Are you a squirrel? 🐿️

Being a squirrel means spending most of your time finding nuts and hiding them. If you don’t, um, squirrel away enough nuts, you die when the weather turns cold. Sure, these medium-sized rodents excel at finding and hiding nuts – but they suck at recalling where they stored them. In fact, they lose about 80% of the nuts they stash. 

Long ago, you’d think that nature would’ve selected against such inefficiency. That all those calories expended finding and hiding nuts that are never eaten would register negative points on the evolutionary scorecard and that squirrels would, long ago, have become extinct as a reward for such sloppy work. 

But squirrels are one of the most common mammals on the planet, with a population in the billions. They (most likely) outnumber humans, in fact. To understand why evolution loves squirrels so much, we need to zoom out. 

Undiscovered squirrel caches, it turns out, are one of the most common sources of new trees. Without forgetful squirrels, we’d have fewer trees – and fewer trees mean fewer nuts and fewer nuts mean fewer squirrels. In other words, inefficiency is the key to the squirrel’s success and the thriving of whole ecosystems. We can’t appreciate the value of an individual without looking at the performance of the whole. 

Imagine if an efficiency consultant implemented a hyper-efficient inventory management system for nuts – and the devastation that would follow. 

Recently the NYT reported on The Rise of the Worker Productivity Score. It’s not a new idea, of course. Frederick Winslow Taylor, the so-called father of scientific management (and corporate consulting), systematized the whole thing in factories back at the turn of the last century. 

But I’d argue that not only is this an inhumane practice — or at least a practice likely to lead to the inhumane treatment of individuals — it’s also counterproductive. 

Lean theory’s Principle of Sub-Optimization tells us that when you try to make all individual parts of a complex system as efficient as possible, you end up making the whole system inefficient. 

Imagine a stretch of highway. If I try to optimize each 10’ section of a highway by making sure a car is on it at all times, we’ll end up with gridlock. Maximum throughput is dependent on there being space between cars (we call this “slack” in the lean world). 

In my work as an organization designer, I notice that it’s possible for someone to be an inefficient worker but still be an essential team member. 

When I first look at a team, especially a team doing complex and creative work, it's often hard to see who is contributing what ingredients to teamwork. Often the quiet, unassuming people that I overlook at first are often the ones providing essential value to the team — value that the team would fall apart without. 

This value may be in the form of an essential communication line with customers or other parts of the organization; a contrarian perspective; or cultural cohesion. In other words, they may be the peacemaker or the bridge-builder. 

So, the next time you’re looking at a team member who you think isn’t doing enough or working fast enough, ask yourself: “Is this person perhaps a squirrel?” 

And, for the love of all that’s holy, please never ever implement one of these worker productivity scoring systems. 

Subtext

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about men. It’s obvious that qualities embodied by people like (professional misogynist) Andrew Tate are good to avoid. But I also notice that so-called positive qualities, like being a protector or breadwinner, can cause problems when they are coded as “manly.” When holding this mindset, a man who loses a job, or who earns less than his female partner, may end up feeling like they are not enough. They may even turn to toxic behavior as a coping mechanism.

Creative Type

The core of healthy collaboration and creativity? 

The ability to welcome and integrate diverse perspectives and skills. 

Being part of a great team means co-creating an environment in which people feel free to share ideas that run counter to what the group expects – bad news or counter-cultural ideas – and in which the group is able to reconcile opposing viewpoints and move forward. 

They don’t get stuck in analysis and a never-ending search for consensus or fall apart because of conflict. Leaders must create an environment in which disagreement is welcome. 

They do this by listening and creating opportunities for people to be willing or even expected to speak up. Creating this kind of workplace can be challenging. 

Sure, we’re all busy and get stressed at times but we must consciously create opportunities for people to voice their perspectives – and honor these shares with inclusivity and fairness. 

Burning Daylight

Thriving organizations begin with cultures of belonging – and Jennifer Brown, an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, and diversity and inclusion consultant, knows this well. In fact, Jennifer has devoted her life to creating organizations where everyone is welcome and can thrive. 

It’s an honor to support Jennifer in the recent launch of the 2nd addition of her wonderful book, How To Be An Inclusive Leader. Bringing hard-won insights out of the mind and into the hands of real-life folks is no easy feat. 

The newly released second edition brings her 14 years of experience as a DEI consultant and distills it into a simple, actionable system we can all use to build more equitable workplaces. 

I’m confident that every one of us can learn valuable insights from this thoughtful and well-researched book in 2023.

— bob

P.S. The registration deadline for the next cohort of Building Good Teams on Maven is 2/6. Join me?