Hugh McLeod has picked up a gig to blog about Microsoft. He makes an interesting point about open-source and its value to shareholders and CEOs. Seth Godin challenges the thought with the comment:
Almost no new idea meets the needs of shareholders and CEOs. That's because most of all they need predictability and apparent freedom from risk. This is why public companies are almost always on the road to disaster. They flee from change in order to do what they think is meeting the needs of those constituents. They fight changes in laws, policies, technologies and markets because their CEO (especially) wants a nice even flight pattern while he racks up big time options.
Shrink wrap software feels safe. Secure. Supported. Beyond reproach.
This reminds me of Guy Kawasaki's posting on the difference between Fixed and Growth oriented thinking as understood by Carol Dweck. He followed up the post with a video of Dr Dweck speaking about the difference. I commented on the idea here.
I encounter a lot of people are of a fixed or closed mindset. They are security oriented people. I find them resistant to thinking logically, openly. They are tradition bound in the sense that tradition is some "fixed" object or culture, rather than a living practice that has existed for generations.
What I find with these people is fear and insecurity.
Here's an example. If you haven't seen The Devil Wears Prada, I highly recommend it. My daughter called it a chick flick. It is a chick flick, just as much as The Emperor's Club is a guy flick. Both films however are about leadership, personal ethics, and the role of character in the maturity process of young people . In The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep plays a very tough fashion magazine editor. She treats people very hard, very condescendingly. You get the impression that she feels that most people are not worthy of anything but scorn. The filmakers do a good job of making Streep's character, Miranda Priestly, a real person who has a side beyond the meanness. There is a vulnerability to her. I've talked with a few people about the movie, and universally, they see her as an ogre. I however, see her as a person who is committed to an ideal, a mission, with a vision for the importance and the potential of her magazine.
Anne Hathaway's character Andy understands this and yet chooses something else. They understand one another, though Miranda would never allow Andy to become a "best" friend to her.
What I see in Miranda is not so much a fixed mindset, but rather an openness to the potential hidden in her field. Everyone else, except Andy, is living within a fixed mindset of survival. No matter how hard they work, they are working for the position, the status, the promotion. In essence, their goal is narrow and fixed. It doesn't mean that Miranda doesn't want the status or the position and all the trappings of success. But she sees them as means to another end, the success of the magazine.
Openness as characterized in open-source technology is a key to the viability of many businesses. If they cannot imagine doing anything else, or imagine changing what they do, then they are seeking the security that is fleeting at best.
What I find is that with openness in business comes openness in other arenas. In The Devil Wears Prada, young Andy begins to see through the assistance of her friends that she is following the same path as Miranda. She sees what Miranda's life has become and choses something different. Her openness is a position of strength that is exhibited when she walks away from her job to begin again.
Openness is a real key to success of any venture. It is also one of those things that is difficult to control, hence the resistance to change. From my perspective, with the boards that I've worked with over the years, openness involves just too much risk. However, if those same boards understood that standing still involves a different kind of risk, they might think differently. What they are looking for is the sure thing. There isn't any. Just opportunity. That is why openness is such a key mindset to have.
I work for Guy Kawasaki. Thanks for your comments about Guy's posting: "The Effort Effect!"
Mary-Louise
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/
Posted by: Mary-Louise | April 18, 2007 at 07:23 PM