The First law of nature is about self-preservation; every man for himself and let the devil take the hindmost.

The nature versus nurture dichotomy is part of the cultural area; culture is about what people and groups have learned, additionally from what they have "inherited" from nature initially. You could still find this dichotomy in organizations if you concentrate on the preferable way of organizing activities: individually based or by means of teamwork.

If the first law of nature is still valid, than the "natural” way of organizing activities will be the individual way. This is however a very cultural topic and the cultural background will bias the outcome.

But workplace culture is just about this. About the balance between giving space to the individual "hero” and in the meantime promote teamwork. To establish this balance, the manager should use his or her artistic and creative powers:

If you give too much space to the heroic activities of the individual you will end up with a lot of loose end solutions that are not supported by the rest of the organization.

If you put too much emphasis on t

he fact that the result must be carried by the team, you will take the risk that the result is indeed carried but no longer agrees the initial requirements because of the amendments of the members (in order to achieve consensus). The average bias between these two is pointing to the first one. So the second needs on average more attention.

The least you should know is which side is your organization on. The rest is making sure that you are not going for the ultimate.

© 2006 Hans Bool

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