To run a great organization, the first thing you need is to be lead not by a sociopath, but someone who is Kegan 5. Then you need sociopath repellent.
The Gervais principle works on the fact that at the bottom, the losers see what the sociopaths are doing and opt-out, finding enjoyment elsewhere. The clueless, in the middle, believe the stories the sociopaths are telling them and hold the party line. The sociopaths, at the top, are infighting and trying to use the organization to get their own needs met.
In a good organization, the people at the top are Kegan 5. They have varying rules and models in their head for how the organization should act, and they use this as a best guess for the VALUES the organization should have, given the current environment—IE, they do their best to synthesize their varying models into a legible set of rules that will achieve their terminal goals (which, because they’re Kegan 5, aren’t pure solipsism)
The reason that they need to do this distillation process is that they need something that works for the Kegan 3′s and Kegan 4′s. The Kegan 4′s SHARE the terminal goal of the Kegan 5 (or some more simplified version of it), and believe in the values and mission of the organization as the ONE TRUE WAY to achieve that goal.
Because the rules of the organization are set up to be legible and reward actions that actually help the terminal goal, the Kegan 3′s can get their belonging and good vibes in highly legible, easy ways that are simple to understand before them. Notice now that the 3′s, 4′s, and 5′s are all aligned, working towards the same ends instead of fighting each other.
Two important things about the values, mission, and rules of the organization.
1. The values must have sincere opposites that you could plausibly use for real decision making, otherwise they don’t help the Kegan 3′s and disillusion the Kegan 4s. You can’t run an organization or make decisions based on “being unproductive” so “productivity” isn’t a valid goal. You can make decisions that tradeoff short term productivity for long term productivity, so “move fast and break things” is a valid value, as is “Move slowly and plan carefully.”
2. Anyone should be able to apply the values to anyone else. If “Give critical feedback ASAP, and receive it well” is a value, then the CEO should be willing to take feedback from the new mail clerk. As soon as this stops being the case, the 3′s get look for their validation elsewhere, and the 4′s get disillusioned.
RUNNING GOOD ORGANIZATIONS
Framing the Gervais principle in terms of Kegan:
Losers—Kegan 3
Clueless—Kegan 4
Sociopaths—Kegan 4.5
To run a great organization, the first thing you need is to be lead not by a sociopath, but someone who is Kegan 5. Then you need sociopath repellent.
The Gervais principle works on the fact that at the bottom, the losers see what the sociopaths are doing and opt-out, finding enjoyment elsewhere. The clueless, in the middle, believe the stories the sociopaths are telling them and hold the party line. The sociopaths, at the top, are infighting and trying to use the organization to get their own needs met.
In a good organization, the people at the top are Kegan 5. They have varying rules and models in their head for how the organization should act, and they use this as a best guess for the VALUES the organization should have, given the current environment—IE, they do their best to synthesize their varying models into a legible set of rules that will achieve their terminal goals (which, because they’re Kegan 5, aren’t pure solipsism)
The reason that they need to do this distillation process is that they need something that works for the Kegan 3′s and Kegan 4′s. The Kegan 4′s SHARE the terminal goal of the Kegan 5 (or some more simplified version of it), and believe in the values and mission of the organization as the ONE TRUE WAY to achieve that goal.
Because the rules of the organization are set up to be legible and reward actions that actually help the terminal goal, the Kegan 3′s can get their belonging and good vibes in highly legible, easy ways that are simple to understand before them. Notice now that the 3′s, 4′s, and 5′s are all aligned, working towards the same ends instead of fighting each other.
Two important things about the values, mission, and rules of the organization.
1. The values must have sincere opposites that you could plausibly use for real decision making, otherwise they don’t help the Kegan 3′s and disillusion the Kegan 4s. You can’t run an organization or make decisions based on “being unproductive” so “productivity” isn’t a valid goal. You can make decisions that tradeoff short term productivity for long term productivity, so “move fast and break things” is a valid value, as is “Move slowly and plan carefully.”
2. Anyone should be able to apply the values to anyone else. If “Give critical feedback ASAP, and receive it well” is a value, then the CEO should be willing to take feedback from the new mail clerk. As soon as this stops being the case, the 3′s get look for their validation elsewhere, and the 4′s get disillusioned.
Two good examples of values: Principles by Ray Dalio, The Scribe Culture Bible
The role of the Kegan 5 in this organization is twofold:
1. Reinvent the rules and mission of the organization as the landscape changes, and frame them in a way that makes sense to the kegan 3 and 4s.
2. Notice when sociopaths are arbitraging the difference between the rules and the terminal goals, and shut it down.
Short Form Feed is getting too long. Next time, I’ll wrote more about Sociopath repellent.