Go out of your mind!
“When a system is in turbulence, the turbulence is not just out there in the environment, but is a part of the organization or organism that you are looking at. ~ Kevin Kelly
A couple of studies on depression caused me to think about organizations. One found that young adults diagnosed with major depressive disorder have hyper-connected brain networks, especially in the areas associated with rumination. In essence, their minds are turbulent. They run problems over and over and over again, never arriving at a solution. The other found that depression is alleviated by feeling like part of a group. Not just socializing with people, but strongly identifying with them.
Over the years, I’ve discovered those same insights within organizations. Depressed, dysfunctional ones ruminate, with the classic symptom being reports and meetings. Meetings to discuss problems. Meetings to discuss reports. Meetings to discuss meetings. All of those meetings and reports are really nothing more than collective rumination. And as rumination goes up, cognitive control goes down, strategy and execution become muddied and disconnected, and people’s energy levels inevitably drop off.
Thriving, healthy organizations are also hyper-connected, but not in their minds.
They’re connected deeply to the outside world and to each other, with a collective vision and individual purpose. They strongly identify and connect their work with their audience, and focus relentlessly on improving their lives through sustainable innovation in both product and service development. They’re curious, caring people continually searching for better ways to make a real difference in the world.
The trendiest organizational narrative right now is that everybody’s “quiet quitting,” or, according to Gallup, “not going above and beyond at work and just meeting their job description.” And that’s wonderful! Work shouldn’t take over people’s lives. It should simply be a healthy part of an exciting and fulfilling whole, which, by the way, is where I think today’s worker problem really lies.
For most people, work isn’t exciting or fulfilling. It’s depressing. People have lost interest and pleasure in their jobs because they don’t feel a sense of empowerment and connectedness—to each other and to meaningful results through their work. So if you find yourself and your organization ruminating, slow way down and engage each other deeply and meaningfully, and with the outside world. You’ll go out of your mind and, eventually, you’ll come to your senses.
Stay passionate!