If a company’s competitive situation worsens or technological changes require new products and new processes, the organization may need the help of its own employees. Unfortunately, if it has trained them to be indifferent and apathetic, it is unlikely to be able to elicit their cooperation. Even if the employees have information that would be of value to management, they would be unlikely to share it because of their image of the organization as basically exploitative and indifferent to human needs. Even if they could work harder, it is not likely that management could invent any incentive to get them to do so. Only by proving to employees that the organization does indeed care for their social and emotional needs could such commitment be elicited. Unfortunately, there are many cases where an organization not only is unaware of the kind of image its practices are creating in the minds of its members but is also unprepared to accept the consequences of such images as determiners of how individual employees will relate themselves to the organization. – Edgar Schein, Organizational Psychology, 1965
There is a gap between common sense and common practice that only a willing, active member of an organization can close. Each of us, individually, must decide if or when we will act to close that gap. And, the organization, typically unknowingly, exerts forces on us sometimes in support of that choice, but often against the choice the organization wants us to make.
- Act boldly, but don’t upset anyone.
- Drive for results, but don’t step on any toes.
- Push for delivery, but let’s agree to wait a few weeks for so-and-so to be available.
Organizational mixed messages are everywhere, and Edgar Schein spent a lifetime giving us words to describe the mixed messages and tactics to overcome them, first in ourselves and then in our organizations.
Edgar Henry Schein passed away on January 26, 2023, at the age of 94. I had the privilege to meet him once in 2015. He was living just off the Stanford campus in a senior living facility full of ex-faculty from across the United States. He would venture across the street and have lunch with different people, to keep his mind sharp and time full. I was honored in 2016 when he agreed to read an early copy of Everyone is a Change Agent and send me a blurb for the back cover. He was a giant in Organizational Psychology and by all accounts a wonderful husband, father, and friend.
It is upon the passing of a giant that we do well to remember that much of the wisdom they left us is sitting in treasure chests at our front door, waiting for us to pry open the lids and reap the benefits. Most of you will never read an Edgar Schein book on your own, but you should. He illuminates what dynamics cause companies to fail. At minimum, everyone in the tech industry should read Schein’s brilliant work DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC.
Whether you dip your toe into his work or dive in, know the circle of common sense in organizations today is closer to common practice because Edgar Schein thought deeply and wrote widely about how you could get the best out of your life and work and did all he could to help you achieve your business and personal goals with clarity and mutual support. Though gone, he remains a wise friend for you and me still. In his memory, we can and should quickly close the gap between common sense and common practice.
