Boy - does this ever ring true.
I think we make a big mistake when we use terms like counterculture and rebel and deviant loosely. They've had it as terms. Defunct. Finito. Past their sell-by-date.Because every time we do that, we paint a big red X across the backs of the people we so describe and put the firm's immune system on full alert. And the rebels are toast. Which is often a shame. Because they weren't rebels. Or deviants. Or counterculture whatevers. They were doing their job. Trying to find a better way of doing things. [In a strange way, I think that Malcolm's feeling for consultants is related. When a "consultant" finds a better way of doing things firms roll out the green carpet, papered with spondulicks; when someone in the organisation quietly does the same thing, he's a deviant…]
Confused Of Calcutta » Blog Archive » On rebels and deviants and counterculturalsAlthough I'm not sure it's even about explicit labelling - which at least gives you (being the rebel in question) something tangible to tangle with. Implicit labelling is probably even more pernicious and, as there's nothing overt, harder to fight against. [tags]internal, corporate, culture[/tags]
Leave a comment