I’ve been thinking lately about how easy it is for us to set up “echo-chambers” in our lives and especially in our organizations. An echo chamber is a confined system that amplifies any input by reflecting and reinforcing it. We hear what we want to hear, we look at every project with revisionist eyes and we rationalize our decisions so that they seem “strategic.” This creates a kind of “bubble of invulnerability” but it’s based upon a false premise: we can do no wrong.
And the worst part of all of this is that it creates a significant amount of dissonance within the organization. Not only does it silence dissension and free thought, it causes all of those involved to live in a constant state of tension between “what IS” and “what we SAY is.” No matter how hard we try to ignore this dissonance, it will eat away at our creative energy. And over time it will cause the artists in our midst to shut down, generally disengage or “play along”, but the organization will NOT get the best work and thinking out of them.
This is not just an organizational thing. Creative people can be tempted to present the best parts of themselves and ignore the rest. (By the way, “the rest” is usually what makes us interesting.) When people connect with and approve of the part we present, we can begin to feel a sense of disdain for the other parts of us (the part we hide.) So the approval of others (the echo-chamber) becomes a kind of “judgment” on the parts of us we hide. So by pretending to be something we’re not, we’re setting ourselves up for judgment and extreme self-criticism.
Leaders: are there echo-chambers in your organization? Are you being brutally honest? Are you setting good rails? Do you have good metrics? How do you know you’re succeeding (other than “gut feel”)? Are you cultivating a culture of truth-telling and trust?
Artists: Are you pursuing self-awareness? Do you have people in your life who will tell you the truth? Are you “positioning” and wearing masks so as to hide certain parts of you? Do you find yourself being extremely critical of your work, your life, your decisions?
Good dissonance is what leads to great creative. It’s the tension between what IS and what COULD BE that propels us forward. Bad dissonance zaps our creative and mental bandwidth. Let’s destroy the echo chambers and commit to being a culture of radical honesty and self-awareness.
