INTRODUCTION: UNICORNS VS ZOMBIES
© Richard Johnston.
It was a perfect day to meet zombies.
Inside the idyllic rural campus of England's prestigious Henley Business School, 40 executives were jostling for position along a line that I had marked out on the floor:
‘More unicorn’ at one end, a term that's come to mean a hot, most-wanted, $1bn innovation powerhouse.
‘More zombie’ at the other, meaning a decaying monolith staggering into the future.
The task: Stand in the place on that spectrum that best describes your organisation.
There were a lot of self-declared zombies out that day.
But the truth is there are a lot of zombies out every day. Research shows that company lifespans are shrinking fast.1 But it's not just companies. The experience of working inside an off-kilter company can be deadly for the people inside, too. Simply being at work is now the fifth biggest killer in the United States because of the illnesses that stem from rising workplace stress.2
So what's driving this zombie advance?
Clinging to What Kills Us
Imagine standing on the edge of a chasm that is widening before your eyes. Your side of the chasm is crumbling fast. Getting to the other side is your only chance of survival. There is a rope in your hand that you could use to swing across. But fear stops you from jumping and keeps you rooted to the spot, gripping on to that rope for dear life. Meanwhile, the ...
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