Do you have enough innovative and rebellious profiles in your organization?

“The conformist adapts to the world. The rebellious person persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on rebellious people.”

George Bernard Shaw

Adapting to change in companies

The ability of companies to anticipate and adapt to change It is a fundamental condition for survival in a world as uncertain and changing as the current one. There are companies that perceive changes and are able to adapt, and there are others that do not, or think that everything can be fixed by applying the same old practices with a few small adjustments. The former will be able to transform themselves and turn new challenges into opportunities to grow and progress, the latter will simply become irrelevant.

The Rebel: A Creative and Innovative Person

Ultimately, innovation is a matter of people, there are people who quickly accept new ideas and new challenges, and are able to abandon their previous way of thinking and adapt to the new situation, while others tenaciously cling to the prevailing dogma in the organization. Hence the importance of asking ourselves, in times of accelerated change and in the face of a future that is anything but the extrapolation of the past, whether we have enough rebels in our organization. People with a creative and innovative profile and with the gift of adapting to change.

Rebellious people They are people of ideas, positive, capable of seeing things not for what they are but for what they can become, driven to change things, and look for new possibilities. They are several steps ahead of most of their colleagues. in your organization. Most will be among the organization’s high potentials. They are risk-takers, demanding and creative, born to rebel.

Rebellious people bring courage and bravery to the organization with their way of doing things. They need to be helped to get to know the organization, how to earn the respect of others for their ideas, and how to align with corporate values and priorities so that they don’t burn out on a day-to-day basis and to ensure that their creativity is productive. Initially they require more attention than conformist people, but in my experience, the return on investment is definitely worth it.

The Cost of Compliance

Conformity at work takes many forms: modeling the behavior of others in similar roles, expressing appropriate emotions, wearing appropriate suits, routinely agreeing with the opinions of bosses, accepting team decisions without weighing the consequences, and so on…

Of course, not all conformism is bad. But the reality is that organizations pay a high price for compliance, in terms of people’s commitment, initiative, and creativity. But to succeed and evolve, organizations need to find a balance between adhering to formal and informal rules that provide the necessary structure, and the freedom people need to connect with their passions and find meaning and purpose in what they do.

That’s not surprising, since for decades the principles of command and command management have prevailed. As leaders, we’ve focused excessively on designing efficient processes and getting employees to follow the rules and minimize the risks of dissent. The point is that if as leaders we continue to attract, select, and retain similar people, we sacrifice diversity in thought and values. Over time, we end up generating a cohesive and strong culture, which can be an advantage in predictable environments, but which may be unable to adapt and thrive in changing and dynamic environments such as today’s.

In times of rapid change, compliance negatively impacts the business, making it difficult to innovate, adopt new ways of working, and develop essential skills for an uncertain future. It’s easy for people to get bored and fall into their “comfort zone,” when their job involves little variety or challenge. More troublingly, the prevalence of conformity leads us to prioritize information that supports our current beliefs and ignore information that challenges them, so we overlook things that could spur positive change and limit our ability to innovate or contribute at a higher level.

When everyone thinks alike and adheres to the prevailing norms, companies are doomed to stagnate. To combat that inertia and Driving innovation and change effectively, as leaders we need sustained original thinking in our organizations. Hence the importance of a certain number of rebellious people in the organization, their critical opinions, even when they are wrong, are useful, disrupt conformist consensus, shake up original thinking, and help organizations find new solutions to problems.

Cultivating Dissent

“Great leaders don’t just introduce original ideas into the world. They create cultures that promote originality in others” – Adam Grant

A commitment to promoting dissent is the vital element that separates a strong culture from a dangerous cult. In his new book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adan Grant explains how to recognize a good idea, speak up without being silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt. And how leaders can build cultures that welcome dissent.

When management and teams lack a robust decision-making process,
collective thinking
A common bias that afflicts teams where team members tend to conform to a prevailing opinion – leads teams to remain in a “safe” zone, dominated by one or two strong opinion leaders, leaving the organization without the ability to innovate and think strategically.

Contrary to what you may think, in his excellent book, Adam Grant, one of the youngest and highest-rated professors at The Wharton School, challenges the assumption that nonconformist innovators are all bold, risk-taking young men and women, churning out one fantastic idea after another. In fact, as countless examples show, they are often cautious, action-oriented, and results-conscious.

If an organization sincerely wants to create a persistent culture of innovation, a good strategy is to maintain an appropriate level of rebels in the organization, and provide them with the tools and methods to freely and fearlessly present constructive ideas whenever they can come up with them.

Not everyone in an organization needs to be a rebel, nor do they want to get involved in change efforts, but every organization needs rebellious men and women who have the courage, ideas, and determination to make things better. The goal is to make sure you have at least 5-10% rebels in your organization. To do this, you need to emphasize values over norms and create the context for their non-conformity to be productive. For that to happen, you need to make it safe to question the status quo, help them understand the organizational landscape, accept that sometimes it’s better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission, encourage provocative questions, create spaces for their perspectives to emerge, and challenge programs and processes that no longer make sense in a world of accelerating change.

I’d like to hear from you. Do you consider the rebels key to your organization? Do you think the management effort is worth it?