All about me!

My first post; and not a thought directly about projects, but it does touch: the principle is the same.

An article on Strategy and Business The Discipline of Managing Disruption by Clayton Christensen (a Harvard Business School 'professor'; in Australia this probably means 'lecturer') says it all: all about 'me', that is.

This article, like much of the rhetoric about 'leadership' emphasises the one at the expense of the 'community of action' which is the company. So how does a company; a community of action, stay fresh and resilient in the face of market changes (read 'project changes')? The challenge is to cultivate difference whereas most groups gravitate to similarity. So a sentinel of danger in any company is entrenched similarity: the company then ends up working for itself, and demonstrates this by creating a culture of conformity: language, ideas, personal style, and even personalities that are brought into the company gravitate to a modal identity: difference, and therefore innovation, are bred out. The company ends up being unable to tolerate difference, and undifferentiates itself out of its market, which, as an engine of difference, forges into the future.