A pyramid or a plum tree: Which organization are you building?
Years ago I received a gift from one of the vice presidents at a corporate client of mine. This leader had an unusual style. He was stern, but surprisingly warm and inviting. He had a unique office setup in the middle of downtown St. Louis, MO. He had a wooden sculpture of a unicorn on the glass walls of his office, while many of his peers preferred private offices. He wore jeans to work, when all of his peers were wearing blue blazers and pleated khakis. He was a real rebel by corporate standards. I suspect this was the reason he was asked to lead a division of the company looking at funding new ideas. His team, while a division of the parent corporation, was constantly on the edge trying to find the next big idea. For this reason, it was really easy for his team to lose sight of the larger mission of the parent company. Not to mention, his team faced some serious resistance for doing what they did. I wondered how he could find a balance that would ensure he would still get supported by the parent company. After all, they were still signing his paycheck. One day while paying him a visit, he handed me a book that would change how I saw "innovation" at a corporation.
Pyramids
These are tombs.
Important people are at the top. They set direction.
The people at the bottom support those above them.
These exist to protect something, which means sometimes killing growth.
Plum Trees
These are living things!
The plums are your products. Product teams are the branches.
Executive leadership is the trunk, the "enduring support."
The focus here is growth, which helps great ideas live.
This timeless analogy about plum trees and pyramids was introduced by Gordon McKenzie in his corporate cult-classic, Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace. It is a recount of his journey through corporate life, with a sprinkling of lessons he learned along the way. Released just three years before his death in 1999, his self-published work is a beautiful and gut-wrenching reality check for so many who lead large human systems, like corporations. He worked for Hallmark for thirty years before retiring and held the title of "Creative Paradox." I think it was a fun, but honest way of corporate leaders admitting they didn't know what to do with the guy. However, they trusted him enough to support him to do good work.
Since being in the workforce I've come across a few people just like Gordon. They are bright, passionate and have a general disdain for others telling people what to do. They'd rather people use intuition and initiative to solve problems and not simply follow others blindly. While I admire these qualities, there is one that trait I seldom see from these people: leadership.
I can't speak for Gordon McKenzie, but I've observed so many "freelancer" types in the corporate world. They hold unique titles, have cool "consulting-like" jobs and usually get to do stuff they love. However, what if these types of people also took time to teach others enough to come with them? Freelancers and entrepreneurs are both passionate about making change (and not wanting to wait for others to do something about it). Where they differ is while the freelancer is satisfied with making change alone, the entrepreneur wants others to help them make it.
Why is it so difficult to find corporate innovators to lead others?
I think the answer to this question lies in the pyramid analogy Gordon shared in his book. Large corporations have more to protect, so naturally they structure themselves to avoid risk and create human systems that take advantage of "worker bees" or "line workers." They end up creating an environment where management looks for ways to get the most out of their employees to yield some sort of profit. The last thing they need is some stone in the pyramid falling out of place, and trying to grow something not directed by those on the top.
These people are typically stamped out or, at the very least, forgotten about long enough for them to just leave on their own accord. It's a sad state of affairs, but one that is just supported time and again in large corporations. There's a reason so much corporate innovation comes from acquisitions of smaller companies. The structure of a company can so greatly influence the behaviors of their employees. Company leaders who see themselves as the trunk can expect not only the minds of their employees, but their hearts as well.
If you consider yourself a leader in today's world, do your team a favor and remove any type of "pyramid talk." Don't fall in the trap of supporting all of the dated and pyramid-based processes of your corporate hairball. Rather, re-position your leadership team as a supporter of product teams, while orbiting the bureaucratic mess that inevitably exists in large institutions. These teams need you more than you may even realize.