The SHADOW side of the Pyramid Organization

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The SHADOW side of the Pyramid Organization
NUGGET Be sure that the way you draw your
organization corresponds to how you want it to
work and be aware of both the light and the
shadow of the assumptions that underlie your
mental model.
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In leadership programs I often ask people to draw
their organization. Before you read on, imagine
how you would draw yours.
Your drawing reflects your implicit assumptions
about how the organization works.
Most people draw a pyramid or a cascading
organization chart. Many organizations today
possibly including yours are managed as a
traditional pyramid. The cascading organization
chart within the pyramid shows job boundaries and
where people fit, maps how communication normally
flows, and shows who has what authorities. The
efficiencies of this design are well known
functional excellence, division of labor, role
clarity. However, this traditional organization
often has a pretty powerful shadow side hidden
or repressed qualities that hold the organization
back and can negatively affect a variety of
internal and external stakeholders as well as
organization effectiveness.
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Carl Jung introduced the shadow in an essay in
1917, describing it as a powerful unconscious
force that contains negative but repressed
energies. Over time, the shadow concept expanded
to include undeveloped or unused positive
qualities. The shadow also began to be applied
to civilizations, organizations, and groups.
I am exploring the shadow in many blogs, for the
shadow is a fascinating a important force that
holds keys to organization and individual
evolution as w as destruction. If we dont face
into and do something constructive with shadow
energy the human-made challenges of the past will
be puny explosi in comparison to what may lie
ahead for shadow energies build if buried.
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Think for a minute about the shadow side of the
traditional pyramid organization. What qualities
does it easily reward and what qualities
does it frequently marginalize? Here are a few
Rewards action, suppresses reflection
Rewards rational argument, suppresses creative,
intuitive, non-
standard approaches
Favors short term benefit, suppresses longer term
focus Rewards competition, suppresses
collaboration Relies on information control, is
suspicious of information
transparency
Focuses on financial success and stakeholders
over other kinds
of bottom lines (customer, future, environmental,
etc.) Supports authoritarian/power-over vs.
participative, power with approaches and mindsets
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Okay, these are extreme polarities, and the real
world operates somewhere on the continuum.
However, few would doubt that the suppressed
energies of the right side of this list are
knocking at our doors, demanding to be let out,
and pulling us into a new paradigm of
organizations. The price for keeping the lid
on these forces is very high economic collapse,
loss of talent, poor organization performance in
the longer term, demoralized and underperforming
workforce, destroyed reputations, proliferation
of fraud and other white collar crime, loss of
public trust in business and governments, and in
some cases violent revolution.
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We see evidence of a better balance trying to
take hold as organizations begin to take on some
new forms supply chains, virtual teams, and
more networked relationships that cross levels
and organization boundaries. These emerging forms
are placing lots of stress on the traditional
pyramid structure and the command and control
methodologies that often accompany it. Processes
are increasingly replacing structures as the
rather pliable glue that aligns people and work.
Here is a key point I will expand on in future
blogs there is huge energy locked up in the
shadow. Like the electricity that lies latent in
wires and generators, it is waiting to be
unleashed to expand peoples skills, to bring
better information to decisions and problems, to
create great products and services, to solve
bigger problems, to create immensely greater
value, to even ensure the survival of
civilization.
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Our challenge is not to replace hierarchy with
anarchy, but capture the benefit of hierarchy in
decision making, organizing a aligning work, and
supporting functional excellence while
a supporting the free flow of relationships and
information to g work done with the least
bureaucratic interference.
NUGGET Be sure that the way you draw your
organization corresponds to how you want it to
work and be aware of both the light and the
shadow of the assumptions that underlie
your mental model.
To see how the Shadow operates in leadership, get
a copy of The Shadow Side of Power Lessons For
Leaders
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in your network.
Email
patmclagan_at_mclaganint.com to request future blogs
sent directly to you!
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