Setting the Flywheel in Motion. Creating an ambidextrous Employee Ownership Company Part 5, new ways of seeing our world

Since August, we’ve been talking about employee-owned ESOP companies and powerful learning organizations like the ambidextrous organization. Those which can easily “exploit” the marketplace doing what they do best for profit and simultaneously “explore”, learning new things in real time and putting that new learning into their toolbox.?We’ve also been talking about a little ESOP called AVIAN in the process of examining these subjects. Is AVIAN a learning organization? One which balances performance and learning, creating an equal place of importance in the organization for each? It might be early to tell, but if I were to bet, I’d say yes, they are, and becoming more so every day.

Here's some thoughts about creating a learning organization which came to mind while reading the company handbook, walking the halls, and talking with co-workers, inspired by AVIAN’s founders Kevin and Sherm and my own observations, thoughts, and passion for learning and improvement. I hope you find something here which also inspires you on your path to the next level. Enjoy.?

Words matter, a lot!

This is the iconic Radio Flyer.?A child’s toy created by Antonio Pasin in the early 1900’s. Many of us are familiar with it and have even owned one but have you ever considered the curious name given to this child’s pull cart? Radio, and flyer seem to have little in common with each other, much less a toy wagon. History says Pasin chose this combination of names as a tribute to two famous innovators of the day, Guglielmo Marconi and Charles Lindbergh. Marconi, Italian inventor, and engineer,?developed the long-distance wireless telegraph, successfully sending the first radio signal across the Atlantic.?Lindbergh,?of course, completed the first solo transatlantic flight to Europe. Combining these marvels of communication and flight, Pasin christened his little wagon the "Radio Flyer." Whether Pasin had the simple intention of honoring two innovators he admired or there was something more to his branding isn’t clear, but from a business sense his decision was brilliant. Though our conscious mind may pick up and focus on things like contrast and movement, and things which are bold and stand out like a shiny red wagon with gleaming white wheels, it initially overlooks other details, it’s our subconscious which silently processes things with more depth and subtlety. It doesn’t brush over the names given the toy, or the weight of their words. And, for reasons unknown to us, this little wagon, which is so eye catching and dear, also feels very important.?

Apply quantum thinking to business

You’re in the 21st century, why not start thinking and acting like it? In their employee handbook, Kevin and Sherm talk about looking for small meaningful ways to add value and make things easier for customers and employees alike. Find their pain points, take away their headaches, anticipate and discover their needs and then help to provide those needs to the customer, “it’s about keeping your ear to the wind” Kevin says. ?That’s sounds great but how do you do that and more importantly how do you do it consistently and effortlessly? Is there a way to make this kind of behavior second nature, muscle memory, and simple and enjoyable enough that you do it naturally? There is, but it first requires a little adjustment in our organizational thinking before we zoom the focus in and that starts with the leader at the top, and the leader in you. Here’s the good news, if you’re in an ESOP (employee owned) company it should be easy to make these leader adjustments because every employee is an owner and empowered to be a leader if they want to be. The kind of attention Kevin and Sherm are talking about is noticing business and work at a quantum level, Its focused, detailed, and microscopic. But the change required to get there starts with the big picture, on a meta (organizational) scale, in the language. ??

Just like Pasin’s wagon there are ways of thinking we can influence to merge the complex and the simple, making the complicated easier, the mysterious knowable, and the intimidating engaging and fun.??

?Changing our operating language is one active way to address complexity in business and represents a fine-grained, quantum approach to business vs the coarse-grained behavior indicative of a bygone era, I’ll explain. A hidden problem with business today is that many companies (and by many, I mean just about all of them) are stuck in a rut using an outdated Industrial Revolution, and Newtonian physics operating language adopted more than a century ago. Like the example of Pasin’s wagon the human brain subconsciously processes words into concepts, constructs, ideas metaphor and images. Just as our eyes see images, words are the pictures of the brain. Though quantum physics updated and, in some cases, replaced Newtonian physics almost a century ago most companies still talk, think, and act in these Newtonian and Industrial Revolution ways, old habits become comfortable. What are these two worlds? Let’s look. ?

Review the world of Newtonian physics

The world of Newtonian physics is a world of cause and effect, predictability and certainty, and distinct wholes and their parts.?It’s the reality of the observable world, quantifiable determinism, linear thinking, and represents both a controlled, and controllable future.?Newtonian physics is slow moving with expected outcomes, involving mechanistic and reductionist thinking. It’s a great language for the business at hand and the “auto-pilot” stuff, the work you’ve already learned to do well today, and the business exploitation. But it doesn’t address changes which will come tomorrow, the exploration, and how to keep improving upon todays processes or even invent new ones.

?Adopt the world of quantum thinking. Quantum Physics by comparison is the world at a “sub-atomic” level, considering discreet events, emergence, complexity, and fractals. It’s an environment rich in relationships, contrast, and particularly the relationships between objects. Its chaos theory, order and change, autonomy and control, structure and flexibility, butterfly effect, and cellular automata. What difference do these ways of thinking have on business and why does it matter? It goes back to the subconscious, the noticing of small things and considering the world of the unseen as well as the seen. Using Newtonian language and thinking helps us focus on macro pictures of traditionally known and predictable concepts while quantum thinking reveals a world at the subatomic level, things which are not known, and the things which are not easily observable, revealing their discreet relationships. This “little” view provides a “big” picture of a different kind, the best companies find a balance between both worlds.?

Do it. So how do you do it? ?Change your thinking, and notice and act on the small stuff as well as the large? And how do you know when to switch? If you’ve read this article and considered these ideas you’ve already begun, there’s nothing more to do, your mind’s already changing. The next time you encounter a complex situation you’ll behave differently. You’ll stand back and consider the subtle behaviors and activities happening around the big event before you act. This is a “set-it and forget it” subconscious exercise, and its begun.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. The overall message is that business, and even life has an underlying operating system, an ontology, a meta construct, kind of like Microsoft Windows framing computer processes, only for life.?Find out what these operating systems are and what they’re built on, and then revise, rearrange, or change them as necessary. What else can you do to outperform the competition and even your own expectations? Slow down, relax, and trust. While It’s not intuitive for the conscious mind to believe one must slowdown in order to speed up that’s precisely what must happen regarding performance. When you let this slowing down happen it will lend space for new behaviors like noticing, questioning, learning, and sharing that learning.?Though on the outside our observable pace may have slowed, inside, performance is increasing, and we will perform and move forward together. Finally, by relaxing and trusting our intuitive subconscious mind to “cue” up the switching of views from “fine grained” to coarse, and “exploitation” to “exploration”, we will intuitively start making the right decisions at the right times and always find the clear view.

Dr. Zabiegalski is available to talk to your organization or venue about ambidexterity research or speak informatively and eloquently about organizational culture, leadership, strategy, learning, complexity, business neuroscience, creativity, mindfulness, talent management, personal success, emotional intelligence, Action Learning, and storytelling. Contact Eric about a talk, keynote presentation, or workshop today!