This is not one of those articles on how women in the workplace need to be more out for themselves, blow their trumpets louder and talk themselves up … just like the guys do. Not to diminish the importance of those attributes, but this is about an entirely different selfishness. (We’ll get to being ‘less smart’ in due course).
It is about having a selfish mindset, not about acting selfish. After all, human beings have got the acting selfish thing pretty much mastered. For humankind, selfish is not merely a character trait but a survival skill. What other species would have conceived of sending a canary into a mine to test the air quality? Or for that matter, conceived a ‘Praegustator’, someone from your own species who tests the food for poison. The current President is rumoured to have one, although of course the White House will neither confirm, nor deny.
Certainly we all have moments of selflessness, although if we bother to dig a little deeper into them, there is always something in it for us. From pride, self worth and popularity to feeling important, capable, superior, women are naturally selfish.
What this really means is, if we want career success (a selfish ambition), we need to spend more time thinking about what’s in it for our colleagues, rather than what’s in it for us. We need to spend more time speaking about how companies with diverse boards outperform those that are less diverse. Have more conversations around the looming workforce shortage. The McKinsey Global Institute projects that employers in advanced economies will likely demand 16-18 million more workers with tertiary education by 2020 than their labour markets are likely to have. We need more discussion on the connection economy and how women are naturally adept in this new style of doing business. These are some of the selfish reasons for heads of business to promote women… not the nice ones.
Next we need to start thinking less smart, or stupid even. For years we have held the smart and diligent employee up as the model employee. But perhaps that ‘perfect’ employee is not as good a choice for that promotion as we think. Diligent employees are great at doing exactly what they should. That is the fundamental issue, they tend not to question, agitate or innovate. They do exactly what is expected of them, they follow systems and protocols. But therein lies the problem… they follow them… they don’t challenge them.
All progress is built on looking for different ways, usually easier ways. Thinking stupid is about finding the simplest, easiest way to get the desired result. Being less smart means looking for a less challenging way, one that does not require as much effort. Being less smart is about having a minimum effort, maximum result mindset.
Being less smart is also about engineering our businesses and teams to succeed by making failure difficult. By designing for our less than stellar moments, rather than just for our best days. Yet too often our workplaces have been engineered with the latter in mind. We act as if we are all engaged, motivated and brilliant, all of the time. Instead we need to be less smart and design as if our people are disengaged, de-motivated and stupid; Which means making our workplaces more fun, our processes more natural and working more with who people are and less with who we wish they would be. If we want people to be less sedentary, we need to put more stairs in the middle of our offices and place the printers further away, if we want our staff to eat better we could offer free salads at lunchtime. If we want our staff to do their time-sheets we should bonus them for their completion.
This is the genius of stupidity and we need more of it in our workplaces.
Published by WILEY, Kieran’s new book Selfish, Scared & Stupid is co-authored by Dan Gregory and is available from in paperback RRP $25.95 from www.selfishscaredandstupid.com.