Can Organizations Evolve to Become Better?

By Walter Derzko

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 Last week, I had a discussion with one community leader and the conversation ended with the remark, “well, you know how effective some organizations are.” What was really implied was that “inefficiency and indecisiveness” are the norm in some organizations.  

I partially disagree. This applies to mainstream organizations too. Many organizations in both communities are well run but they can all improve. Organizations are only as good as how well their members think.

Business practises and values that we hold without question in our daytime jobs, often simply get left at the door, when we volunteer or manage non-profit organizations in the evening.

Think back to something as mundane as your last meeting. In the worst case examples, how effective and efficient was it? Did you come out from a board meeting with a headache or a sense of accomplishment? Did it start on time and when did you go home? Were any clear, unambiguous decisions reached? Were any new ideas explored or was everyone just defending their own point of view? Worst of all, were people just too preoccupied with the same old repetitive conflicts, disputes and arguments, most of which are often irrelevant to the issues or decisions at hand?  

Yet, I’ve sat in board meetings that were skilfully led by a trained facilitator, who guided participants’ thinking and that finished in under an hour. Better run meetings and well developed thinking skills are important to the future of all organizations in Canada. Just maybe, the old “populist” approach is no longer relevant in a modern Canadian society.

Some people however, get insulted when they are told that they could become better thinkers (especially certain personality types who think they know it all) 

“Why, thinking comes naturally to me like breathing air,” say many people. “No one needs to teach me anything new” or “I don’t believe in those mumbo-jumbo, buzz words” Students reply: “Thinking? – Isn’t that what I’m suppose to learn from going to university? ” As if good thinking comes automatically from some mystical osmosis in the classroom. In grade one, we learn plus, subtract, multiply and divide to manipulate numbers, but we are usually not taught the underlying thinking or operational skills to create ideas or explore values, notions and assumptions.  

Artists and designers often have this elite attitude about creativity and thinking. They feel they are the sole purveyors of creativity and that no lay person, who is not an expert like themselves, could come close. Some even feel threatened by this notion, that everyone could be as creative as they are. I disagree with this exclusivity. Here you need to distinguish between artistic craft and idea generation and to separate IQ from creative thinking.

People, who have high IQ’s are not necessarily good thinkers. They are often excellent at defending their own “point of view” but ask them to come up with new ideas, options, and alternative, and “they got nothing.” - as the expression goes. They also get insulted when told that everyone’s thinking can improve. 

“It used to be felt that people with high IQ’s (or how much you know) would naturally be effective thinkers. This doesn’t seem to be the case. Some people with high IQ’s turn out to be relatively ineffective, rigid thinkers. Some people with more humble IQ’s turn out to be more effective thinkers. (just listen to question period in any conference) For example, if we use a car analogy, if IQ is equivalent to the horsepower of a car, then thinking skills are equivalent to the driving skills. Just because the car has huge horsepower, does not mean that the car will be well driven. I takes a skilled driver,” according to Dr. Edward de Bono.

The purpose of developing thinking as a deliberate, on-demand skill is to enable a person to apply his/her thinking to new and unfamiliar situations that have to be faced in life.

Elite private schools around the world, as well as many “programs for gifted children” have been teaching thinking skills as a separate subject for over 40 years. But not mainstream education. Most students say that it’s their favourite subject in the entire curriculum. As a punishment, some schools even say that you can’t go to your thinking class, if you misbehave.

An introduction to thinking skills can be taught, in as little as a day. In the 1970’s, school children, who were considered too maladjusted for the normal school classroom, who would regularly stab teachers or burn down schools, were segregated into a separate school in the United Kingdom. In an experiment, these children were taught an afternoon of logical and creative (lateral) thinking skills, similar to the workshop that was held for students at UCU Wealth Strategies, on Sept 21, 2013. (see http://bit.ly/18tOhxq ) Their chances of finding a job, 20 years latter improved by 500% over the general population.

Readers should not take the above as judgement or a criticism of the community, it’s merely my statement of observations.

Maybe my friend was right.  You can’t teach some old dogs new tricks. But I believe there is always hope with the next generation who can bring in fresh ideas, new thinking and a degree of professionalism. Now if only our organizations can just hang on long enough to benefit from this input.