What do you value more – imagination or conformity

“We’ve always done it that way around here”. Ever heard that one uttered in your company before?

Companies want and, in most cases, demand post-secondary degrees for a job. My question to you is, ‘what’s your return on intelligence” of the people you are hiring? You may use words like; be creative, innovate, take risks, or any other of a number of phases that requires employees to use their imagination. However, what do you see going on in your company?

Would a person conform to something even when their eyes and brain is telling them ‘that ain’t so? The human need to belong is a very strong motivational force in people. To that point they will conform to a group viewpoint even when they know the group is wrong [Asch experiment]. This is a different perspective than ‘group think’.

I have always raised the question with work teams; does an individual’s need to belong creates conflict between conformity and imagination in the group? How does the group interact with people who dress differently or have strong differing viewpoints?

The other question that needs to be asked broadly; does the culture of the company support conformity over immigration? This question extends to both the informal and formal aspects of the company culture. Who gets rewarded for what and how does that fit with conformity and imagination?

In a discussion with a CEO she expressed her frustration with the executive team’s inability to come up with alternative scenarios for solving a difficult problem. With some thoughtful introspection she realized her mental habit was to ask for ideas and quickly dismiss one’s that she felt didn’t fit. She didn’t have to say it out loud the group could tell by her body language.

For employee’s acting on one’s imagination requires trust that the organization or other individuals can be trusted to not punish them. Punishment can come in many ways and be very subtle. I don’t think I have been in a company where people weren’t asked to use their imagination yet everything in the company was telling them to conform. Employees learn quickly the safest thing to do is ‘keep my head down and my mouth shut.’

Asking employees to use their imagination yet understand some things require conformity is a difficult balancing act for Leaders. The catch 22 for you is high performance work teams and organizations need both. The key is to make sure everyone and everything in the organization understand which is which.