Freedom to Change: How Big Is Your Company's Aquarium?

This article is the thirty-first in a series about Change from Steve Roesler.

I live close to a wonderful aquarium. Not the kind with goldfish and guppies; the kind with sharks which, according to the director, are the most popular attraction for visitors.

Kids love them; adults are amazed by them; everyone is in awe of them.

But did you know that if you catch a small shark and confine it, it's size will remain proportional to the aquarium?

Sharks can be fully mature yet only 6 inches long.

But if you turn them loose in the ocean, they grow to their normal length of eight feet.

How Big Is Your Organization's "Change Aquarium"?

3 Things To Consider Now:

If you want your people want to Swim With The Sharks, then build a fish tank that's the right size.

• Personality Traits: Instead of running endless workshops with the (un)expressed purpose of changing who people are, give them the assignments and time needed to grow into who they can become.

• Career path: The woman who ran your entire marketing organization just might be the best candidate for Senior VP of HR. Who wouldn't want an experienced leader with proven results in organization, communication, planning, and customer focus?

• Hire a new school of fish: If your org-quarium is the right size, you'll have plenty of room for people who are different thinkers, have different backgrounds, and offer a totally different take on how things could be done. Just don't let the old sharks eat the new ones.

These aren't theoretical suggestions. I've been involved in making each one happen. They work. And they will work for you.

If you want to explore more on Change and Developing People, give these a look:

• Three Sure-fire Steps to Developing Talent

• Do You Know This About Talent?

Bonus Link: If your talent or aspirations include writing--or if you need someone with experience to help you create and connect-- visit Nettie Hartsock. She knows what she's talking about and has the track record to back it up. Willie Nelson thinks she's good, too.

 

Comments

[Ellen Weber]

Wow - what a brilliant metaphor, Steve. Thanks for sharing. Change is a real adventure when tackled from the standpoint of talent. I need to think more about this!

[Joe Raasch]

Steve,

I just love this! Great metaphor, and org-quarium needs to be trademarked fast!

It is all about how much people are allowed to experience. Without experience on the job, there is no growth, no meaningful, sustainable change.

Thank you for the Nettie Hartsock link. My aspirations DO include a fair amount of writing!

Cheers,

Joe

[peter vajda]

Hi, Steve,

A wonderful metaphor, the aq(org)uarium, indeed.

It's been a tumultuous 2007 down here at the Georgia Aquarium. The bad news: the aquarium did not get accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

The fishes’ workplace:

Gaspar, a beluga, was euthanized, suffering from an incurable bone-disease he contracted at another facility. A whale shark, Ralph, sank to the bottom of his watery grave. A necropsy showed he had peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdominal lining and a perforated stomach, which may have been caused by a PVC feeding tube the aquarium used to force-feed the leviathan after he stopped eating. Officials snoted that employees treated the facility with a pesticide that may have contributed to their demise. Fibally, Marina, a 25-year-old female beluga whale, died after become sick and disoriented around Thanksgiving.

Our workplaces:

Hmmm, so, just musing about the sharks in one’s workplace…the ones who need to keep moving so they can breathe knowing if they stopped, they’d die….the micromanagers, the helicoper bosses mentioned before, those who spend time interfering and bothering others. Thinking about the employees who contracted diseases (laziness, gossiping, refusal to work as a team, negative beliefs and world-views, mistrust, not being accountable…) at other organizatons – diseases they now bring to a new organization and infect others…

Thinking about the negative ones, the naysayers, runor-mongerers, the bullies, the liars who “infect their workplace” with their own insidious, cancerous pesticides (thoughts, words, energy,) affecting and killing the positive spirit and cells in the hearts and minds, i.e., the body, of their organizatsions. How many other folks are walking around (swimming?) in a sea of fogginess due to a lack of clarity around goals, purpose, shared vision, values etc.?

Just because the tanks are filled with water, doesn’t mean all is transparent and life is moving swimmingly. Perhaps only on the outside looking in.

“How I wish, how I wish you were here...We're just two lost souls…swimming in a fish bowl…year after year....running over the same old ground. What have we found? The same old fears…..Pink Floyd

[Steve Roesler]

Hi there, Ellen,

Glad it struck a chord. Since this deals in part with limitations, I am wondering if there are also brain-based references that would be helpful to readers.(?)

[Steve Roesler]

Joe,

Your sentence--"It is all about how much people are allowed to experience"--hit home with me. "Organizational permission" is a phrase that is unfolding in my mind (what little there is of it at this hour). I wonder if that phrase would be useful to help organizations think more deliberately about it--as well as the metaphor?

As for "Orgqarium"--you may be on to something. Will head toward the U.S. Patent Office site shortly.

And do touch base with Nettie. She is delightful in addition to being knowledgeable.

[Steve Roesler]

Gee, Peter, there must be a great deal of disappointment and sadness surrounding the situation at the aquarium in Atlanta.

There certainly is a lot more going on in the fishbowls of life than meet the eye. I'm thinking that if we can keep the water clear--at minimum--it would promote some of the real transparency to which you refer.

Now, to the iTunes Pink Floyd playlist...

[Karin H.]

Hi Steve

(your "Swim with the Sharks" link is missing its link I'm afraid)

The right size fish-tank reminds me of the wonderful publications of the Gallup organisation: strength finder etc, specially item one on personal traits. When that is 'catered' for items 2 and 3 will automagically follow IMHO

Karin H

[Nettie Hartsock]

Thank you much Steve, I just realized you put a link to me and shared such a kind writeup on your blog. Much appreciated!

[Steve Roesler]

Hey, Karin, thanks for the heads up about the link. It's now fixed.

Yes indeed. This is certainly aligned with strengths.

[Steve Roesler]

Nettie, no problem--much-deserved.