Why Business Becomes Boring

When a Sex in the City character, loosely based on Helen Gurley Brown hosts a Park Avenue reception, one of the guests, numbed by the conformity that has come to characterize the New York social scene, exclaims “I’m so bored I could die."  She then falls out a seventh story window.

Maybe things aren’t that bad in your workplace, but the other day I arrived at my appointment early, so I took my time to do a bit of observation:

• If you’re in your 20s,  and work at Citigroup, you wear khakis and blue button-down shirts.

• Once in the elevator … well, you know the rules. No talking, no eye movement except the lighted floor indicator.

• If it’s Monday, “How was your weekend?” is a required question.

Forget how you really feel.  When asked, “how are you?” your response must be, “I’m good.”  If you work in California, especially Southern, it’s “I’m great.” If you don’t like the standard Monday morning greeting, try “Did you get my email?”

When you walk through the standard issue gray corridors, carry a look of determination and walk with a healthy step. Make sure you’re clutching some important looking documents or files.

Why do business cultures demand consistency?  Why do things like sales training, corporate offsites, or product development strategies need to adhere to ironclad standards? Why do managers get so upset when their people step outside "the process?"

“We can't win if we depart from our standard message,” said a regional manager to me the other day. Okay, we know we can’t all be marching to our own drum. There is a reason for a unified corporate identity – and there’s a reason we stop dating people with schizophrenic personalities.

But, does everything really need to be so consistent?  Does one size have to fit all?

Consider:

• Meetings don’t have to be one hour: When I worked with the Disney organization, I found them scheduling 9-minute huddles,  16 minute checkpoints, or 54 minute action item reviews. They rejected the term meeting .. and the one hour default.

• Sales models don’t have to be the same. When I worked with Anita Ward at ZEFER, she flatly rejected a single sales model. An anthropologist by training, she used her observational skills to assess the differences and nuances of every client situation. She rejected “the standard sales proposal” and every offer was different.  Her sales cycles were fast, her close ratios astonishing.

• Agendas can start at the end. When I worked at Cambridge Technology Partners, we practiced “right to left” thinking. We started with our desired end result … then constructed the plan in reverse chronology.   

Maybe we don’t need PowerPoint decks. Okay, let’s not go overboard.  That rule would paralyze most of corporate America. But creativity and innovation don’t come from same-old, same-old thinking.

Maybe it’s the physical environment that is breeds boredom.  Cubicle conformity is everywhere. In some companies, management even dictates what you can and can’t put up in your cubicle in terms of personal items. By looking like everybody in a herd of sheep, do we become NOBODY?

Lisa Bodell is in the innovation business.  The CEO of FutureThink, her company helps organizations bust out and break old habits that are no longer producing.  Bodell says: “innovation happens when people are free to step outside established boundaries.  The best ideas come not from rigid process, but by setting the vision of what needs to be achieved - then letting people help you get there in a way that works for them – in ways that leverage their personal strengths.“

Bodell continues: “Set values and norms and then trust people to do the right thing. That will make business productive, and a hell of a lot more interesting.

“In most organizations, it’s more important to be serious than passionate. Like the guy who walks down the hall – fast and determined – too busy to interact, he is a man on a mission, going somewhere….we’re just not sure where, and we don’t even care, as long as he’s moving fast."

Check out the art of Karen Fincannon (who created "Four Sheep" above)