I generally have a low regard for most organisational “cultures”. My favourite definition is that the culture is what’s left after you’ve explained everything else. I’m convinced that organisations are, consciously or not, designed to waste talent, discourage creativity and foster unquestioning obedience among the workforce.

There are exceptions, of course, but most senior managers are terrified of losing control. Anything that smacks of anarchy is a threat. Their pervading belief is that people and processes must be controlled if they are to operate effectively. Their maxim is “people do what’s checked, not what you expect”.

This yearning for control is, of course, largely illusionary. It is impossible for managers, particularly senior ones, to really know what’s going on. The information they are fed is both selective and laundered. Despite this, they like to feel that they’re in touch and that, when they tell someone what to do, it will be done. But people further down the hierarchy always decide what work is actually done.

I approve of things that, by and large, organisations dread – eg, empowerment, assertiveness, experimentation, self-managed learning and self-development. The key is to urge individuals to take more responsibility – to get the downtrodden, harassed people in organisations to see that they have more room for manoeuvre and more opportunity to take the initiative than they might imagine.

You should encourage them to do the following things:
• Seek clarification instead of bemoaning the fact that you’re left in the dark.
• Solicit feedback instead of grumbling that you lack it.
• Go ahead and do something that needs doing until someone tells you to stop.
• Speak up assertively instead of acquiescing.
• Make and take opportunities instead of expecting them to be handed to you.
• Suggest ways in which processes could be improved instead of settling for the status quo.
• Take responsibility for your own learning and development instead of expecting someone else to do it for you.

I believe that such acts invariably make a difference for the better. The gamble is that senior managers will discover that responsible people aren’t as threatening as they feared. You never know: they might even learn to welcome such behaviour.