Not only the Paranoid Survive

Andrew S.(Andy) Grove wrote a phenomenally successful book titled ‘Only the Paranoid Survive’ published in 1996. Soon, hard bound copies of this book adorned the shelves of CEOs, aspiring CEOs and other worthies in their succession list.  Lo and behold, paranoia overnight turned a virtue. Every CEO wanted her/his employees to be paranoid. Yes, just to contextualize, those were the days Jack Welch was still the CEO of GE. Those were the years every CEO and CXO wanted to be a Jack!

Not many decades ago paranoia was considered an abnormal mental state by most psychoanalysts. English Thesaurus (UK) associates Paranoia (n.) with fear, suspicion, mistrust, obsession and terror. Not sure which of these words would have prompted Andy Grove to say only the paranoid survive. Maybe what he meant was an obsession for change or obsession for new technology or innovation; certainly, not fear, mistrust and terror. Unfortunately, in the last two decades of the last century and the juvenile years of the 21^st century generated a lot of these emotions into the corporate meeting rooms.

The life and contributions of Andy Grove do not suggest that he was paranoid. A Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Andy was one of the first three members of Intel though not considered as a founder. He was instrumental in making Intel an innovation machine and was a meticulous, ‘disciplined, precise and detail oriented’ operations head of Intel for many years. Andy who first coined the usage ‘the devil is in the details’, in all probability, had a data based rational approach to creativity and innovation.

Andy wrote a book titled ‘Physics and Technology of Semiconductor Devices’ in 1967 and another book titled ‘High Output Management’- originally published in 1983 and re-published in 1995. I wonder how many CEOs read these two books. While the ‘High Output Management’ went much unnoticed in 1995, the ‘Only the Paranoid Survive’ published next year became an instant hit.

Why?

Is it that negative emotions sell better for books, movies and even in management? For long ‘abnormal psychology’ ruled the lives of much of the normal folks. People started believing that there is nothing normal. And the abnormal is euphemistically called the ‘new normal’ in the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world of the Davos pilgrims. Shakespeare must be laughing in his grave reading aloud from ‘The Tempest’, ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’!

What if freedom, cooperation, trust and kindness lead to innovation? May be some more ‘appreciative inquiry’ is needed into this question.

Not only the paranoid survive; others too!   

‘Humanotics’

As companies grow they tend to standardize procedures, transactions and even interactions between employees. All professional companies have an ERP and set of well defined and much orchestrated process guidelines, rules of engagement or standard operating procedures. This is more so in technology related industries where professionals always look for clarity- yes or no, zero or one, black or white. Come to think of it, isn't that how a computer works; a robot works? Yes, a computer works on a set of commands, lines of codes or an ‘app’ if that is how the device is triggered to action.

So the sequence often is like this. If there is a problem, first look at the system. Fix it if it is broken, upgrade it if it is outgrown. If that doesn't fix the problem, rewrite the process flow chart, revise the SOPs, upload on the intranet. If the problem is still not solved go to people- the last resort. The concept is to bypass the people as much as possible. They are the least amenable to rules and each one is into her own world. Indeed, this is very logical and efficient way of problem solving in organizations.

So what is the problem here?

Partly the problem is with God for those who believe God created humans or with nature if others think nature created humans. Human beings are not factory produced and each one has his/her unique kinks, warts and mind. Even though the operating procedures are same for all not all will comply with them the same way. If that was the case a copy of the Constitution of any nation or any book of commandments given to all would have solved all human problems. They all meant for orderly human behaviour. Human mind behaves also on the principle of randomness, often belying all known theories.

So what is the solution? Not yet invented, is the short answer. What is the path to an attempted solution? May be it is a good idea to bring in the randomness of human interactions early in the stage of a problem in an organization. Talk to people, particularly to those who are not the experts- because often experts planted the seeds of the problem in the system-without any such malicious intention, of course. The problem solvers in organizations spend far too much time with the system, gadgets and the data before they turn to the person sitting next work bay who may have a simpler solution.

That’s what I call ‘humanotics’. It is not about standardising human behaviour. It is, in fact, relying on the randomness of human mind.  There is a randomly programmed robot in every human being.

Over dependence on technology to the exclusion of random human mind is something Albert Einstein feared long ago when he said, “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.’

Now, we know there are more than three idiots!