What conditions are you creating? Part 1 of 3
When I started Basecamp 3 years ago, most organizations that contacted us were interested in project-based change.
In the midst of COVID-19, everyone realizes that they need to undertake systemic change—which is less about specific projects and more about conditions.
This article from Farnam Street names three macro conditions for leaders to consider as they envision transforming their organizations to survive COVID-19 and thrive in the post-COVID world.
The first of those conditions is the social infrastructure.
The question of social infrastructure is not, “Do we have people here who can work creatively?” Every organization has Innovators and Early Adopters (usually about 15% of an organization). Those are psychographics, not demographics.
The real question of social infrastructure is: Do your creative people work within conditions that allow them to create new things and test them?
Imagine that good ideas are seeds and that social infrastructure is soil. Then consider four possibilities:
Throw seeds onto cement and you’ll get nothing.
Throw seeds onto rocky soil and they’ll briefly take root, but quickly die.
Throw seeds onto fertile soil and the seed will take deep root. However, fertile soil can’t save those plants from pests and weeds.
Throw seeds onto fertile soil and make sure that gardeners eliminate pests and weeds, and a beautiful garden will grow.
What infrastructure conditions are you creating around your change makers?
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