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May 16, 2007

Welcome to the Herring Club

Animal Planet is a great resource of business metaphors and last night had a great show on Dolphins. One of their favorite foods is herring which forms a giant ball when attacked. The thinking is that if they come together, they will appear to be bigger and a more formidable foe. Unfortunately, thousands of years of evolution and basic instincts plays right into the Dolphins hands, I mean fins. The tightly packed school of herring creates an undersea McDonalds; fast food for Flipper. I won’t describe the actual details of the feast, but you get the idea that mother nature isn’t always the kindest thing to watch.

What struck me was how our corporate hierarchal structures do the same thing; create giant balls of fish. They hire the same people, with similar backgrounds, similar skills, and knowledge. Then if that wasn’t enough, they immerse them into similar technologies, cultures, processes, and structures. We don’t want people that color outside the lines and we have been taught that since second grade. We, as employees, gladly accept this as the norm. Our assumption is that if we pool together and appear the same then we are safe from outsourcing, downsizing, and job stagnation. Don’t believe me that we are all treated the same? Ask your HR professional what percentage of employees got a below average rating last year? Mathematically speaking, that number should be 49% but you and I know it’s more like .05%. Are you the one getting packed (herring) or doing the packing (Dolphin)? Either way, the end result is the same.

Do you blog every day? Do you own www.johndoe.com and develop your personal brand? Do you collect, track, manage, and evaluate yourself by your trademarks at the end of the year? Do you update your resume or CV quarterly? If your organization deploys Social Software, will you be one of the 1% that actually participates? If not, welcome to the Herring Club, glad you’re here.

Posted by Todd at May 16, 2007 12:50 PM