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Who Really Matters
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Table of Contents |
All organizations – large and small, Fortune 500 corporations and “do-good” non-profits, government agencies and street gangs – are working for three main purposes:
Once you understand the Core Group nature of organizations, then you can understand how to navigate and influence those organizations. Core Groups aren't bad in themselves; every organization has them. The trick is finding the organizations with great Core Groups, changing the ones that can be changed, and avoiding the dysfunctional ones. Finding your way in a Core Group-driven world is the subject of this book. “Everyone in organizations knows that the 'rules' are not the real rules. The logic of what ideas are accepted and which are not, who gets listened to and who does not, and what decisions are taken and which are not falls somewhere in a vast terrain between rational economics, blind tradition, and pure power politics. Into this wilderness enters Art Kleiner with a beguiling simple compass: the core group.” - Peter Senge, author, The Fifth Discipline An excerpt from Chapter 1: This book starts with the premise that, in every company,
agency, institution and enterprise, there is some Core Group of key people
- the "people who really matter." Every organization is continually
acting to fulfill the perceived needs and priorities of its Core Group.
It's sometimes hard to see this, because the nature and makeup of that
Core Group varies from workplace to workplace, and so do the mission statements
and other espoused purposes that get voiced to the rest of the world.
But everything that the organization might do - meeting customer needs,
creating wealth, delivering products or services, fulfilling promises,
developing the talents of employees, fostering innovation, establishing
a secure workplace, making a better world, and, oh yes, returning investment
to shareholders - comes second. Or maybe "eighth." What comes
first, in every organization, is keeping the Core Group satisfied. It's because of Core Group dynamics that a depressing number
of business corporations have evolved into organizations with one primary
purpose: To extract wealth from all constituents (not just the shareholders,
but the employees, customers, and neighbors as well) and give it essentially
to the children and grandchildren of some of its senior executives. And
yet Core Groups are not inherently bad or dysfunctional. Indeed, they
represent probably the best hope we have for ennobling humanity - at least
in a world like ours, in which organizations have the lion's share of
power, capital, and influence. An organization's Core Group is the source
of its energy, drive, and direction. Without an energetic and effective
Core Group, all efforts to spark creativity and enthusiasm sputter out.
If we are going to act effectively in a society of organizations,
we need a theory that helps us see organizations clearly, as they are.
We need to observe this new species in natural habitat, to track its behavior,
and to study its relationships with predators and prey. Only then can
we ask: Why does it operate this way? And what, if anything, could be
different? Only then can we learn to use organizations, instead of feeling
like we are being used by them. Only then can we move organizations away
from being simply the property and tools of the few. Only then can we
see the potential they have for the rest of us. Only then can we develop
real relationships with the members of this new species, as employees,
neighbors, co-creators, participants, leaders, and even lovers of organizations.
In short, if we want to not just live within society, but
establish ourselves as leaders and creators, then we have to understand
the dynamics of the Core Group. The root of the word "core" is the Latin cor, or heart, and the Core Group is the genuine heart of the organization. Management writer Arie de Geus, in his book The Living Company, calls the Core Group the "we" of the organization - the genuine proprietors of its interests. They usually include most, but not all, of the people at the top of the organization chart. Plus others. The Core Group members are the center of the organization's informal networks, and symbolic representatives of the organization's direction. Maybe they got into the Core Group because of their position, their rank, or their ability to hire and fire others; maybe because they control a key bottleneck, or belong to a particular subculture or sub-group with influence within the organization. Maybe their personal charisma or integrity got them in. In the end, it probably doesn't matter that much how they got in. What matters most is that they matter. |