategy or leadership style. Like fish swimming in water, they are often the last to notice what they are breathing. It is so innate that we rarely develop conscious tools to harness or channel fear towards a more useful and meaningful end. When they do embrace fear it is mostly in order to control. The implicit "motivational fear" which is expected to lead to better performance. "The boss will freak out if we don't complete this on time." is often met with the fear sustaining "Mr. Smith, I am afraid this just won't do."  Erich Fromm is the touchstone on the topic of how our fear of freedom has created a western mindset that is pliable and amenable to the purposes of capital. As a child I noticed that when I came across an unexpected snake in the bush, my fear would only make me run far enough to get out of its reach. Fear cannot be the foundation of sustained motivation. How much effort is wasted in organisations by employees who are just staying outside of the fear/risk boundary?

When properly channeled, the creative, story telling dimensions of fear can be a great asset to a team as Karen Walker so beautifully explains. It is a great form of trouble shooting and imagination, a kind of productive paranoia when it is applied to building options. This healthy relationship to fear can change the culture of an organisation and release new levels of innovation. As Regina Dugan demonstrated so memorably in her March 2012 Ted talk, at DARPA they were able to reframe the fear of failure to release untold innovation. Having respect for the size of a challenge does not have to result in fear.

One of my favourite workshop activities is to ask participants what their "hopes and fears" are. This small exercise has a massive impact on three levels. Firstly it allows the group to identify risks and contextual constraints that help inform the design of a solution. Secondly it informs the barometer of commitment. The more deeply engaged someone is, the more nuanced and personal the perspective on fears will be. The third level of impact is however the one that fascinates me most. By allowing a conversation about fears, we open a channel for emotional communication in the team. Most executives have never been asked to evaluate an opportunity in this way. At first they feel vulnerable but pretty soon the room finds a bond as concerns are felt, rather than thought.

In the end I believe that when fear is given its rightful place, it can help us see a more vulnerable and human side to our colleagues. This strengthens rather than weakens our trust and ability to share ideas freely. What are the daily routines we can use to channel the level of fear in a team towards healthy respect for the challenge and transform uncertainty into a more complete and creative understanding of our potential?

Go e-motion

"It's business, don't take it personally." This seems to be the predominant view of professional life, where you can ignore your feelings and focus on the "rational" facts. Decisions are subjected to the higher purpose of shareholder value and how people are affected by this is "just business."
This view is made a lot easier to sustain when people are referred to as "human resources," or even better, the mythical FTE's (full time equivalents).

Rational, predictable, and flexible in their ability to be deployed. That makes the machine of business run a true course. The captains of industry can steer the strategic course as simply as a captain steers a ship, because the ship responds perfectly to a firm hand on the tiller. But nature is messy, and people suffering from alienation are not productive, inventive or resilient to stress. Innovation and new ideas come from being unpredictable. Organisational resilience comes from individuals responding to new and unexpected threats in novel ways. Business is an organic process, not a mechanical one. It is chemistry, biology and energy all bundled into the messy murky world of emotions.

It is amazing that business practise has for so long been able to promote a non-emotional view to one of our core human activities. Most probably it felt safe being able to ignore our emotions when so many of us feel threatened and confused by our own feelings. When they are mentioned, it is usually in the context of the positive. Good leadership instills pride and motivation. Happiness has made a huge comeback as a metric for success. Emotions, like human beings however are not one dimensional. Let's take a look at that.

Two years ago I set the challenge of writing one post a day on a 42 day journey. The inspiration would come from the experiences I encountered along the way. The Tao of inspiration. This year I am embarking on a similar journey: Austria, Berlin, London, Lisbon, Seattle, Portland, Johannesburg, Cape Town. Rather than looking at random incidents however, the 42 days will be devoted to exploring the impact of emotions on our professional selves and the human interactions we call business.

To navigate this journey I'll use Robert Plutchik's "wheel of emotions" as a map. Finding the "positive motion"  we experience from integrating all our emotions in making a meaningful contribution to the flow of economic exchange. Because business is very personal. Most adults dedicate a large chunk of their existence to make business work. The reward to our own identity and sense of self needs to be in balance if we want to prosper in a post growth environment. After all, the core of the word "emotion" is "motion." That which moves us.