It's Not Easy Being Green. About Being Offbeat.

 

Technically you could describe a giraffe as an elephant whose trunk is its neck.

And curling is bowling on ice.

This is an important mechanism used by our brain to make sense of something new. Associate with something we do know and take it from there.

Seth Godin, the master marketer, productive author and Uber-blogger, wrote this week:

"When you launch a new idea or project into the world, you'll probably use connections to what has come before as a way to tell your story. …

Here's the thing: you can't stand out if you fit in all the way, and thus the act of deciding which part isn't going to match is the important innovation. … You can't be offbeat in all ways, because then we won't understand you and we'll reject you. …

The others... Not a little off. A lot off."

I have this workshop about Stakeholder Management, which uses "The Wizard Of Oz" as an educational vehicle. It's fun. It's effective. But not something you would find in a typical PM course. To balance with tradition I use the phrase "Stakeholder Management" instead of "Witch Hunting". And I wear a suit instead of a cape.

Just to reassure.

I write about how identity, your perception and expression of it, influences information consumption and production. And vice versa. When I put it like that, no PM is interested, although I think it is important and helpful to them.

So I put it in a different package. Project Leadership and Project Communication. Nobody knows exactly what that is about, but it is something that feels familiar. So, I'll take it from there.

I take familiar sounding themes. And write, well, weird. Or different about them.

At least. I hope you experience it like that.

The balance between offbeat and onbeat, familiar and new, is related to the balance between homogeneity and diversity in teams.

Diversity creates different viewpoints and other ways of looking at the world in general. This clash of perspectives produces creative solutions. Diversity creates resilience. Homogeneity makes sure the group operates as one.

This is creates the eternal question: how much diversity do you need and which parts shoud exactly be offbeat?

Impossible to answer. This question. Is.

Because it's the Wrong Question.

Cultural diversity can provide different interpretations of situations. The difference is upbringing, history and personal experiences shape your brain, color your views, create your filters. It’s not the cultural diversity per se that is of importance, it’s the resulting cognitive diversity that is of essence.

And I come to think that we are all way more cognitive diverse than we think.  It's a matter of our perception of our identity and the way we express it.

Because, this is the kicker … we are all outsiders. Always. We are always offbeat. Somewhere.

As Havi Brooks explains this brilliantly in a post called "The clan of the outsiders":


"My father likes to call himself the white sheep in his family because the rest of them are all eccentric nutjobs. Which they are. But the truth is that he is also an eccentric nutjob.

In fact, more eccentric than the rest of them and at least as much nutjob.

My brother and I also have equal claim in our family to the dubious role of the odd man out. Or sheep. Whatever.

In fact, pretty much everyone I know self-defines as “other”, “different”, “weird” or “crazy”.

Even the people who seem to me to epitomize normal and well-adjusted are totally caught up in their own personal dramas about how they’ve always been different."


If the surroundings are comfortable and safe enough (that is the cohesion/homogeneous part) we are more likely to express our identity and embrace our identity, and that takes care of the cognitive diversity part.

It's not just a matter of team selection. It's a matter of creating comfortable and safe organizational environments.

So in the end, it's all about optical illusions. We need to find something familiar to be reassured that all is safe and comfortable. And then, only then, are we ready for new things.

Familiar.
Safe.
Associate.
Small Step.
Breath.
Getting comfortable in new.
Getting familiar in new.
Safe.
 

Bas de Baar is a writer who draws about people in transition. He loves to make visual maps and travel guides for the collaborators of our brave new world.