Conformity: The Price of Admission?

Recently, I read an article about the impact of the office environment on neurodivergent people and the last couple paragraphs in the article hit me like a ton of bricks. The entire post is worthwhile and I encourage you to read it for a whole host of reasons, especially if you lead (or aspire to lead) a team of people.

For the purpose of this post, let's broaden the scope and application from neurodivergent people to all people. Literally, all people. In that context, I invite you to read the closing paragraphs of the article:

"Everybody is like a puzzle piece, irregularly shaped in a different way. “What we've done historically when companies competed on efficiency and productivity is we've asked people to kind of cut off or leave at home their irregular shapes,” he said. “Because we want everybody to conform.” 

But when it comes to thinking of new ideas, Austin said companies are realizing that it is those irregular parts that are the most likely to catalyze originality and innovation: “It leads to, in my mind, a more enlightened approach to management where we see accommodations not as a burden but as something we do to access sort of new opportunities to create new things.”

What Austin said captures everything that is going wrong in the world of work today, and offers an explanation as to why people are so dissatisfied and disengaged. We are still using management practices that were developed in the Industrial Era, which ended (by most accounts) 100+ years ago. Back then, to maximize output, and therefore revenue, everything had to be exactly the same (think assembly line). Any variance would negatively impact efficiency.

In today's world, the opposite is true. Sameness is hurting companies and people. The lack of diversity in all its forms is inhibiting creativity, innovation and our ability to be fully human at work.

To conform (be the same and blend in), each of us loses or hides parts of ourselves. When we don't believe we can bring our whole selves to work, which parts are we leaving behind? The parts that are authentic and enable us to be original? If so, our ability to be creative, innovative and fulfilled gets left behind as well.

When I read those closing paragraphs, 100 different data points (dots) finally connected in my mind. Each has a slightly different lens through which to view the issues and solutions. All are valid and have merit. Here are some of those dots:

• The work of Brené Brown (vulnerability), Marcus Buckingham (strengths) and Susan Cain (The Power of Introverts)
• The ongoing use of outdated leadership practices (read about an alternative approach here)
• The rise of DEI + Belonging efforts (yes!)
• Workplace design failures (Harvard study on open-plan offices)
• The advent of remote work (we need freedom)
• Ineffective one-size-fits-all programs and policies (relics of HR's past)
• Employee frustration and disengagement (google employee engagement)
• Stress (high and getting higher, the disease of busyness)
• Unhappiness (see Shawn Achor's work for antidotes)

Conformity. It's a price we've all been paying in some way, shape and form when we join a company. And, ironically, companies pay that heavy price as well. Too much is left on the table with sameness, and we all lose as a result.

When will this stop being the norm? Who or what will be the person or the thing/event that brings us to the tipping point? I believe it's around the corner as we cannot continue on the path we're on today, and there are signs of change and progress in pockets here and there. The drumbeat is getting louder.

Imagine the day when we are showing up for work in our irregular shapes, being appreciated and celebrated for our irregularities and living more fulfilled lives because of it.

Unrealistic? Impossible? Idealistic? Anything worth the effort could be described as such. Let's start with dropping the expectation of conformity. It can no longer be the ticket for admission.

Challenge: What's one thing you can do today that will counter conformist norms in your workplace?