I've been thinking about zombies.

The initial thought came to me while watching World War Z on an airplane last year. What struck me was how deep Oscar Wilde's enigmatic question really was; ‘does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?’ You see, I've been wondering why all the interest in zombies?  I think it might have something to do with our collective focus on individualism. In short we live in a world more and more focused on me protecting myself and my small band of family and friends from hostile forces who might look like me and mine, but we know deep down are really bloodthirsty creatures who wish only to take everything from me.

Does that sound familiar? Some comments from our neighbours to the south on gun control are indicative: 'the lives of your children do not trump my right to protect myself and my family with a gun'. http://barbwire.com/2014/05/27/open-letter-parents-victims-murdered-elliot-rodger/   An extreme case, yes, but an indicator nonetheless. You see, we all know that zombies do not exist, and yet all too often we seem to fall into a dangerous trap of objectifying the people with whom we disagree.  Eventually sometimes making them the equivalent of zombies to us and our family and friends. For example, in oil and mining exploration and pipelines we have people of both sides describing each other as “stupid”, “uneducated”, or worse we simply ignore them as humans and run roughshod over top of them. For example, I’ve heard in meetings recently,” just ask the First Nations what their price is and we’ll pay it.”  This might in fact be similar to saying to Roman Catholics, we want to run a pipeline through the Vatican, just give us a price.

And the same Zombie mentality is true of us as leaders in our team or department; are there zombies in the organization from your perspective? Could it be that accounting are zombies? Or HR, or maybe there are one or two people “no one likes” on your team. Be very careful of treating them as zombies and creating us and them situations. Instead, reach out, find common ground, talk things through, honouring each other’s perspectives and the potential to learn from and with each other.

Because, in fact, zombies do not exist.

Well, I hope that those of you in Canada had a wonderful long weekend. It certainly was for me. We got lots done on the opening of the cottage front and I discovered a lemon meringue pie gelato that will be the death of me, I’m quite sure! And I found myself reflecting on how important everyday people are in our society, and sadly, how often we leave so much of the work to elites, pundits and self-described experts. Perhaps it’s related to our conversation last week about the death of the “great man model”? In the midst of all of our connectivity, our ability to be connected to each other across vast distances, we seem to be leaving the important work on issues to others. It's like we have a collective sense that some things are “above our pay grade” as they say in spy movies.

But there is very good news in the coming generation; the group Romeo Dallaire, who I heard speak on Friday, describe as the ‘global generation’. These are a generation of people who are in fact connected with each other in ways their parents are not; connected digitally across vast distances. Now one challenge is that they, like their parents still seem to group together with like minds; the progressives, the conservatives, the goths and the punks. But there is a ray of hope that we might find a generation that can bridge divides of culture, if not of geography.

From a leadership perspective, I urge those of us not yet online to get connected digitally. Follow people on Twitter, connect on Facebook, get connected on Linked In and start to talk with each other across generations and cultures. We may not always agree, but we’ll certainly learn something new. I especially urge you to also get interesting Apps on your smart phone or tablet; Al Jazzeera for example has a great news app that will give you an often different perspective on the news. And if you’re a progressive, follow a conservative Twitter, and vice versa. Perhaps then we can move away from leaving decisions to the elites,  pundits, and self-describe experts, and return to learning and deciding for ourselves.

I’ve been thinking about competition recently. I recall many years ago being part of an organization that had “sales competitions” ostensibly to motivate us to increase our sales revenues and productivity. What I learned was that I was not competitive in that sense. Simply getting the revenue was not compelling enough for me, even if we got to name our teams and we had a fun race course on the wall, I was hungry for something else to push my competition buttons. For example, competition that includes folks who might not be as good at a particular skill, but still included in the ‘game’. Or at another end of the spectrum, competition in an election where what I see as important issues are at stake, I’m engaged.

But that is just me. There are loads of people for whom increasing the revenues is goal enough and they really enjoy themselves in that world. One of our challenges as leaders is when we start to assume that simply because my idea of competition makes sense to me that it is the normative way of competing.

What is interesting though is that competition, even in small amounts, seems to be one of the drivers of human behaviour. The question is, given the wide dispersal of how we humans respond, how do leaders use ‘competition’ within the culture to increase productivity? First, you’ll need to be aware of the culture of the organization. There is an oft told story from Vancouver of how Jimmy Pattison runs his car businesses. Each month, the salesperson who has sold the least number of cars is fired. That is one way of using competition, and Pattison’s business success is not to be ignored. And it’s how the culture of the Pattison Group has evolved over the years. So, once you’re clear about the organization’s culture, where are you and where are your team? Are you inside the culture, or are you outliers? For example, if the culture is far more about looking after patients in a hospital or teaching primary school, perhaps there needs to be a more co-operative model than Pattison’s in place in that culture. If you and your group are more motivated by the Pattison model, and are therefore outliers in a more co-operative arena, are there some places where you can create a more competitive environment in that workplace?  Are there games that can be set up within your group?  The key is in knowing your culture and knowing your co-workers, one size does not fit all.

If there is one thing I have learned over the years, competition is great, but make sure the playing field is level and that everyone is enjoying the game!

May this week be a week for enjoying the game, for each of us.

Good morning from Vancouver, where the birds are singing, the air is warm and the flowers are actually wilting a little under the sun this week. I was thinking this morning about the coming long weekend. A long awaited visit to my partner’s home on the Sunshine Coast is on the horizon. And I know that those fortunate enough to own in cottage country north of Toronto will be heading up there this weekend for the annual opening of the season. Summer is just around the corner!

Here in Canada, the Monday of this long weekend is called Victoria Day, in honour of the 19th Century Queen and Empress. Our culture often honours individual achievement, and we have this narrative about how wonderful Queen Victoria was; she was strong courageous and willful. There is a great story of her, as a new 19 year old Queen in a breakfast meeting with the Prime Minister of the day, Lord Melbourne. (And yes he’s the guy Melbourne the city in the great state of Victoria, Australia is named for!) Into the breakfast room comes her mother who promptly sits down for breakfast. The Prime Minister says to the Queen Mother, something like, “begging your pardon Ma’am, but the Queen and I are in a meeting.” The Queen Mother says something like, “don’t be silly Lord Melbourne, I’m her mother, she may need me.” Victoria, turns to her mother and says, “The Queen and her Prime Minister are in a meeting. You are excused.”

Those are the kinds of stories that we often love to hear, the power of the individual asserting herself. It is a great story. And yet, in actual fact Victoria, like all ‘great’ leaders was not entirely alone. Even in that story, she was backed up by Melbourne. One of the things I’ve been very aware of in recent months is the fact that “the great man” or “great woman” model of leadership is fundamentally flawed. We are never really alone in our leadership. Yes there are times when the proverbial buck stops here and we are called upon to make a decision. But even then, we are making decisions based on the data we receive from others. 

This is even more true now as technology advances and challenges each of us and our organizations to ramp up, or move over. We cannot survive without each other; learning with each other, challenging each other, collaborating and cooperating with each other. As I’ve been reflecting on this fact, I was reminded of a great quote from late in 2012 from American Sen. Elizabeth Warren:

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there - good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory... Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea - God bless! Keep a hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

From a leadership perspective, we may need to be reminded, ‘there is no one leader who got to be leader on their own’. Once again, it’s not all about me, it’s all about us.