At the same time, there is a yearning quality to all this planning. We are attempting to shape our future, and our plans can feel like scaffolding stretching out into the months ahead, upon which weâll build our better worldâtheir function is perhaps as much to reassure us as it is to make that world real. Plans give us certainty, or at least a bulwark against uncertainty.
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Your people want and need to engage with the world that theyâre really in, and to interact with the world as it really is. By harnessing them to a prefabricated plan, youâre not only constraining your people but, quite possibly, also revealing how out of touch with reality you are.
In the real world, there is workâstuff that you have to get done. In theory world, there are goals.
Work is ahead of you; goals are behind youâtheyâre your rear-view mirror.
Work is specific and detailed; goals are abstract.
Work changes fast; goals change slowly, or not at all.
Work makes you feel like you have agency; goals make you feel like a cog in a machine. Work makes you feel trusted; goals make you feel distrusted.
Work is work; goals arenât.
But it doesnât have to be this way. Goals can be a force for good.
As with all the lies weâve addressed in the book so far, the lie that people have potential is a product of organizationsâ desire for control, and their impatience with individual differences.
Your greatest challenge as a leader, then, is to honor each personâs legitimate fear of the unknown and, at the same time, to turn that fear into spiritedness. We, your followers, like the comfort of where we stand, yet know that the flow of events is pulling us inexorably into the unknown. So when we find something, anything, however slight, that lessens our uncertainty, we cling on for dear life.
It is our job, then, to work each day to chart the right course and make corrections when, inevitably, we stray. I already can sense the next crisis coming around the corner. To keep a creative culture vibrant, we must not be afraid of constant uncertainty. We must accept it, just as we accept the weather. Uncertainty and change are lifeâs constants. And thatâs the fun part.
The truth is, as challenges emerge, mistakes will always be made, and our work is never done. We will always have problems, many of which are hidden from our view; we must work to uncover them and assess our own role in them, even if doing so means making ourselves uncomfortable; when we then come across a problem, we must marshal all our energies to solve it. If those assertions sound familiar, thatâs because I used them to kick off this book. Thereâs something else that bears repeating here: Unleashing creativity requires that we loosen the controls, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to clear the path for them, and pay attention to anything that creates fear. Doing all these things wonât necessarily make the job of managing a creative culture easier. But ease isnât the goal; excellence is.