My ideal modern organization has different characters on the payroll. If there is a payroll. These are three of them
1. The craftsman
Perhaps nobody better than Richard Sennett (Sociology, LSE, Humanities New York) has described it. Himself a good craftsman of ideas, he explains the traits: skills and care to make things well, not necessarily for its immediate utilitarian reasons, with focus on detail, perhaps on beauty, or perfection, whether in a pottery workshop or a lab. What distinguishes them most is their motivation for life time learning. I imagine strategy making as a craft, more pottery than spreadsheets. I have been using the term ‘crafting’ for many moons. I hope that the use of the language makes me be one.
2. The entrepreneur
They create things, not necessarily from zero, but look for alternatives, try, experiment and above all take risks. The term is associated with taking initiative. A passive entrepreneur checking in from 9 to 5 is an oxymoron. I want entrepreneurs on the payroll. I imagine a company of entrepreneurs, and its leadership with the sole goal of creating space for them. I imagine the question ‘how many employees do you have?’ changed into ‘how many entrepreneurs do you have?’
3. The activist
Which includes the word ‘act’. Therefore not Wait-ivists, Later-ivists or once-we-have-aligned-all-stakeholders-ivists. They understand the imperative of action; the concept of ‘agency’: take control, be in charge of destiny, express themselves. For the activist, permission was never granted, it was always taken.
OK, three more tomorrow.