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Is it age, or is it insecurity?

by Miki Saxon

Cultural changes come and go, whether driven by technology or the guru du jour, and are often resisted by incumbent management. Janet Lee Johnson, cites Dion Hinchcliffe’s post at ZDNet, and comments on the resistance she’s personally seen to incorporating Web 2.0 and its impact on corporate culture—both see it as a generational problem (management is over 40).

I don’t think it’s an age thing, I think it’s about power and insecurity.

Power
In any company, there is only one true source of power and that’s control.

And the only two things worth controlling are money and information.

It’s obvious that anyone who controls money has power, whereas information control power is more subtle.

However, when seen in action, there is little question that there are people who control the flow of information as a powerbase within their organization, whether or not they are managers. These people believe that not sharing information

  • strengthens their political muscle,
  • makes their position more secure, or
  • allows them to evade responsibility for decisions.

Insecurity
Insecurity shows up when we’re young and often continues with us through our adulthood, what changes is our skill at either mastering or hiding it.

Insecurity is usually why managers

  • hire weaker candidates, instead of people smarter than themselves;
  • don’t like distance working; and
  • aren’t big on empowering their people.

Sure, wikis, blogs, social networks, and other collaborative software may scare workers who aren’t tech-oriented, but many people consider having to write a cohesive, dynamic white paper or make a crucial presentation to their company’s biggest customer just as scary. Fear of needing to learn something new is intergenerational and depends more on what you’re good at than on your age—I think all of us fear looking silly or dumb.

If you look at companies with innovative cultures, you’ll see that they are open, empowering, share information, never kill the messenger—and contain dozens/hundreds/thousands of people over 40.

What they have in common are CEOs whose MAP is in tune with these values and who use technology to support and enhance the culture they’re building.

3 Responses to “Is it age, or is it insecurity?”
  1. Janet Johnson Says:

    Miki –

    In fact, my point was all about the loss of control – not the age – that managers fear most when considering Enterprise 2.0 systems.

    from my post:
    “On one hand, shaking, you have the management team – likely to be in their 40’s and 50’s – generally wary (Establishment = ‘fraid ee cats) of the loss of control they’re facing.”

    I think you’ll find we’re in violent agreement here.

    Nice post.

  2. Miki Says:

    Janet –

    Thanks for the kind words.

    I reread both posts and they still seem to say that fear of loss of control is related to age. I’m not disagreeing that it’s often a management issue, and that management is often older, but I know a number of thirty-something managers who are totally paranoid about openness, and a large number who are over forty and are championing it.

    Of course, the funniest situations I see are the number of teens and twenty-somethings who are furious that their parents/bosses dared to read their MySpace pages. Duh. If you’re going to preach open, then it’s open to all with no control.

    Miki

  3. MAPping Company Success Says:

    […] May I commented that I thought a lot of the problem was grounded in insecurity and I still believe that, but I’ve done a lot of thinking because the subject’s so […]

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