Yet there is something wrong here. Not
Stepford Wives wrong, but just this feeling that I’ve been struggling to
understand. Reading Seth's Blog the other day, a phrase jumped out at me:
“They institutionalize organized
cowardice.”
I noticed my head nodding
instinctively. I am surrounded by cowardice. I am surrounded by people who
waste their creativity playing the prevailing politics game, people who stay
silent while their team languishes, people who accept technology tools because
they don’t want to fill out an exception form.
When you praise people for completing
their TPS reports on time, rather than for questioning the purpose of the
reports, you foster compliance. You create Docker-wearing drones who don’t
share ideas, don’t question decisions and don’t color outside the lines.
Some days, I want to be the
hammer-hurling girl in Apple's 1984 commercial. In my version, I run through our mazes,
tearing down cubicles and the polite, little signs that say, “Please be quiet.
This is a work area.”
But I still need my job, so maybe I’ll
just wear forbidden flip-flops to work and spend my lunch walking through the well-manicured
grass in my bare feet. I might inspire a few people to kick off their shoes and
join me. That is until they put up a sign that says, "Keep off the grass." 