The official BLOG of the corporate culture institute in Vienna.

2014-11-11

Of sheep and wolves


Throughout the winded course of my professional life I immersed into several distinctively different corporate ecosystems. On the surface there shouldn't have been much of a difference. Don’t we all have to go for a job after all, to earn some money, to make our living? However, when digging deeper, more arcane individual life concepts were revealed. This insight still might not appear to be very surprising but rather in line with the experience of many of us. 

At first sight many of your cohabitants in the open space offices don’t really draw much of your attention: Just uninteresting, average office people with rather mundane, earthly desires for cars, holiday trips or detached houses in some remote suburbs (and they're all made out of ticky tacky; and they all look just the same).

But I should better have been prepared for surprise. On some dull occasion, when forced into a travel companionship with one of these allegedly unremarkable colleagues, perhaps while waiting for the bus to take us both to a mandatory compliance seminar, I accepted my fate and started some small talk to maintain an easy flowing conversation, meant to wrap the day into a gentle packing. Then something unexpected happened: the ‘average colleague’ granted me some insight into his secret inner life, a rich world of personal interests, carefully cultivated passions or private studies on side topics, which could well fill the major subject.

What a contrast! During office hours they unresistingly accept their fate, ducking away, completing their assigned tasks. During their free time they switch the context completely, beaming themselves out of their current space-time continuum to their preferred parallel universe. They are studying old Egyptian hieroglyphs, are deeply involved in social care projects or combine their several years’ vacations to traverse deserts or jungles by foot or bicycle. How can they at the same time work in such a dumb job and maintain such a rich inner life? Well, it’s not is spite but because of the uninspiring day time job. Take it as compensation.

It might look like a strange passion, to dig such deeply into the individuals’ very personal matters. But I didn't do it on purpose. It just happened. When in my early years I once was on a consulting assignment for a large chartered accountant firm at a huge Insurance corporation, my team mate pointed me to an apparently strange phenomenon: “The employees here all have such a happy expression in their eyes. What is so special on this environment? What is the real reason?”
 
“Well they simply feel no pressing need. There’s nothing to complain about. Everything is organised and predetermined. It is like in Socialism: The flock of sheep is well herded.” I responded. This was a bit unfair and even not completely correct. Not everyone behaved like that: there were some wolves hidden among the sheep.

Once aware of the situation they were easy to spot. The fast dynamic body movements, the tall and slender appearance, the flickering glance, the carefully dosed aggressiveness of their approach. They were mountain climbers or marathon runners. Their career was on the fast track. Of course, they were working extra hours – when worthwhile.

Carefully they avoided the trap of becoming a domain matter expert. There were sufficient sheep around, who were – in some cases – highly knowledgeable in their small specialized niche. And those were happy to get involved and receive at least some acknowledgement for their otherwise unnoticed efforts. No, wolves see themselves as leaders. They excel in tactics although pretending to think strategically. Decisions were happily taken, but from their specific career centered opportunistic viewpoint. This approach of course did leave no room for corporate or long-term considerations.

Wolves were looking at sheep with disdain – however they needed them. Sheep lived in fear of wolves or at least viewed them with incomprehension. But sheep in turn also couldn't maintain their sheltered ecosystem without the wolves. They lived in symbiosis.

And if they did not die, they still live today - in banks, insurance companies and other lage corporations.