Catalysing High-Performance: Let’s speak about nothing!

It’s not so easy talking about something that normative language, power structures or blind spots hold us to see as nothing, as matterless, as something that doesn’t matter, as something excluded from meaning-making strategies.

Yet, high-performing cultures find ways to crystalize, amplify, and address that there is ‘an awful lot’ in what (in the normative discourse) seems to be ‘nothing’.

In the pursuit of organizational excellence, we often overlook the seemingly trivial or "unimportant" matters. Yet, these overlooked aspects can hold the key to unlocking high performance within teams and the broader organization. Here is where “nothing” reveals its transformative potential.

The Need for a Narrative about ”nothing”

In a world grappling with social, economic, and cultural upheavals, traditional storytelling methods fall short. They often miss the nuances that can be critical for organizational success.

I once discussed with a CHRO the need for adding a (gender) diversity metric to their ESG data. The HR leader, having too many other initiatives on their plate, responded, "Britta, I want to count the women in our company where I have them".

It basically meant just counting women where they currently were in this company – in the production lines, in assisting roles like secretaries etc. without saying where these women are located in the company’s hierarchy.  

Defining gender diversity in this manner renders women in management roles irrelevant to the diversity indicator. This approach not only masks the real challenges but also removes them from necessary strategic discussions, rendering the issue at hand "matterless."

The Personal as a Pathway to Collective Performance

In an era where data-driven metrics often dominate organizational decision-making, the significance of personal experiences and embodied knowledge can be easily overlooked.

Why? Many of us do not find the confidence in talking about the personal that often seems so small and unimportant, even shameful - but it isn't. Rather, what many keep in the shadow becomes the collective shadow and becomes hard to address.

However, these "personal" aspects are far from irrelevant; they are deeply political and have far-reaching implications for organizational performance. The concept that "the personal is political" is not merely an academic notion but a lived reality that impacts our daily interactions and experiences.

The background:

Personal narratives are not isolated stories but are situated within broader socio-political contexts that shape language, identity, and experience. These narratives offer a unique lens through which we can understand the complexities of power dynamics, cultural norms, and systemic issues that often go unnoticed but have a profound impact on organizational life.

Accessing those dynamics, roles, and issues through the way employees experience the corporate reality and let them express it, offers important insights into obstacles that might be in the way to better performance.

Since most of our corporate life is normalized and its language standardized, most employees do not feel invited, comfortable or even able to share personal experiences, while they would be highly relevant for the organization to learn from.

The role of embodied knowledge in the workplace

Consider the role of embodied knowledge in the workplace. This form of knowledge is often dismissed as "gut feelings" or "intuition," yet it serves as a critical resource for navigating complex situations.

For instance, a team member's physical discomfort during a meeting could be a signal of an unspoken issue that needs to be addressed. Ignoring these embodied signals because “hard data” is prioritized, can lead to missed opportunities for improving team dynamics and performance.

The challenge lies in how to bring these personal, embodied experiences into collective conversations without stigmatizing them as "too personal" or "irrelevant." This is where the political nature of the personal becomes evident.

The act of sharing personal experiences in a professional setting is a political act that challenges established norms and opens up new spaces for dialogue and action. It is a form of "critical performativity" that can transform organizational culture by making the invisible visible.

So, the personal is not just personal; it is a complex interplay of individual experiences and collective realities. By acknowledging and integrating these personal narratives and embodied experiences into organizational practices, we can unlock new pathways for collective excellence and high performance.

Ignoring this dimension means leaving valuable insights in the shadow, untapped and unused, to the detriment of both individual well-being and collective performance.

The Challenge of Speaking About "Nothing"

Addressing what seems like "nothing" is not without its challenges. Power structures often render these issues invisible, making them difficult to articulate.

For instance, you may have felt that something was amiss in a team meeting but couldn't put your finger on it. This "nothing" could be a collective shadow, an unconscious barrier to high performance.

High-performing teams frequently ask themselves the question what it is that they currently do not see.

The Strategic Importance of "Nothing"

By discovering and bringing these "nothings" into strategic discussions, we can address the root causes of organizational challenges.

In summary, speaking about "nothing" is not a futile exercise but both a necessary one and an art for creating high-performance teams and organizations.

By acknowledging and addressing the unspoken, we can remove barriers to success and foster a more inclusive, effective, and innovative work environment. It's time to bring "nothing" onto the table, for it is in this "nothing" that we find what we need to excel.