By Paul Plotczyk
Do you want innovation? Fresh ideas? Solutions to your most vexing organizational challenges? Then it is time to encourage and grow your organizational deviants. “My organizational what?!” you ask?
Your organizational deviants. You know … the people who are either seen as a breath of fresh air with amazing ideas or as the most annoying people on the planet who constantly ask “why?” and always drag out every discussion with yet another question or suggestion.
Every organization has deviants, trust us. Whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, these individuals, with their unique view of the world, can deliver enormous benefits to the organization.
So, are you squashing your deviants and the potential breakthroughs they can deliver? Or have you created an environment that encourages them to unleash all their deviant goodness? Read on…
Who Are These Deviants?
Many of us can site our own firsthand experiences with organizational deviants (although we may have used more colorful terms to describe them), and perhaps share at least one universal perception: they can be very annoying!
In day-to-day life, organizational deviants are typically the people who present opinions and ideas contrary to the mainstream. They often challenge the “status quo” and sometimes even the boss. They question convention, and confound the status quo-defending organizational immune system.
As a teammate, an organizational deviant can seem like a source of inspiration, insight and new ideas. They can also be fun to work with.
On the down side, having deviants on a team can create an “us vs. them” dichotomy if fellow team members express their discomfort by trying to cajole, belittle or humiliate them into being “more normal.”
The Management Challenge
Managing an organizational deviant can be “quite trying” as my British colleague would say. Their challenges, new ideas, out-of-the-box suggestions and multiple questions – can not only be a confrontation of the status quo, but can also seem to slow the decision making process. And we all know that fast decision making is VERY important to us as managers.
Many people believe that rapid decision making shows strength, confidence, determination, courage, etc. – even though the deviant ideas we are hearing may eventually produce a more effective outcome and finally solve the problem so that it does not recur.
Unfortunately our “need for speed” can prevent us from slowing down to consider a new way of thinking that could develop into a more useful or effective solution. (At WSA we often say that as leaders, “We are very good at ‘solving’ problems we don’t completely understand.”) Plus, the perceived irritation factor of some organizational deviants may mask the contributions that lurk in their ideas.
Are Deviants Really Annoying?
Often, the behavior we think of as annoying or irritating is more stylistic than substantive. Many organizational deviants are ignorant of --or simple don’t care about -- social norms. They may interrupt or talk over others. Sometimes they come across as defying leadership by openly disagreeing with the boss. Plus, they can be loud!
Is there a way to see past these stylistic quirks so that we can benefit from the “unique ways to look at, and overcome, seemingly insoluble difficulties”[1] that may lurk in the words of the organizational deviant? How can we leverage the organizational deviants so that we can mine their valuable ideas, insights and solutions?
5 Ways to Reap Benefits from your Organizational Deviants
The best way to get past the annoying behaviors of organizational deviants and to ensure you are benefiting from what they have to offer is by using the 5-step communication process explained below.
These communication guidelines are based on the premise that all people, but especially deviants, function best when they are encouraged to contribute and act from their commitment to one another, and the organization’s mission.
Even if you think you have a deviant-free organization, you could see marked improvements in problem solving and decision making by using this approach.
5 Steps to Encouraging Innovation and Contribution
- Listen. Expressing ideas effectively is only one half of communication. The other half is listening and understanding. Listening requires patience.
- Understand. Restate or paraphrase your understanding. Ask questions for clarification to be sure you understand the other person’s idea, before you express yours.
- Count to 10. Effectively communicating with others is not a contest. It is the way we learn. Waiting to respond can allow ideas to develop.
- Summarize the Decision. Write decisions made for all present to see on a flipchart or whiteboard. Review next steps, including who will do what, by when.
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Outline Intended and Unintended Consequences. Decisions in a complex system can create unanticipated and/or undesirable outcomes. Discussing positive and negative potential outcomes will improve our results.
Conclusion
Finding a balance between encouraging the occasional disruptions that may be caused by the organizational deviants and the “smooth sailing” of the status quo is a difficult but necessary goal – especially if you want to encourage innovation and contribution. We have found that using these guidelines can also have the happy secondary effect of creating alignment and increasing employee engagement.
To find out how well you are doing in striking that balance, ask your self the following questions the next time you are in a meeting:
- Are contributions, especially from those that challenge the status quo, encouraged or squashed?
- Is it better to come up with a quick solution vs. the best solution?
- Do the “annoying” people in the room get any legitimate air time?
- If you followed the 5 guidelines above for encouraging innovation and contribution do you think you would come up with better ideas and solutions?
Your answers to these questions will quickly tell the tale of how innovation and contribution is regarded in your organization and if you might be hampering your own ability to optimal organizational performance.
As always, we would be delighted to discuss your individual challenges with encouraging and growing your corporate deviants. Please contact Beth Chartier at 781-343-4008 or Smurphy@wsa-intl.com to arrange a complimentary, no-obligation consultation – or to share your story about organizational deviants in your organization.
[1] Definition of an Organizational Deviant taken from “Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems” the authors Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, and Monique Sternin
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