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?