5.5

AIMING HIGHER

As managers we are too easily satisfied. If it were otherwise, we'd be working harder to counterbalance the ideology of control. While most of us aren't entirely content with the way our organizations work, neither are we outraged. We're not incensed by the poisonous politicking, the squandered creativity, the debilitating cynicism, the ignoble values, the ethical shortcuts, the executive egomania, and the strategic myopia that infect our organizations—or at least we're not sufficiently incensed to cry, “Enough!” and commit ourselves to creating something better.

We also seem disinclined to dream. Most of us have yet to be captivated by an alluring vision of organizations that are impassioned, meritocratic, open, boisterous, convivial, invigorating, and fun! In this regard, we suffer from an imagination deficit. Like a zoo–born lion that knows only its cage, we can't imagine the sweet grasses and blue vistas of an organizational savannah where human beings are actually free to flourish.