Radical simply means grasping the root
The Overlap #51
The Overlap is a newsletter somewhere between product development and organizational development. It’s in your inbox every other Thursday morning.
Get a 15% discount (with the code OVERLAP) to Doing Better Work Together. It’s a gathering with folks who work on new ways of organizing. My teammates at garden3D will be doing a session!
Radical simply means “grasping things at the root.”
– Angela Davis, Women, Culture, & Politics
I came across this quote in Emergent Strategy. It got me thinking about how we use the word “radical” at work:
“We are ‘radically’ different from other companies.”
“Netflix is all about ‘radical’ transparency. We should be too.”
However, when we do something “radical”, we oftentimes do it from a place of comfort. And when we do things from a place of comfort, we don’t always grasp the root.
Here’s a common example: a newly hired leader comes in and suggests a different tool without a clear diagnosis of the root.
New leader: “We need ‘radical’ transparency in this company. We should switch over to Notion. I’ve used it before. It’s great. Look at these successful startups who use it too.”
Product manager: “Well, we’ve been using Google docs + Slack to share information and haven’t seen an issue with it. Are there any specific instances where you think a more ‘radically transparent’ approach could’ve helped us?”
New leader: “Notion is just powerful — all the information is available!”
Product manager: “Yeah I agree! But, we try to be radically transparent as a company. Where can we be even more transparent?”
The newly hired leader asks for radical transparency. They suggest a solution (Notion).
While the PM is asking for the root. They know a good strategy has a diagnosis.
The newly hired leader is not incorrect. Notion does make information transparent. They just aren’t offering a diagnosis of the problem, the root.
But that leader is familiar with Notion! It’s legible to them.
We do “radical” things from a place of legibility
We do “radical” things so that the situation can be legible. When it’s legible, we’re comforted. But we may not have actually grasped it at the root.
A newly hired leader introducing a new tool is just one example. Think about leaders who introduce OKRs for the sake of “radical focus” — but really, they’ve just used it before. Think about agile coaches who introduce scrum because they’re certified in it (that’s what they know). Think about practitioners who introduce integrative decision-making (guilty!), because that’s what they know.
Radical changes can be legible. We’re using a framework we’re used to, and that calms us. When our brains can read the situation, we feel at ease. So our brains make the situation readable.
In A Big Little Idea Called Legibility, Venkat shares many examples in history that show how making big changes among groups of people can often fall short / lead to unexpected consequences. I won’t go into his specific examples, so if you’re interested, read the post. But I wanted to pull out this quote, emphasis mine:
I suspect that what tempts us into this failure is that legibility quells the anxieties evoked by apparent chaos. There is more than mere stupidity at work.
Legibility calms our anxiety when things are chaotic. So we have to be mindful of pursuing radical changes for the sake of legibility. And truly grasp the root.
How do I grasp things at the root?
We’ve talked about how we pursue “radical” changes from a place of comfort and desiring legibility. So, how do we mitigate this and truly grasp things at the root?
I don’t know your specific context, but here are a few frameworks that have helped me:
Before solving a problem with a group, have everyone write down what they think the problem is. Then, compare. If everyone’s answers are different, that’s a sign that there isn’t alignment, and that the group can get more clear on what the problem is (and isn’t).
Bet up! Abstract the implicit goals of your team from your day-to-day work.
We can learn from changemakers
Let’s read the text that surrounds “radical simply means grasping the root.”
From Angela Davis’, Women, Culture, & Politics (1989):
In the aftermath of the Reagan era, it should be clear that there are forces in our society that reap enormous benefits from the persistent, deepening oppression of women. Members of the Reagan administration include advocates for the most racist, antiworking class, and sexist circles of contemporary monopoly capitalism. These corporations continue to prop up apartheid in South Africa and to profit from the spiraling arms race while they propose the most vulgar and irrational forms of anti-Sovietism—invoking, for example, the “evil empire” image popularized by Ronald Reagan—as justifications for their omnicidal ventures. If we are not afraid to adopt a revolutionary stance—if, indeed, we wish to be radical in our quest for change—then we must get to the root of our oppression. After all, radical simply means “grasping things at the root.” Our agenda for women’s empowerment must thus be unequivocal in our challenge to monopoly capitalism as a major obstacle to the achievement of equality.
Angela Davis asks supporters of the feminist movement to get to the root of their oppression. The root being monopoly capitalism.
I think organization designers, leaders, and internal change agents can take inspiration from Angela Davis here.
I don’t intend to say that the work an activist does is the same work an organization designer does. Far from it. Activism is a different work from org design (and if I’m honest, work that is much more impactful to society).
I just wonder what we as people who care about a better world of work can learn from changemakers like Angela Davis. The more I delve deeper into org design, the more I realize that the asymmetrical power dynamics in an organization are a microcosm of the of the asymmetrical power dynamics in society. I feel humbled when I think about this. It’s as if org design is just one small speck in the vast universe of meaningful change. Perhaps the first thing I can do is to grasp the root.
What I’m Reading/Watching
“People say you have the autonomy to decide how you’re going to do the work. And it’s like, yeah, but sometimes what you want is the autonomy to say, this is the wrong work.” Agile and the long crisis of software — thanks Brendon for the send.
Consenting to decisions. “When people consent to a decision, they are more likely to abide by it, and to move in concert with it. If the decision is forced upon them, they may (consciously or otherwise) work to subvert it.”
The Kool-Aid Factory! I’ve always been wanting to see a creative spin on org design content — bravo!
98% of Patagonia’s shares are now in Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit dedicated towards climate change.
Life after lifestyle. “The culture is now the product. But it is the product of us.”
This tweet:
See you in two weeks,
–tim