THE LATE IRISH NOVELIST AND POET, James Stephens, best known for his fantasy novel Crock of Gold, coined the popular quote, ‘Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.’ Curiosity is the intrinsic motivation to learn, the desire to know about something or someone. It is that spark in our brain that leads us to investigate something because it is interesting or unusual. It is a vital intangible that enables an enterprise to continually improve its context, both culturally and environmentally.

Curiosity is the genius trait of intellectual giants such as Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein, which transforms innovation from being an end in itself to a daily way of working.

‘States of curiosity modulate hippocampus-dependent learning via the dopaminergic circuit’, a fascinating study by Matthias J Gruber, Bernard D Gelman and Charan Ranganath published in the neuroscience journal Neuron, explores the mechanisms by which intrinsic motivational states affect learning, and suggests that when we become curious our brain chemistry changes. The authors explain that a circuit in the brain energises people to go out and get things that are intrinsically rewarding, and that this circuit lights up when we get money or candy. It also lights up when we are curious.

A mountain of evidence supports the benefits of nurturing curiosity in the workplace. These benefits span everything from emotional wellbeing and love of learning, to social inclusion and mitigation of the negativity and despondency that inhibit a thriving culture.

Albert Einstein declared, ‘I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.’ His extraordinary discoveries prove curiosity is a potent catalyst for experimentation, innovation and invention, and yet, when considering effective strategies to transform culture, or for competitive advantage, curiosity is not an immediate solution leaders reach for.

The mind is like a muscle, and like any muscle it gets stronger with use. Similarly, the mental exercise associated with being inherently curious can lead to higher brain function and, possibly, make the mind stronger. But here’s the thing: even if you continuously ask questions and challenge the status quo, being inherently curious is not enough on its own to forge long-term sustainability.

It needs an adaptable counterpart — agility.

The X-factor

Being agile is about speed. It’s about having grace under fire and the capacity to move quickly and decisively in anticipating and taking advantage of opportunity, while collaborating to avoid negative and even catastrophic consequences of change. Agile is clever, marked by a resourceful and adaptable character and ready ability to move with quick, easy grace.

When curiosity and agility come together the game changes. Like a hum of birds in continuous and purposeful flow, curiosity and agility create synergy — the X-factor of Emergent organisations that enables them to continuously evolve. Culture becomes noticeably more conscious as people learn to anticipate their environment and each other.

I’m not talking about efficiency or alliance per se, but extraordinary levels of intuition and collaborative autonomy that enable even the most institutionalised of enterprises to innovate and transform their culture and context.

Software developers and engineers who adhere to agile practices and methodology often ask if I see curiosity as the missing or less visible component of the evolving sphere of agile. It is a humble and yet visionary question, and having spent a great deal of time pondering it my answer is both are required.

At a cultural and functional level, curiosity fuels the ongoing cycle of iteration and realignment that is essential in a pioneering enterprise. On the flipside, the enterprise with mastery in agile process demonstrates openness to being adaptable. While agility may afford them position, presence, notoriety and even fame, it is important to recognise that without curiosity these enterprises are essentially mimics adapting to external forces, imitating and assimilating trends and changes that occur within their environment, in a highly agile manner.

Likewise, the pioneering enterprise that is inherently curious but lacks agility is like the beautiful hunter Narcissus from Greek mythology. The enterprise is staring in the pond at its own reflection, at risk of being conceived in a bubble or, worse, becoming entranced by the beauty of its own invention, never fulfilling its potential.

One of the biggest cultural challenges for the modern-day enterprise is to find effective ways to embody both curiosity and agility. Curiosity liberates agility from its process-oriented constraints to explore new worlds and new possibilities, while agility gives form and substance to the curious ideation and exploration of pioneering artisans and makers. Together, they create synergy and become a potent catalyst for conscious innovation and emergence.

Synergy is something to strive for but it begs the question — what of the autocrat who sees collaboration as counterintuitive?

The great institution divide

Unsurprisingly, one of the most common barriers to nurturing curiosity in the workplace is incongruence of purpose, or lack of clear purpose at all. Typically at the root of this culture and engagement crisis conflicting values lead to apathy and despondency. In other words, incongruence between the purpose of an individual and the strategic direction of the organisation that employs them.

With the institution geared towards servicing for its market, the notion of innovating with stakeholders is risqué and goes against the grain of modus operandi. Meanwhile, opportunity is lost through lack of connection and meaning and the business spirals into obsolescence.

Innovating with rather than for stakeholders is a crucial distinction to lead effective and sustainable change. You must shift the focus away from protecting intellectual assets and the bottom line, and towards collective benefit and co-ownership. To do this, you must first know what kind of culture you have and what to aim for.

The Culture Quadrant

The cultural mode of an enterprise can be determined by its level of agility and curiosity, providing a starting point for innovation. As a way of highlighting this interplay of agility and curiosity, I developed the Culture Quadrant (shown in figure 7.1), a diagnostic matrix that tracks the two elements to outline four modes, or personas, of culture:

1. Controller
2. Mimic
3. Pioneer
4. Synergist.

Through pinpointing these modes, the Culture Quadrant also reveals culture blind spots and any inherent issues that might exist. The result is an overall picture of an organisation’s culture that highlights its strengths, weaknesses and potential risks of change.

From the radically inventive and transparent approach at leading enterprises such as LEGO to the notoriously secretive practices of Apple, modes of culture vary from collaborative and experimental, to scripted and regulatory (and everything in between).

Each of the four personas that make up figure 7.1 has an identifiable cultural trait or essence. For example, the conformist and protective isolation of Controller, the experimental and disruptive invention of Pioneer, the reflective imitation and replication of Mimic, and the perpetual connection, innovation and co-creation of Synergist. Usually an organisation will display one of the cultural personas more overtly and embody traits of the other three at different times.

Similarities can commonly exist between organisations, but rarely are two cultures carbon copies of each other. Its unique cultural traits are determined by the people within it.

Each Culture Quadrant persona has a yin and yang, or light and shadow aspect. This is best explained as its state of integration versus its state of disintegration. In a state of integration, the culture is healthy from an environmental and operational perspective, whereas in a state of disintegration, the survival and growth potential of the enterprise is inhibited.

As outlined in the Toxic to Emergent model (see page 27), at the unconscious end of the spectrum, culture is Toxic. When culture is conscious, on the other hand, it is on its evolutionary and Emergent path. As with the Toxic to Emergent model, wherever your organisation is located on the Culture Quadrant, the invitation is to level up with the aim of transforming the growth and impact of your enterprise.

The following pages explore the four personas in more detail.

CONTROLLER

Controller is a hierarchical and conformist mode of operation that is risk averse and reactive to change. With an overt cultural energy in isolation, Controller mode maintains its stature and presence by taking advantage of changing dynamics in its environment, often at the expense of community.

Controllers are regulatory command-and-control enterprises, often referred to as the ‘institutional mainstream’. Spanning a multitude of professions, they are most notably the giants of the financial services, IT, education, legal and pharmaceuticals industries. Communications in Controller cultures is heavily scripted — a legacy of old-school corporate affairs and human resources functions where employee performance and engagement is measured in the boxes of outmoded surveys and review systems.

Controller cultures that rose to iconic status in an information age lack gravitas in an age of enlightenment — the Emergent cultural paradigm where people crave connection and authentic alignment of values.

As touched on in chapter 4 when discussing silos, the challenge and opportunity if you have a Controller culture and mode of operation is to create essential connections between siloes that enable them to flourish. Siloes often contain high-functioning teams and abandoning them in place of a flatter, leaner operating model to demonstrate openness is not the answer. When connected to each other as a networked organism, siloes play an important role in the innovation and evolution of Controller culture. In other words, when you empower the people within siloes to function autonomously, yet as part of an agile ecosystem, they can have extraordinary impact.

At their best, Controllers put in place effective systems of control that result in dynamic and resilient culture. At worst, they are autocratic and risk averse, jealously guarding accumulated power at the expense of stakeholders and community. Lack of cultural cohesion is synonymous with the Controller mode of operation and of all Culture Quadrant personas it is most under threat due to its adherence to legacy systems and lack of agility.

Controllers often develop exceptional Pioneering qualities due to their ability to influence and mobilise specialist resources. However, as is often the case with institutionalised innovation — be it technology or process to improve the customer experience — finding effective ways to streamline innovation for collective benefit can be extraordinarily complex in Controller environments.

Some real-world examples of Controllers include:

• Google
• Starbucks
• Australia Post.

For Controller enterprises aiming to evolve, their path should move them through Pioneer into Synergist. As Controller cultures learn to co-create and establish the essential connections between siloes, the unique social identity and autonomous output of siloes is retained. At the same time, by ensuring communication and sharing is a vital part of an interdependent system (as opposed to simply seeking to be more agile for agility’s sake) the Controller progressively transforms from its isolated and autocratic roots into a conscious networked cluster — a system of systems that continuously innovates and evolves in congruence with the needs of its environment.

PIONEER

The Pioneer is an innately curious and experimental mode of operation that is easily recognised in the many and varied entrepreneurs, makers, and artisans at the bleeding edge of social and technological advancement.

With organisations spanning a multitude of industries, all competing to be top-of-mind among consumers, leveraging new technology and creativity is imperative. Many start-ups, social enterprises and e-commerce marketplaces have a Pioneer culture and work tirelessly to bring something new to the table. Inherently curious, Pioneers transform culture and context through innovation and invention, commanding exceptional utility and presence. The blindspot of Pioneer cultures is a ‘hit and miss’ approach, and they often lose more than they win.

Some incredibly successful companies out there have been at the forefront of groundbreaking steps in their industry, and have worked hard over the decades to develop something that will excite their customers. These companies have turned their businesses into household names.

The extraordinary invention of Pioneers transforms the human condition, as we know it, and Pioneer cultures are known for their dynamism and creativity but they are often isolated by their own cultural context. Virgin and Microsoft are iconic Pioneer brands that are known for dynamic collaborations across industry, however they are often secretive about their design, preferring a ‘big reveal’ of their latest innovation as opposed to co-creating within their communities.

Examples of real-world Pioneers include:

• Canva
• Nike
• Microsoft.

The evolutionary path of a Pioneer enterprise leads into Synergist, with a focus on levelling up in the areas of co-creation and networked governance. As a Pioneer learns to model ‘ecocentric’ behaviours, its power is amplified through collaborative autonomy. The blind spot of a Pioneer (their ‘hit and miss’ approach) presents significant risk and can result in isolation — the dominant trait of Controller cultures. Typically, as Pioneer cultures grow, they become less agile. Their challenge is to decentralise innovation and catalyse disruptive capability in order to lead and leverage as a network of networks.

MIMIC

The Mimic is the most agile of all Culture Quadrant personas with the overt cultural energy of replication. Mimics possess exceptional mastery in assimilation and their ability to identify and emulate trends is aspirational to their less agile and adaptive Culture Quadrant counterparts.

Mimics are loved by society and their adaptability affords them high profile and presence. At their best, Mimic cultures embody the best practices and products of their time. At their worst, they are like a cancer, consuming the energy and vitality of its host until there is nothing left. Unlike its Pioneering counterpart, Mimic is essentially a ‘copycat’ that lacks the ability to conceive of itself.

The growth trajectory of the Mimic can be extraordinary but it demands vast quantities of energy to maintain presence. It is reliant upon external inputs to imitate and, where no external stimuli exist — i.e. there is nothing to copy — Mimic cultures flatline.

Mimics are often misidentified as artisans and inventive Pioneers, and it is not unusual for organisations seeking to transform their culture to aspire to Mimic and model its behaviours as best practices. Adaptability alone, however, doesn’t make a Mimic a good role model for cultural transformation. While the replicative capability of Mimics can serve as a potential path for social and economic growth, any organisation that adopts its traits is at risk of losing cultural integrity, especially if the organisation does not have an established identity and clear purpose of its own.

The blind spot of Mimics is diversity. While they are brilliant integrators and pride themselves in mirroring the contemporaries of society, as highlighted by the Deloitte article ‘From diversity to inclusion’, diversity for the sake of diversity is rooted in ‘compliance obligation’ (the pressure to downplay individual differences). Social inclusion extends beyond diversity of appearance (race, gender, age, physical ability) and becomes a catalyst for diversity of thinking and open dialogue, which is where true innovation begins.

Many successful brands are Mimics. Fast fashion companies such as Zara and H&M have built multibillion-dollar enterprises reproducing the latest catwalk creations for a fraction of their original price. This makes them formidable competitors in all things fashion — a context that has a knock-on effect of diminished loyalty to original design. Another example is Apple — predominantly a Controller, the company is also a Mimic, despite its seemingly inventive and pioneering attributes. It is said, Steve Jobs never really invented anything new — he simply took what existed and made it better and more user-friendly. In doing so, he built an iconic business that people love. Importantly, Apple’s ability to continuously optimise and scale is the result of it learning to integrate the disruptive and evolutionary behaviours of its Pioneer and Synergist quadrant counterparts.

Real-world examples of Mimics include:

• Zara
• ASOS
• Aldi.

The evolutionary path of Mimic cultures is to move through Pioneer leading into Synergist. Affectionately known as a ‘high street copycat’, the secret of a Mimic’s success lies in its extraordinary ability to replicate the look of top brands. German bargain store Aldi is a great example of a Mimic’s evolution, as it audaciously takes on established supermarkets and pioneers smarter products, often with better quality. Mimics that aspire to be Synergist and decentralise without first learning to pioneer and collaborate run the risk of diffusing their own potential. On the flipside, Mimics who have learned to pioneer have extraordinary potential to mobilise and empower a community of advocates, disrupting the status quo with new products and services for the collective benefit of its ecosystem.

SYNERGIST

The Synergist is the highly agile and curious poster child of the Emergent paradigm — a tribal and community-centric mode of culture that thrives as an interdependent ecosystem, or ‘system of systems’.

In many ways, Synergist is writing the future, represented by the many and varied conscious leaders, connectors and innovators in business and society.

Synergist is all about co-creation. Its very existence is a continuous cycle of innovation, transformation and realignment. At its best, Synergist culture catalyses interdependent action, co-creating value for its ecosystem. At its worst, lack of invested accountability and cohesion to a higher-purpose result in emergent chaos.

Real-world synergists include:

• Patagonia
• LEGO
• Huddle.

Given the aim of this book is to equip people and organisations for an Emergent cultural evolution, I am often asked, ‘What happens when we arrive?’ The answer is simple: keep going, while avoiding emergent chaos. This chaos occurs when a community scales and loses cohesion to its core purpose, and vital connection to the sum of its parts.

Regardless of how small or large a community, Synergist cultures survive through the deep sense of belonging they create, and their cultural integrity is maintained by harnessing (and leveraging) the latent power of every individual it represents, enabling it to catalyse and to grow. In essence, I’m talking here about collaborative autonomy — the macro–micro aspect of a Synergist culture that’s described in earlier chapters. In many ways, its ‘system-of-systems’ nature is like cell division. Working autonomously yet as part of a collective, a Synergist culture gains power through diffusion in a critical mass aspiration to its higher-order purpose.

Cultural resonance

When the cultural mode of an enterprise has been identified, its capacity to transform can be measured by assessing its state of integration or disintegration to its essence.

In other words, by observing the overt cultural energy and behaviours that manifest when under threat or significant pressure, you can better understand the ‘go-to place’ of your organisation and effective strategies to improve wellbeing and positive impact.

Typically, organisations inhabit one of the Culture Quadrant personas more overtly and display traits of the other personas at various times, depending on environmental context and function. With this in mind, understanding the dynamic interplay between agility and curiosity and where your enterprise is positioned on the Culture Quadrant at any given point is crucial to minimising change risk and realising a culture people can believe in.

By clearly defining and aligning an enterprise with a higher purpose that serves the betterment of its community, a vibrant culture can be co-created. I describe the ‘sacred geometry’ of higher purpose in much more detail in chapter 9, but within this the Culture Quadrant becomes a crucial benchmark for innovation that reveals an optimal Emergent path, while equipping leaders of change with critical insight and actionable strategies to transform culture and engagement.

Keep in mind that making change stick is hard. No organisation on the planet is immune to the fear and fatigue of change. However, the Culture Quadrant is a potent alternative to traditional culture diagnostics and, in the hands of conscious leaders and innovators, it is like a crucible that burns away the dross and purifies what’s inside — like a killer app to ensure vital human connection and sustainability for the future.

Find out more: www.stephenscottjohnson.com/culture-quadrant

Culture, empathy and evolution

In chapter 1, I highlight the correlation between narcissism and brands that lack empathy, arguing that empathy creates a vital ‘bridge between worlds’, distinguishing the brands of extraordinary inspiration, vitality and presence from the status quo.

As co-creation and sharing continue to disrupt the economics of consumption, brands in Controller mode and on the verge of flatlining are starting to realise that, rather than just doubling down on data or ‘casting the net’ wider, they need to actually connect deeply with people.

Empathy is key in this approach, and how brands inspire human connection will play a big part in whether they fail or thrive. Brands such as zappos and Apple, which essentially built their business around empathising with customer feeling, are beacons of utility and inspiration in the truest sense. Importantly, the extraordinary fealty they command has nothing to do with data and scripted engagement and everything to do with their commitment to stakeholders.

For your business to survive and thrive, you must empathise with how your customers feel and understand the increased social pressure from consumers who very publicly oppose corporations benefiting at the expense of their communities. To achieve this, you need a new set of skills and a new story. In essence, learning how to ignite purpose in your people and culture will mark the difference between survival and extinction. It is ultimately less about creating shareholder value and everything to do with connection and belonging. Champions of the Emergent future live this as their mantra.

The following two chapters delve more deeply into the ideas of co-creation and higher purpose, and how you can embrace these in your business.