Fit In or Get Fired

I consider myself a survivor. I recently left one of the world’s largest hospitality companies to join Tom Peters Company! and follow my dream of helping to re-imagine the business world. Why? So people can thrive and not just survive in corporate America. During my 7 1/2-year career, I endured as many as 5 “re-orgs” of varying degrees (so much for job-security). I often wonder how I was able to walk out on my own terms, when many others were escorted to the door. Over the years, many of my colleagues/friends were “let go” (as if being done a favor), not for the sake of cost-cutting or streamlining, but because they simply were not a “good fit,” which raises the questions … what does it mean and how important is it to corporate survival/success? Does being a good fit mean you do what you’re told? Conform? Maintain the status quo? Keep your opinions to yourself? If that is the case, how do organizations ever survive and thrive?

As I was pondering these thoughts, I came across this:

Creative abrasion means harnessing the frictional energies released between distinct perspectives and work styles to generate new directions and novel solutions.

     —Jerry Hirshberg, The Creative Priority

Wouldn’t we all be better off if corporate leaders/managers knew how to do this?

Darci Riesenhuber posted this on May 18, 2005, in Brand You.
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