A Message From An Ancestor

Those of us who run organizations these days are intent on getting things done effectively and efficiently. We owe a debt to an unidentified, unsung and maybe mythical ancestor – the ‘boss’ of a prehistoric hunting party who discovered the value of the campfire. Not for its warmth, or for the safety it provided from the wilderness. The insight of our archetypical leader is that the campfire is critical for a successful hunt.

Our prehistoric leader noticed that when sitting around the campfire, his band of hunters was in a rather relaxed and reflective state of mind - much different from the focused frenzy of the hunt’s activities. Sometimes, once in a while, they got to talking about important things – like how well the hunt went that day, what the future (tomorrow’s hunt, or next week’s, or next season’s) might hold in store, and how they could do a better job of bringing home the mammoth (or whatever meat they were after). They honored and celebrated the accomplishments of the members of the band. They talked about their desires and dreams and strengths and weaknesses. They related stories (some from their recent hunts, some from their history and mythology) that helped them put the good and bad events of the day into perspective. They laughed, and sometimes were silent, and sometimes were passionate and animated. He found they could disagree, sometimes even strongly or harshly, but they never left angry. He also found that it didn’t matter who was talking - everybody listened, and that everyone talked and listened until there was nothing left to say. He found they left feeling more confident in their ability to succeed together.

Our leader all knew this was good, but the insight came when he realized that things went better on the hunt for a few days after they had one of these campfire sessions. Less confusion. Better performance. More creativity. More mammoth meat on the table.

Being a wise leader, (defined here as one who observes, tries things, and learns) he noticed a rhythm to it – as long as they had a good campfire discussion once every moon or so, things went well. Any longer than that, and people lost their focus and direction, and as a consequence everybody in the tribe went a little hungry. Any more frequently than that, and his hunters got bored and fell asleep in front of the fire or started throwing food at each other. So he started to make sure his hunting band had that campfire discussion every moon or so.

Well, one day our leader perished when an errant mammoth-tusk found its way past his spear-thrower. He was buried with ceremony and honor. Soon after it got real cold, and his body was frozen in its grave.

Only to be uncovered thousands of years later by a team of paleogeologists (there are such people) who had the technology to clone him from a little frozen DNA.

And since he was a wise man, he lived happily ever after (again). At his retirement dinner from Microsoft he made the following comments, when asked how he succeeded in two different epochs of man:

“Well, there’s not much difference between leading a hunting band and leading a software development group. Sure, the technology is different, but the goal is really the same - to achieve results effectively and efficiently. You ‘homo sapiens’ types do pretty well at this, but you struggle more than you need to.

“I notice that some of your organizations die prematurely, as do some of you. Believe me, I know about dying prematurely. I bit the dust the first time because of the confusion and chaos of the hunt. You folks tend to die from less obvious things, and sometimes you just die inside and keep on working, but it’s from the same thing – stress and confusion and being without direction and a sense of being part of a bigger thing – whatever the hunt is. You die from being alone and isolated and disconnected – from not breathing, and not connecting. Your organizations die because of this, too.

“I think I know why. It’s because with all these fancy and complex machines and rules and organizations, you make the mistake of believing you can lead your people like you run your machines. I have no idea where you got this notion from. Maybe it comes from hundreds of years of obsessing with the ‘cause and effect’ mechanics of machines. I think this perspective is dangerous now, and always has been, and there’s a lot of implications to it. But tonight I want you to focus on one thing.

“Hunting parties and businesses are both made up of people, and people need to breathe – individually and collectively. There’s a rhythm to life, and a rhythm to work. Sometimes you need to be going flat out to get things done, and other times you need to take a step back, reflect, reconnect, come together. Sit around the campfire.

“Are you, as leaders, willing to let your organizations breathe?

“This is your struggle, as I think most of you need so much to be in control that deep down you are fearful of hearing the disagreement, conflict, good news, bad news that you hear when you let people talk.

“What are you afraid of? After all, there’s nothing to lose in sitting at the campfire. You are the boss, and people are just talking. And who knows, you may learn something, if you learn to listen to the wisdom of your hunters (I mean, employees).

“How often do you need a campfire? It depends. How fast is your business changing? How much are you under the gun for results? The more of these, the more often you may need to ‘sit in the circle’, as we hunters like to say. Where are you in the pyramid? The higher up you are, the more your circles might be longer in length, but with more time in between them. And sometimes you need to have a talk with the band, because the unexpected has happened, or just because as a leader your intuition tells you to.

“I know that some of you are thinking that you can’t afford the time to sit around the campfire, or that this is all saber-tooth tiger crap. Take it from me. It’s not. I know. That mammoth tusk that got me in my previous life didn’t have to slip through. We had the best hunters and the best intentions. We even had a plan. But on that day, the plan didn’t work. Deep down, I knew it wouldn’t – we were sloppy and unfocused the day before. I really wish we’d talked about that over the campfire.

“ So, as I retire for the second and less traumatic time, I challenge you to find the rhythm of your organization’s worklife, and give your people the opportunity to breathe and connect. And when you are at the campfire, preparing for whatever hunt you are going on tomorrow, remember these simple rules:

“Everybody is an equal in the circle, and will be heard.
“ Everybody is intensely curious about what others say, and why they say it.
“ No one disrespects the voice of others.
“ Say what needs to be said. Listen to what needs to be listened to.
“ This isn’t about you, but be clear about your own interests and opinions
“ Be passionate about what matters for the whole.

“I hope you hear this message. I may be old, but I’m smart. What was true millennia ago is true here and now, because we all are human (sapiens or Neanderthal).

“Thank you. I think I’ll go cool down a bit.”