The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones. — John Maynard Keynes (economist 1883-1946) (via Creativity at Work)
Twenty-one-year old Ricardo is handed the reins and named president of his dad's company. To emphasize that it's really "all his", his dad prompty took off on a European vacation.
"He was just 25 years old when he passed out during a visit to a pump factory in New York. A battery of tests identified the problem as acute stress and prompted Mr. Semler to think hard about his life and Semco. That's when he had his epiphany." - "Ricardo Semler Won't Take Control", Strategy+Business, Winter 2005
Teachable moments. That's what Robert Thurman calls it when your prior belief systems or coping mechanisms are inadequate and you're open. "Before you seize a teachable moment, the desire for change is weak, and the need for change is often not a clear, or a pressing, priority. If you can continue just the way you are, who needs change?" says Vashti McKenzie, the first woman to serve as bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and author of Journey to the Well.
"You don't learn from the teachable moments at other times because your defense mechanisms want to maintain the status quo, even if it's negative. The door of your fool's paradise is locked tight. Culture, tradition, religion, and social pressure cannot budge the door an inch. Now, the door is flung wide open and you are ready to learn, grow, change. Suddenly things become clear, insight, and understanding flood your consciousness, and the need for pretense evaporates like water in the desert sun." - Vashti McKenzie, Journey to the Well
"Semco appeared highly organized and well disciplined, and we still could not get our people to perform as we wanted, or be happy with their jobs," he later wrote in his bestselling book Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace.
It was during his forced timeout that he began to wonder if there was another way, a better way to run his Brazilian business: "What if we could run the business in a simpler way, a more natural way?"
"During his convalensce, Mr. Semler devoured the works of Peter Drucker, Michael Porter, and Henry Mintzberg, searching for a solution." But it was a man who answers Semler's want ad for a director of human resources that influences Semler the most. A man that under prior circumstances Semler would have turned away. But he was in a new and open frame of mind.
"[H]is inspiration ultimately came from a more unlikely guru, the former principal of small, progressive teachers' school whom Brazil's dictators had forced out for urging his faculty and students to question authority." This particular maverick, Clovis da Silva Bojikian, believed that people working with pleasure and engaged and participating in important decisions would naturally be highly motivated and make better choices than those who "simply followed orders from above."
And that is as you say history. Mr. Bojikiian got the job. And Semco's model of participative management (pioneering first person revolution in management) is legendary. A $100,00 investment in Semco 20 years ago - just a bit after Semler's stress-induced epiphany - would be worth $5.4 million today. Not too shabby for folks who walk the talk of "managerial authority is an illusion".
Myself, I'd work at Semco (or better yet Semler's philantropic ventures which is Semler's newest ephipany) in a heartbeat:
"Hammocks are scattered about the grounds for afternoon naps, and employees are encouraged to spend Monday afternoon at the beach if they spent Saturday afternoon at the office. There are no organizational charts, no five-year plans, no corporate values statement, no dress code, and no written rules or policy statements beyond a brief "Survival Manual," in comic book form, that introduces new hires to Semco's unusual ways.
p.s. Semler had another wake-up call in February 2005. But you can read about that yourself.
p.p.s. I'll add a new Teachable Moments category. And note that this article was under s+b's "The Creative Mind" department. Teachable moments go hand in hand with creative minds, especially if we allow them.
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