Fragments - Conformity
Conformity is a difficult thing. It feels good when we have it, and it can feel good to be part of it. Coming together, united, against the world. No surprises. A place to belong. Conformity can be a foundation for other things: momentum, capability, change.
But conformity is not simply a judgement of us, it is a force that acts upon us. Conformity silences voices we need to hear. Conformity can tolerate toxicity. Conformity can form a wall that others cannot breach. Or which means we simply cannot see or hear them.
A mature leadership dialogue should understand conformity in these two ways, and to hold a capability to generate both conformity, but also space for difference and dissent.
Sales Leadership | Transformation | Development.
6 个月True. Leaders should understand when conformity is needed to execute "as one" on a task, but they should also understand and listen to the voice of the minority that might break the sense of "one" for a while and embrace positive conflict.
CEO & Consultant @ Verdandi AG
6 个月Conformity can lead to complacency and reduce the curiosity to explore and break rules to look beyond the known cosy world of conformity.
CEO - Director - Agent for beneficial and holistic change in the world. Working at the intersection of education, wellbeing, health, business, living systems understanding and place-based systems change.
6 个月Julian Stodd l sense that the fragments of your “Failure” post and Conformity align with me today. Recently in a think tank for a new university dept. who were gifted Au$30 Mil, we where exploring the effectiveness of researcher engagement with community. We landed with a prototype that has expanded to what l now call “C”s of Community Engagement: Chaos, Conflict, Compete, Contend, Comply, Cooperate, Contribute, Collaborate (Co-produce, Co-design, Co-create), Coalesce. A scale that indicates conditions from least effective to most effective community engagement-outflow. l sense that conformity sits in the Comply-Cooperate field, with some cohersion implicit to get a person / community to such a field. Perhaps the outcome of Conformity when something is co-created has a greater chance of sucess than failure perhaps, both that we can celebrate, act, reflect and adapt to. Happy Days! ????????