Seth's Blog: Sheepwalking:

In this post, Seth mentioned that he was afraid some might perceive its message as too harsh. He's coined the term sheepwalking to describe the practice of blind adherence to the type of corporate culture that looks no further than the status quo in making decisions and executing virtually identical plans year after year.

Culture and deliberate design conspire to create a culture of conformity. Critical thinking, perhaps the single most important thing we can teach is increasingly ignored. Sheepwalking perpetuates stagnation.

The two examples really jumped out of the post. The first was the story about the woman who had planned her career by an arbitrary perceived corporate timetable as though there were some magical "ten year" ticket that could be punched to show she could pass to the next phase.

The second, and more disturbing, was the reported signs of sheepwalking among the Google salesreps. It's somewhat of a paradox that being remarkable can become somewhat expected of companies. Staying remarkable becomes even more challenging as entities grow and stakeholders' interests diverge.

The post is longer than Seth's usual style, but worth the read. I believe many sheeple know deep down that they would rather be following a different plan, but let fear, uncertainty and doubt stop them from making it happen. They flock in cubicle farms, sometimes straying briefly in pursuit of a remarkable idea, but are returned to the flock by corporate managers wielding the staff of risk.

Here's a quick way to discover if you might be a sheepwalker.

Ask yourself, "What would happen if???" Ask yourself if you could, can or do ask that question when making decisions and plans in your organization and use the answer to drive positive change.

If the answer is yes, keep up the great work.

If the answer is no and you think that's OK, enjoy your bureaucracy.

If you're not sure, try asking the question to see what happens. You might start a trend.

Or deep down, you already know your culture values conformity over creativity. You may know that your culture hates to rock the boat with questions. You may have already tried questioning and decided it's not worth it. You know you're missing out on growth but it's easier to sheepwalk along?

If you know that questions and dialogue drive improvement, and questioning is not in your corporate culture, why are you?

What would happen if you explored the alternatives?