Embrace Your “Crazy” Employees in this new era of Innovation and Change
A few weeks ago, I was struck by lightning together with a few others. The person nearby passed away, while I survived. This followed the very tragic death of my young 22-year-old nephew a week later, followed by the deaths of several close friends including Paramount Group Chairman, Dato CQ Teo.
Death has permanence about it. Your game is up. As I was reflecting on the finality of death, I started to recall a significant death – Steve Jobs. There were accolades showered on the man who orchestrated the greatest resurrection of a company nearing death. In 1997, Apple was pretty close to its funeral ceremony. Their death was imminent, and everyone knew it. Yet Steve Jobs resurrected Apple.
According to Jobs, it was triggered by “Think Different”, one of the greatest ad campaigns in history. I have always been intrigued by the words ‘Think Different’, based on a poem called, “the Crazy Ones” written by Craig Tanimoto. It goes like this:
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.”
This ad champions heretics in the workplace. Troublemakers and rebels ‘push the human race forward.’ They break rules, disregarding tradition and the status quo. Most companies try to eliminate these rule-breaking heretics. Yet throughout history, it is these heretics that have changed the world.
Galileo was one of the early heretics in history. He developed the early telescope and was a scientist that proved that the earth rotated around the sun. He was tried by the Inquisition, found “vehemently suspect of heresy”, tortured, forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
Joan of Arc was 19 when she was burnt at the stake in Rouen by the English on 30 May 1431. She defied the norms of society as a woman leading an army and broke all conventions to help the French claim victory over the English. She died a heretic but was later made a saint in 1920.
There is a long list of heretics throughout history that have gone against the conventions of society and changed the world. Buckingham and Coffman in their book “First Break all the Rules”, researched and concluded that the greatest managers in the world seem to have little in common–differing in sex, age, race, leadership styles and goals. Yet, great managers shared one common trait: They did not hesitate to break virtually every rule held sacred by conventional wisdom.
Who is a Heretic?
I define a heretic simply as someone who has views, beliefs or actions that are in opposition to the popular beliefs, traditions and opinions in an organisation. A heretic in your company is someone who simultaneously holds great loyalty to your organisation but has a revelation of a new truth the organisation has yet to grasp.
According to Seth Godin, “a heretic is someone who has faith but could care less about religion.” He explains further that, “there’s a big difference between religion and faith. Religion is the set of rules created to maximise the chances that you will do what the manager wants you to do.” He implies that heretics embrace the purpose of a business but not the rituals and traditions that surround it, and would attack these traditions anytime if it doesn’t make sense to its purpose.
Conventional Wisdom
Yet, behind many of the greatest business ideas or practices which we now call “conventional wisdom,” is an iconoclast or heretic, someone who fought for that idea when it seemed outlandish, implausible, and impossible.
In one of my previous roles, I questioned some of the traditions and norms of how we managed a number of processes in that organisation. I soon changed how my team worked and we started to see significant success in a number of areas. The senior leaders were highly enthusiastic about the new-found energy and results of the team. But the senior HR folks were not thrilled to see their ‘rules’ and traditions being broken.
Before long, their bureaucratic approach started wearing the team down. Soon, they forced the team to conform back to the convention, threatening employees with job losses and labelling them as rebellious and insubordinates. This is typically what happens to rebels and heretics. The organisation forces them to conform or be “burnt at the stake.”
In many companies in Malaysia, HR people continue to be rule enforcers. Just as they were upset when I broke so-called “rules” to drive innovation and change in my previous organisation, HR personnel in most companies in Malaysia have done the same. HR leaders need to learn to embrace heretics if they want their organisations to move into the new era.
Trying New Things
In the late 1970s, the Swiss watch industry suffered brutally due to intense competition from the Japanese. Brands like Omega, Longines and Tissot were in distress. Nicholas Hayek, a heretic, took dramatic action.
He merged two of the largest Swiss watch manufacturers ASUAG and SSIH to form a new company, Swatch. He took a drastically different strategy–creating a low-cost, high-tech, fun, fashionable and emotive watch. Within five years, Swatch was the largest watch-maker in the world, re-writing rules in the watch industry.
HR professionals need to realise that companies rarely win by playing it safe. On the contrary, the biggest opportunities have been won by those willing to be rebellious to the status quo and attack orthodox beliefs or institutions. We see the same story of Galileo play out with GE’s Jack Welch (who broke tradition to take GE to greatness in the 80s and 90s), with Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and others in so many new organisations. The best HR leaders are not those who play by the rules. The best HR leaders learn to innovate and be “heretics.”
Richard Branson rebelliously built Virgin by breaking every known business convention in the process. Sam Walton built Walmart into the largest company in the world with his unconventional innovative and daring approach. He says, “I always prided myself on breaking everybody else’s rules, and I always favoured the mavericks who challenged my rules.”
Most major airlines were forced to shut down for days following 11 September 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York City. As a result, their passengers were stranded in airports. Instead of merely waiting, a ‘heretical’ leader at Southwest Airlines started taking passengers bowling and to the movies to pass the time. While the rest of the airlines started firing people post-9/11, Southwest retained all of its employee thanks largely to their large number of aviation ‘heretics’ in employment. As so many companies grapple with COVID-19, we need more leaders to be like Herb Kelleher and Southwest Airlines to be different and dare to break convention.
Heretics don’t need you – You need them.
Yet most organisations detest heretics. They are viewed as troublemakers who will not toe the company line. Most companies are designed to wield tight control at the expense of autonomy, to maximise compliance overexpression and will. Modern heretics are not burned at the stake. They are ‘cold-storage’, ostracised or pressured to resign. Heretics exist in all organisations. And their talents are usually wasted.
A home for heretics
If we want originality and invention, we need to fill our organisations with people who ignore the rules, flout convention, question constantly and experiment fearlessly. We need the rebels and the troublemakers because, as Apple’s Think Different campaign put it, “they change things. They push the human race forward.” Are you a HR leader brave enough to bring heretics into your company?
Is your company heretic-friendly? Heretics not only need a home but they need to be given some form of encouragement. Are you creating a culture where heretics thrive and succeed?
Are you a HR leader willing to try new technology? While COVID-19 makes classroom training almost impossible, have you started using learning apps like Necole or LXPs? Are you willing to try new engagement technology like Happily or Budaya? HR needs to be brave and be a heretic themselves
One leader made this statement: “You all have heretics. They are not your enemy. They are trying to help you. They are not your problem — they are probably the start of your solution.”
Heretics are annoying and inconvenient, but they bring inventiveness to the table. The organisations that are most hospitable to heretics find ways to bring out the best in them. Scour your organisation for positive deviants, invite conflict, and stop trying to fit people into your mould. Build your organisation to be heretic-friendly.
Final Thoughts
Apple survived near death in 1997 because of the “Crazy Ones”. There is nothing like someone facing death to truly understand what it means to disregard the status quo and live. Steve Jobs famously said, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”
As HR leaders, I encourage you to embrace your misfits. Cling to your heretics and try listening to them. Don’t ignore them as they move you forward. And be a heretic yourself. HR needs to change. The function needs to be more tech-driven. Don’t be afraid to swop HR initiatives into tech-driven solutions. Leverage digital assessments, online mentoring and another great tech to take your company forward.
Heretics are not bad people. Instead, they want your business to change– to meet the truths that they have seen. After all, “new truths,” said Thomas Huxley, “begin as heresies.” Be a Heretical HR leader. All the best in driving HR to greatness in your company
Roshan Thiran is CEO of Leaderonomics, a social enterprise and HR Tech organisation. He is also a Research Fellow with the National Human Resource Centre (NHRC) of HRD Corp. He believes that inside everyone is greatness waiting to be unleashed and it is up to leaders to enable this greatness to be showcased.
The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.
