In the introduction and previous chapter of this book, we asserted that the character of a corporation can be illuminated by identifying its sociability and solidarity , two concepts not exactly in the vernacular. This approach is critically important and can be universally and readily applied in our work lives. Understanding will enable you to better build the character of your organization, to negotiate your business environment, and, as a result, alter them when necessary.
Let's start by taking a look at the Double S Cube.
Negative
Positive
On the vertical axis is the dimension of sociability. On the horizontal is solidarity. The range for both runs from low to high. For a moment, ignore the shaded, rear section of the cube, where the negative forms of culture reside, and focus on the front section. As you can see, organizations characterized by high sociability and low solidarity possess what we called networked cultures. The opposite dynamic, high solidarity and low sociability, yields a mercenary culture. When an organization is low on both forms of relationships—that is, low on both sociability and solidarity—you find a fragmented culture. And finally, high levels of both sociability and solidarity combine to create the communal form.
People often look at the Double S Cube and make a fast assessment of their own culture. But before you do, it's essential to examine more closely what is meant by the terms sociability and solidarity.
For this, we need to revisit some history.
Despite their lack of frequent mention in the popular business press, sociability and solidarity actually have a long, well-established, and respected pedigree; indeed, they are constants of the sociological tradition as it emerged from the philosophical legacy of the French Revolution with its ardent calls for Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. What creates the last of these three— fraternity, or more colloquially, community—has been a central focus of sociology ever since. 1
It was the great French social philosopher Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) who observed that communities develop over time as individuals take on ever more different roles. 2 That is to say, community develops as people start doing different things— some hunt, others care for the children; some own the factories and make millions, others run the machines and make barely enough to feed their families. The different responsibilities and concerns involved in these divergent roles mean that people come to acquire different perspectives on life. They develop different priorities, and those are often at cross purposes. Think of
your own community: Someone down the block is a manager at the local airport. The busier the airport, the better for his career. Another neighbor is the traffic policeman who must deal with the traffic jams the airport causes. He wants nothing more than for the airport to shut down.
But still, you are all part of the same community Something is holding it together. That something springs from the simple reality that human beings are not solitary creatures. For some reason—a debate we will leave to anthropologists, geneticists, and evolutionary psychologists, among others—human beings form groups. They flock together; they relate to one another. 3 And as it turns out, decades of research and intellectual debate strongly suggest that they relate to each other in two distinctive ways: in behaviors that can be grouped under the heading of sociability, and others that could be grouped under the heading of solidarity. 4
Sociability is much as it sounds: a measure of friendliness among members of a community. Sociability often comes naturally. People do kind things for one another because they want to—no strings attached, no deals implied. High sociability relationships are valued for their own sake. 5
Sociability is all around us in our lives—at neighborhood cook- outs, skating clubs, high school reunions, birthday parties—in short, sociability flourishes among people who share similar ideas, values, personal histories, attitudes, and interests. We know of six women who attended medical school together fifteen years ago. To this day, they meet once a month, rotating among living rooms, to share "war stories," as they put it, talk, listen, laugh, cry, and simply support one another with open hearts. As a group, they have survived five marriages, eleven births, four miscarriages, two divorces, one case of breast cancer, a serious
car accident, and are now just beginning to experience menopause together. Each woman entered a different medical specialty, and all but two work at different hospitals in the Boston area, so they rarely discuss the nitty-gritty of their work. They do, however, often share thoughts on what it means to be a woman doctor, a working mother, and a member of a profession undergoing fundamental change. But what really brings them together again and again is the sheer enjoyment and comfort of sincere and reciprocal friendship. That's sociability at its essence.
Sociability, however, doesn't just exist in our personal lives. It also exists at work: In fact, the level of sociability at a company is often the first thing a new hire notices. (Think of Andy Collins and the unfriendly receptionist at Tystar Industries, as well as the lack of "happy talk" before and during meetings.) In fact, sociability at work isn't much different from sociability in our so- called private lives. It means people relate to each other in a friendly, caring way. When a co-worker has a birthday, it gets celebrated. When a co-worker lands in the hospital, he or she gets visited. In many cases, sociability at work means extending relationships outside the office. Co-workers go out for drinks after work, they spend time together on the weekends, their kids play together. At one insurance company in the U.K. that we have been working with, a woman in the accounting department lost her young husband to a rare form of kidney disease. For the funeral, the company hired buses to transport three hundred staff members to the church. In the weeks that followed, her close colleagues took turns preparing meals for the woman's family. Having these relationships with her colleagues better enabled the woman to cope with her tragedy, in turn reinforcing her commitment to her co-workers and the company for which they all work. On a happier note, high sociability is also well illustrated by the wedding of Andy Collins's daughter. When Andy looked around the banquet hall that day, virtually every guest was "part of the EmChem family." Indeed, when sociability at the office is high, the line between one's work and personal
life often blurs. And usually, for those enjoying the fruits of the friendship involved in the matter, that's perfectly okay
For the business itself, the benefits of high sociability are many First, most employees agree that working in such an environment is a pleasure, which promotes high morale and esprit de corps. Sociability is also often a boon to creativity because it fosters teamwork, the sharing of information, and an openness to new ideas. 6 Healthy sociability also creates an environment in which people are more likely to go beyond the formal requirements of their jobs. They work harder than technically necessary to help their colleagues—that is, their community—look good and succeed.
We worked once with a small market research firm in Boston— there were thirty employees in total, headed by the thirty-six- year-old founder and CEO—characterized in its early years by extraordinary levels of sociability. The founder himself was an avid outdoorsman who loved hiking, canoeing, and the like. Over the years, he had hired people just like him: young, athletic, competitive, and energetic. This group shared so many interests—indeed, they all tended to view the world so similarly— that they came to operate like an extended family. On the job, they spoke in a kind of shorthand code, for instance, creating an outdoorsman language for their work—a tough client was a "monster rock face," a difficult assignment was referred to as "level-four rapids," echoing the designations given to specify the roughness of river whitewater.
Because the organization was an ambitious start-up and its members all about the same age and all sharing the same attitudes, another high sociability dynamic developed at work. People talked and joked a lot—in fact, one of the first things clients noticed about the office was its noisiness. Part of this
racket was about work, but much of it was jovial conversation— banter about weather, mountain-climbing gear, and so forth.
Not surprisingly, this collegial atmosphere extended out of the office. The group often spent weekends together, skiing in the winter and biking in the summer. Once the entire group, with the exception of a pregnant data analyst, participated together in a triathlon. When one employee sprained his ankle in the same event, those co-workers who witnessed the accident dropped out of the competition to carry him to the finish line. The same attitudes carried over into business; people worked tirelessly for each other, bounced creative ideas off each other, and the company grew very quickly. They played hard and worked hard.
For individuals who value personal space and privacy, this kind of organization is a nightmare. But for people with outgoing personalities, it is a dream come true. As we've noted, that's one of the benefits of a high-sociability environment. It can be a lot of fun.
The business advantages are also worth something of value: The kind of open, uncensored, freewheeling brainstorming that naturally happens among friends often unearths terrific ideas and creates a commitment to performance that supersedes job descriptions. People in high-sociability work environments rarely have a punch-the-clock mentality. They work until the job is done because they don't want to let down their friends.
But high sociability can have its drawbacks. The prevalence of friendships may allow poor performance of members to be tolerated. No one wants to rebuke or fire a friend. It's more comfortable to accept—and excuse—subpar performance in light of an employee's personal problems or needs. In addition, high-
sociability environments are often characterized by an exaggerated concern for consensus. That is to say, friends are often reluctant to disagree with or criticize one another. In business settings, such a tendency can easily lead to diminished debate over goals, strategies, or simply how work gets done. The result: The best compromise gets applied to problems, not the best solution.
If that's not damaging enough, sociability in the extreme can develop into cliques and informal, behind-the-scenes networks that can circumvent or even undermine "due process" in an organization. Indeed, in the Boston market research firm described earlier, as the company grew, an in-group developed, comprising those employees personally closest to the boss. Almost imperceptibly, this group began to run the organization. It had the boss's ear. On weekend outings, for instance, members of the ingroup would make their case for certain initiatives, strategies— even advocate certain hires and fires. On Monday morning, these agendas would be acted upon—and those who were not part of creating them came to feel disempowered. By the time we were called into this organization, its in-group had spawned a highly dysfunctional environment of haves and have-nots that had crushed morale and was sending performance down the rapids without a paddle.
Now, this propensity toward cliques is not to imply that organizations characterized by high sociability lack formal structures. Ironically, large high-sociability organizations are often quite hierarchical, replete with titles and reporting relationships. But friendships—and unofficial networks of friendships—allow people to pull an end run around the hierarchy. At another high- sociability company with which we have worked, the head of sales strongly opposed the marketing department's new strategic plan. Instead of explaining her opposition at a staff meeting, however, the manager made her case over drinks one evening to an old friend, the company's senior vice president for planning. Soon enough, the plan was canceled—the marketing department
never knowing why. In a best-case scenario, this kind of circumvention of due process lends a company a certain flexibility: The case could have been made that the marketing plan was lousy The sales manager knew that canceling it through official channels would have taken months. But in the worst case, it can be destructive to loyalty, commitment, and morale. In other words, networks can function well if you are an insider—you know the right people, hear the right gossip. Those on the outside often feel lost in the organization, mistreated by it, or simply unable to affect processes or products in any meaningful way.
Hence, in the final analysis, sociability by definition is neither good nor bad. It is simply one of the ways human beings relate.