Is That Really You, Or Just Your Sock Puppet?

...relevant to sustainability re: values people have at home vs work

Excerpt from Our Time To Act, 1 December 2009

'...There is a very paradoxical nature to our social identities. On one level we are each a unique, one of a kind, never before and never again being. On another level, there are groups of people that we have various things in common with, groups that we share a culture with. We all belong to a number of social groups which can be based on political or religious affiliation, age or gender, race or geography, profession, place of employment and any number of other things. And on yet another level, we are all alike. We are all human beings spinning on a rock through space and at the end of the day we want the same basic things from life…a little love, a little health, a little happiness, etc. Our identities also are very fluid and contextual…none of us is a static unchanging thing, we are different in different situations and with different people...

A certain amount of fluctuation is normal, but we need to take care to make sure that we are not compromising ourself to better fit in.

How much of yourself do you take to work?

Do your employees bring their whole selves to work? What parts do you think they leave at home and why? Questions rarely asked, but I believe they are of great significance, especially considering the way that we create value today. Conformity can be a beast. Social pressure can be relentless. An organizations culture can be big and powerful and like the waves of the ocean can pound away at your odd and your original until you are dressing, acting, talking and thinking (or not thinking) just like everyone else. Gradually, day by day, organizational culture can very easily erode what is uniquely you. One size fits all, one practice works for all, and we tell a great violent lie by not telling our individual truths.

We end up being inauthentic at work involved in inauthentic relationships and we do one dimensional work that could be done by anyone. Rather than show up at work as who we truly are and take up that space, we send our sock puppet to represent us.

Rather than showing up with our hearts, minds and souls we send a fictional character that is based on what we think the organization wants and values to work in our place. A sock puppet among sock puppets.

There are times when we are amazed at the lack of common sense applied by employees in responding to a particular situation, but we have overlooked that the typical organization makes little room for common sense. Truth being determined by title is not common sense. Hierarchy is not common sense. Policies over people and numbers over values are not common sense. Organizational politics are not common sense. And all of this stands in the way of people bringing their whole selves to work.

We all need to do more flying of the freak flag. Do you take your freak flag to work with you? Do you share what is uniquely you at work? Do you encourage others to share what is unique to them at work?

Do you make room for difference and self-expression at work? Or does your sock puppet go to work for you?...'