Corporations: Up a Tree

Ever used a really big software package? You know, an SAP or Peoplesoft? If you are a software junkie then you end-up continually frustrated. The code is bloated and convoluted and just plain overly complex. The software junkie compares the 1K lines of code they developed to solve the same problem that the big, bad software does with 1M and start to wonder “How can anybody buy this junk?"

Think about it long and hard enough and you will probably come to the decision that people are just dumb. Dumb management hires dumb people to make dumb products that dumb users break and call dumb customer service reps to ask dumb questions and get dumb answers. It is a field day for the cynic.

Problem is, your conclusion will be wrong. There just aren’t enough dumb people in the world to explain all the dumb things that go on inside of organizations. Even if you buy into a dystopian vision of greedy idiots scaling the corporate ladder to inflict pain and suffering on millions of employees and customers, you have to wonder why so many employees and customers stick around with so many options at their fingertips. Easy (you say): they don’t know they have options or they are scared.

COProbably not. Sure, there are dopes that haunt the halls of corporate America, and there does seem to be a perverse logic to the competence of people they higher they rise in an organization. But more than likely all this silly software (and silly decision making that leads to silly software) is good people pursuing the course of action that is most likely to let them survive for just one more day.

Why, oh why do they do this? There are lots of explanations, but let’s try biology on for size: you have a biological entity no more advanced than your average chimp (give-or-take an opposable thumb or two) and you give that primate a really big brain. The chimp knows that if you want to survive on the plains you run at the slightest sign of danger and look to get it on with whatever comes your way. This is the best way to keep your species humming along. Now the brain comes in and builds technology that creates safety specializations like guns and police officers and defense departments and all of a sudden the best decision is usually calm, cool reason. But reason doesn’t have a chance against run-and-fun monkey-man. You gotta pass through the part of the brain that says “Run you fool, run!” to get to the part that says “If we build a wall here then the predators can’t get us.” If there is no immediate threat you can dream big. But once you become prey big dreams go the way of big ideals.

As conscious intelligent beings we look at the disaster that is everyday corporate life and say “My goodness, only idiocy could possibly lead to this kind of mindless agenda-setting, back-stabbing, lying and cheating!” You feel good and smug and properly cynical and understand that your intellect has lead to a superior analysis: the mendacity of the general public is killing corporate America.

As you walk back to your comfortable cube and the cool glow of the fluorescent lights your boss catches you. “Hey genius” says the boss, “we have to cut one of two projects – yours or Jane’s. Get back to me with your thoughts on this.”

At this your rational brain shrinks to the size of a pea and Mr. Runandfun takes its rightful place in the control booth of your neo-cortex. Sure, your project may not create half the value of Jane’s, but you have been through a job search before and it is not pretty. Your spouse will kill you, the kids will disown you. Panic! This is survival here and you are not about to be the one that gets eaten. Time to get your ass into a tree and let Jane take the lion’s teeth.

In corporate America “getting into the tree” looks like “Don’t participate in decisions that make you a target.” Decisions like “Let’s rip out all that useless code that those old departments used to use because it makes our code buggy” or “Let’s build software for users instead of buyers!”

It is unfortunate but true, but for a great many employees in corporate America the unique talents and capabilities most human beings posses are a distant second to your basic biological ability to be the first up the tree of safety. The Street and the Banks put your CEO running for the braches, and that principle works all the way down to you. If the big dogs look like a snack to the hungry financial predators, then you are a veritable smorgasbord. We all know what runs down hill, and it ain’t good will and common sense.

Given this system, where the ability to evaluate risk as a conscious and rational process is a biological dud compared to the ability to save one’s derriere, it is easy to see why people would do things they know to be wrong (as in “this is stupid” not as in “this is morally repugnant”). Put another way, the downside of failure in most organizations is far greater than the reward for success, so you don’t go around fighting battles over stuff that can only get you fired.

And this is why you get bad software, and bad service and bad corporate behavior. Yes, there is greed and there is clearly thought-out bad behavior to screw the shareholder and the employee in order to feather one’s own nest. But this really is rare. There are millions of corporate transactions every day, and you hear about one or two. The odds of truly monstrous behavior are small. Most people are good souls trying to survive. Mores the pity that they could be adding a lot of value, but instead they are keeping their heads down and hoping they don’t get called into the boss’s office. They want to be as close to the tree as possible.

Looked at in this way there is a fundamental battle for the soul of corporate America: the CFO vs. the head of HR. Assuming that your head of HR isn’t the CFO’s henchman (which is an all-too common occurrence), the reality is that HR should be trying to bust a system that penalizes creative thought and out-of-the-box problem solving while the CFO is doing everything they can to further it, because that’s how they deliver predictable results to the Street and the Bankers. HR should want us all out there on the plains, going as far and wide as we can to find new sources of food, new populations to mix with and new habitats to populate, all while the CFO lions pounce on the few stragglers that dare to go out and explore.

There are fantastic CFO’s who understand that the only possibility they have of generating long-term success for their shareholders is to tap into the inherent talents of each and every one of their employees, to unleash them to roam. These CFO’s understand that their true value is to keep the predators happy without making the employees prey. And there are (many) leaders of HR who think that their jobs are merely to adhere to regulation, figuring out new and innovative ways of getting rid of employees without getting sued, all while dreaming up the most fantastic company events. But until we get more of the former and fewer of the latter we are unlikely to see a fundamental change in the products we use, the service we receive and the jobs that we inhabit. We will all be doomed to use bad software, and that’s the dumbest thing of all.