Navigate the Swirl

CHAPTER 9Leveraging Creative Tension: Stage 3, Distributed Leadership, continued

I am not afraid of the word tension. I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth.

—Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail

In the 1990s, the comic strip Dilbert became a comedic staple of American office life. Dilbert's creator, Scott Adams, was a master at both representing and lampooning dysfunctional corporate culture. One of the aspects of it that he captured so brilliantly was the tension between various parts of an organization. As an engineer, Dilbert, the protagonist of the strip, is always making jokes about the low IQ and poor ethics of marketing and sales, and is engaged in a constant turf war with other departments. The accuracy of Adams' scenarios made the strip both hilarious and close to home for those who have done their time in corporate America. Off the page, however, interdepartmental tension isn't so funny. Indeed, the politics and infighting that is common in most companies can be as nasty as it is counterproductive. But does it have to be that way? Are power struggles inevitable? As we shift to a stage 3 distributed leadership model, how can we best work together to avoid these tensions? Or should we even try?

Many people imagine, or hope, that a more evolved organizational structure and culture would put an end to conflict. They envision a utopian workplace ...