Recently I had the opportunity to lunch and celebrate the New Year with a former professor of mine, Marilyn Hamilton, whom I met while doing my graduate work. I have  enormous respect for Marilyn and realized I was absolutely pumped following our lunch together. She has become a very special person in my life and a valued ‘advisor’.

Following two years of hard work Marilyn recently completed and published an intriguing book! She enthusiastically shared her exciting research encompassing a ‘whole system view’ of creating productive cities that had enormous potential for addressing the diverse needs of the today’s diverse populations. The result was publication of an exceptionally worthy and forward thinking book entitled ‘Integral Cities, Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive’ . Powerfully aligned with the field of urban studies, Marilyn mentioned, “It’s been extremely interesting to hear the many unsolicited and exciting responses to my book and how its application and meaning have actually extended far beyond what my intent had initially been” (listen Marilyn.)

I’ve read with delight an interview that Marilyn had engaged in while promoting her book. It was obvious from the content of the interview that the application of her model was totally applicable to a diversity of today’s public and private sector organizations. Using two of her favorite expressions, Marilyn and I engaged in our rich conversation around conformity enforcers and diversity generators. What great terms! She had been able to capture the blinding glimpse of the obvious around how readily the bee community and their various roles truly show up in all organizations.

Marilyn made note of the fact that the energy of conformity enforcers, that she claims make up 90 % of a hive community, quickly diminishes over the course of each season as the bees gather resources from the same flower patch. She explained that the inner judges of a hive, measure the return and withhold and/or reallocate limited and precious fuel as pollen amounts decrease. Adjusting the budget mid-stream so to speak? She went on to explain that as the conformity enforcers eventually accept the need to change, they make the necessary shift to new resources and adjust to the new findings of the diversity generators….a new flower patch. The outcome for the hive……. new found energy!  The roles of both the conformity enforcers and diversity generators are vital to the survival of the hive….and to any business community for that matter!  Presto, explaining the behavior of many an organization in today’s world of white water change and transition.

I’ve found the ‘hive’ metaphor an exciting prism to view organizational leadership from with huge possibilities for further exploration and study. Clearly, bees must be doing something right to coexist in a container the size of my shoulder bag and yet readily adapt to change!

How readily do the conformity enforcers in your organization embrace the work of your diversity generators? How critical in today’s world is the role of diversity generators who hold enormous potential for revitalizing the energy of others in each and every organization trying to survive and prosper? I would love to hear your thoughts and feelings. Go for it!

“You’ve got to watch out for those organizational antibodies!” said the former Head of Pathology for the Vancouver General Hospital and the British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital, Dr. David Hardwick, who I was sitting down with at the time. Dave had been instrumental in leading the establishment of the BC Children’s Hospital and we had built a strong relationship in furthering the organization’s mandate as the leading pediatric tertiary care facility on Canada’s west coast. I was then the Vice President – Human Resources and Strategic Management and Dave was a key internal organization client. Whenever possible we tried to get together and have one of those rare but powerful conversations over a cup of coffee about ‘life and times’. This was one of those get togethers that I’ll never forget.

Dave had made the ‘organizational antibody’ comment in a discussion around a number of joint-venture innovative initiatives in support of the physician community within the facility, and in particular the pathologists. In our discussion, we had come to a  blinding glimpse of the obvious that innovation in fact was a particularly powerful form of change. Dave, who was the Head of Pathology and the President of a world-wide organization of pathologists at the time, felt that not only were we being highly innovative with a number of initiatives we were leading, but it also had a unique dark side. Innovation also creates a considerable threat to some groups within the organization. Many of these groups simply felt they never received enough care, attention and resources to support their medical practice areas. Not an unusual disposition. For innovation to effectively take hold and to be sustained requires additional resources. Where do these resources (funding, people, space, capital equipment, etc) come from? Yes, from others within the organization. Thus the threat innovation unexpectedly creates even though it is so often promoted. Dave felt strongly (directly reflecting his professional background) that ‘organizational antibodies’ can always be expected to surface when something new is interjected into the system and ‘organizational antibodies’ will, not if, attempt to ‘remove or extricate’ anyone leading or anything related to the innovation itself – the foreign intervention – that are perceived as direct threats to their own existence and sustainability. This is what’s often referred to as a ‘blinding glimpse of the obvious’.

It was clear from our discussion that if you are attempting to create and lead innovation (pro-active change), not only do you need to address managing normal resistance to change, one needs to thoughtfully and planfully address ‘organizational antibodies’ that will (again, not if) surface. Thank you Dave for co-creating this very powerful leadership and organizational change concept.

Of course the foregoing is not unique to Health Care organizations. I’ve seen it in every private and public sector organization operating domestically and globally that we have had the pleasure to coach within. So, where do ‘organizational antibodies’ show up in your organization? What change are you currently leading within your organization (small or big) and where are ‘organizational antibodies’ surfacing? What are  the possibilities for turning this into an opportunity in disguise and creating a successful win-win approach? We would enjoy hearing your insights and observations.