{"id":1699,"date":"2016-03-16T15:51:22","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T22:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/?p=1699"},"modified":"2016-04-20T12:23:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T19:23:52","slug":"human-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/human-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Human nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m still processing many of the extraordinary findings discussed\u00a0in\u00a0Reinventing Organizations<\/a><\/em> (Laloux 2014), but for now I want to address a single foundational\u00a0topic that has come up repeatedly: assumptions about human nature. Are human beings fundamentally lazy, egocentric, and antagonistic, or are we fundamentally compassionate, self-motivated and trustworthy? As Laloux points out, “people can debate this topic endlessly.” There is plenty\u00a0of evidence for both\u00a0points of view \u2014 it’s easy to find examples of both bitter conflicts and inspiring selflessness, shattered trust and\u00a0stalwart\u00a0dependability, stubborn resistance to change\u00a0and pursuit of\u00a0lofty dreams, and everything in-between. So which is true?<\/p>\n

All of it! Specifically:\u00a0People meet the expectations of their environment.<\/strong>\u00a0This has been known scientifically for decades and\u00a0validated repeatedly.\u00a0\u201cThis comes down to the fundamental spiritual truth that we reap what we sow… If you view people with mistrust and subject them to all sorts of controls, rules, and punishments, they will try to game the system, and you will feel your thinking is validated. Meet people with practices based on trust, and they will return your trust with responsible behavior. Again, you will feel your assumptions were validated.\u201d (Laloux, chapter 2.3) Once you\u00a0understand\u00a0the essential flexibility of human nature, you can avoid the fate of getting\u00a0stuck in one camp or the other, debating endlessly, unable to\u00a0get out or lead others out.<\/p>\n

The idea of self-management is\u00a0a direct corollary of the\u00a0fact that all humans are\u00a0trustworthy, intelligent, and responsible, but only if we treat them that way<\/em>. Conversely, the idea behind traditional management is that employees need to be directed and protected. No matter how much “empowerment” you\u00a0try to inject into the system,\u00a0employees operating in a power\u00a0hierarchy will act as if they need to be directed\u00a0and protected. The only known way<\/em>\u00a0to fully unleash\u00a0the creative, intelligent, and trustworthy potential of\u00a0humans\u00a0is\u00a0to practice some form of self-management.<\/p>\n

There are many reasons why self-management is attractive, and\u00a0Reinventing Organizations<\/a><\/em>\u00a0discusses all of these in depth. But to me, the\u00a0chain of reasoning above\u00a0is the most compelling. It underlies my belief that self-management is not a radical idea at all. It’s\u00a0surprising at first \u2014 but seems\u00a0obvious in retrospect<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m still processing many of the extraordinary findings discussed\u00a0in\u00a0Reinventing Organizations (Laloux 2014), but for now I want to address a single foundational\u00a0topic that has come up repeatedly: assumptions about human nature. Are human beings fundamentally lazy, egocentric, and antagonistic, or are we fundamentally compassionate, self-motivated and trustworthy? As Laloux points out, “people can debate this … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Human nature”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1699"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1746,"href":"https:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions\/1746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robinstewart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}