The Power of Integration

This entry is certainly not about differential equations.  I remember my last test in differential equations in engineering school.   It was one rather large question.  It looked like something that Captain Nemo was battling in the movie “20,000 leagues under the sea”.  It was big, it was ugly and it had tentacles coming out of it.  Like the good captain, I slugged through that beast to fight another day but not without it taking its toll on me and leaving a lasting impression on what the word integration meant……….

Well, I can’t believe that I’d be talking about integration again but I am going to write a little about this concept that I am fascinated with.  This concept applies directly to people and it’s really about reaching potential in one’s life but it applies very directly to a high performing workplace.   It’s called the Path to Integration.

There is an excellent book called Personality Types by Donald Riso.  It essentially lays out the detail of a psychology concept called the Enneagram.   The Enneagram is a 9 sided shape that is symbolic of the 9 personality types that exist among us.

While I couldn’t possibly do justice to the concept in my Blog’s short space, I’ll basically lay out the principles:

• Through our genetics and early socialization, we are pre-disposed to have a particular personality profile.
• This tends to lead us to life choices particularly work roles that we have aptitude for.
• These personality types come with unique strengths but will also be attached to unique weaknesses
• As we progress through life, we continually move back and forth through points of disintegration (the negative) and points of integration (the positive).
• When we are in our top level of integration, we are capable of truly amazing impacts with our work, with people, and with our life. 

So how does this apply to a startup? 

Well, what’s truly amazing is that a good healthy startup has almost every personality profile in a specific functional role.  In other words your personality profile predisposes you to be good at something.  Have you ever had that problem, where you try and take the smart guy or gal and put them into a new role because you are missing someone?  Smart folks can make it work for awhile but if their personality profile doesn’t get energy from the work, it soon drains them.  Of course, there are different folks, that are capable of moving from role to role around the organization but they may be looking for different types of energy from the role.  For example, by placing a great leader who is not creative in the head of marketing role, you may have a well run department but they will most likely not be one who invents or steers the innovative marketing campaign.  They get energy from the leadership aspects and that’s where they will most likely focus and nurture their attention.    

So where does integration come in? 

So the concept of integration simply states that people are in a high performance spot where they believe in what they are doing, they are in alignment of service to the cause and there is absence/minimization of self aggrandizement in why they are doing it.

This is not to say that a startup can’t be successful without being fully integrated.  But early businesses tend to have the key folks in the organization in the right roles for their personality, and have great alignment or great belief in the cause.

When this happens, their natural talents they have take over and work starts to become easier and momentum continues to build. 

While there are startups that do well sometimes when there is large amount of self aggrandizement as a value, people reach integration inside organizations more when they believe their efforts have an honorable purpose.  Self Aggrandizement is typically a temporary feeling than a long lasting foundational value.   .   

Getting to the integration point is the challenge…..my belief is that it starts at the top with the leader focused on how the business serves its customers. 

It then follows with looking for hires that are talented but will not compromise the organization’s potential for reaching a high integration state.  The biggest mistakes I have made in hiring in previous positions have been hiring people that are extremely talented but have a history of disintegrating or going to the more negative side of their personality type no matter what the values of the organization.  There is a high level of correlation with insecurities manifesting themselves in these individuals.  There are also people who are not the right fit because business causes are not a priority for them at all.  These folks are few and far between but they tend to look at business endeavors as something they have to do rather than something they want to do.  

After you start with hires with greater potential for integration, an organization should work to create a value system that helps people understand the true value of the cause.  And then, of course, to work at rewarding and nurturing people for the getting to their highest level of performance which is what we call the Power of Integration.   

Comments

[Charles H Martin]

Leadership goes all the way back to Alexendar the Great--you don't conquer the world without understanding how to bring out the best in people.

The ancient greeks understood this in leadership, in rhetoric, and in every part of the state.

1. Ethos
2. Pathos
3. Logos

In leading masses of people, teams, individuals.
The first step is emotional appeal, the last is logic:

•Ethos: We are on the same team
•Pathos: We have a problem
•Logos: Logic shows us a solution

For further reference, let me draw your attention to this presentation on leadership from the B-school at CMU (and a close friend)
http://www.economicvision.com/Content/CMUtalk.pdf