Mostly Harmless.

 

When you arrive for the first time at someones house, what do you do? Complain about the parking? Telling your host he should have smaller windows to save heat and energy? Explain him how your house is so much better?

When you conduct a project within a larger organization, an intervention, you might feel like an explorer at first. You arrive with your temporary tribe in a foreign culture. On an adventure. With maps and stuff.

What do you do?

Like the famous explorers from the old days, you can follow two strategies on arrival.

Arrive with a bang. Bring your own culture and let it shine. Brightly. And loud. Plant your own freak flag for all to see and scream your own tune from the top of your longs. This might appear hostile. Or not. It will be different for sure.

Or.

Stay low profile and try to adopt the culture of the Natives, the original inhabitants of the host organization. Be harmless. Or at least, appear harmless. Mostly harmless. And take things from there.

Plant your own flag or mix with the natives?

Now, I would start mixing with the natives first. They know the territory. They know the environment. And although you might think that you are there because the natives are too stupid to do the tasks themselves, you might want to check that first. Check that before you arrive in your big parade and get rolled in tar and feathers.

There is a huge difference between arriving on the scene  all-knowing and arriving slightly clumsy. Seem a little off-beat and charmingly clumsy makes you appear harmless. Again. Mostly harmless. You mix with the locals, but might have a small version of your freak flag pinned onto your suit.

Then you start to introduce some of your own language to the natives. Words. Phrases. You share some of your goals. And flags!

You start.

You reveal part of the culture you think is useful to the temporary tribe. Slowly. And harmless. Mostly.

The culture gets copied.

This is the power of a culture and its visible elements. Flags!

A flag for me represents a visible element of a culture that identifies that culture and the people part of the culture. Culture is encoded by a system of shared symbolic constructs. When I talk about "flags", I am talking about these things.

Boundaries are created by revealing the culture of the temporary tribe. Some people are attracted to the culture. Some aren't.

These boundaries provide a comfort zone that allows the group members to express themselves freely within the group. Enhancing the culture. Enhancing the boundaries.

And, as temporary tribes would go, after a while, they dissolve.

Leaving a legacy for the Natives.

This all starts with mixing with the locals.

I think that if you start with Your Own Parade, waving your Freak Flag, you either get kicked of the island before you can accomplish anything or have difficulties setting up your project boundaries, your protective tent.

But that is what I think.

And I am mostly harmless.
 

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.