Dr. Pravir Malik is Chief Technologist, Deep Order Technologies. His expertise is in designing and building Complex Adaptive Systems.
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While any living system is always subject to change, it is when a system swings far from its normal state that its real livingness is tested.
In the last year our living system — the world — has changed dramatically. Due to Covid-19, entire regions of the world have had to lock down, and even where people have been allowed on the streets, they have had to wear masks. From a face-to-face culture, we have largely been forced into a virtual culture where many have had to come face-to-face with their own isolation. Organizations the world over have had to rapidly change their day-to-day operating principles on multiple fronts.
In such a far-from-equilibrium or a far-from-normal state, it is normal for systems to bifurcate. That is, part of the system may develop along one possible path, while another part develops along another. This can be true at multiple levels — at the level of markets, of countries, of organizations and of people. In such a bifurcation, a system can unwittingly tread a path of entropy ending in general debilitation or one of creativity ending in greater prosperity. But the defining dynamic to ensure the latter path is usually one of humility.
For decades I have explored the impact of small patterns on bigger realities, and it's clear to me that simple attitudes — humility, sincerity, diligence, to name a few — can significantly impact organizations and markets. I want to examine here the power of humility by considering an example at the corporate level and provide some general guidance to leading with humility.
Encountering Humility
I had the good fortune to experience the effect of humility close-up in some multi-year work at Zappos. I have been a consultant for most of my life and have worked at many different companies. When I first walked into Zappos, I was struck by how different it felt. There was tangibly a much more welcoming atmosphere there.
While the company is well-known for service and one of its core values of “be humble,” this could have been nothing but lip service. I discovered when meeting Tony Hsieh that the unusual and pleasant feeling I had when entering Zappos emanated from him. This was evident from the way he listened, the way he treated others, and his willingness to add to active trajectories of work based on even unusual ideas to do with the creation of long-term value of a company. It was such an active dynamic emanating from the very center that created the reality of the company and influenced even how the whole industry operates.
Increasing Humility
Humility is powerful in dealing with high levels of ambiguity because it allows something larger from the field of possibility to incarnate. It signals to the field, or the system, “I am here, ready to hear, ready to receive and ready to act without my filters,” and this can have a profound effect on how things evolve.
The more humility moves beyond a dynamic of lip service, the better. A simple yet powerful approach to increasing humility is encapsulated well in James Cameron’s movie Avatar by the greeting, “I see you.” This is the act of seeing someone without your own filters, and therefore more deeply. This can only be done from a state of humility and allows you to more easily receive who another person is.
This moves beyond intellectual humility, where one pretends to know everything, and into the region of the heart, where there is a quietness and even perhaps a delight in encountering another. Such emptiness practiced by one person more easily allows the other to be.
And this in turn fuels authenticity. By just creating a space where another can be received allows who the other person is to begin to shine. Then your guards more easily drop, and this puts into effect a virtuous cycle where authenticity allowing individual uniqueness to come forward continually reinforces a work environment where even more humility and authenticity can come forward. It is such authenticity that is a key driver in creating long-term resilience.
It is in such a way that livingness can grow, and the bifurcated path of creativity fueled by authenticity becomes more secure. Multiply such possibility across an organization’s entire workforce and you may be surprised by the innovation and happiness that emerges. All it really requires is an actively practiced center of humility.
In an interpretation of the events of the last year, perhaps even the person across the globe hid as if they were behind a mask. Increased isolation is reinforcing the need for each of us to go deeper within and connect more humbly. The more this is practiced, the more quickly this veritable global cocoon may yield to something beautiful being prepared on the inside.
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