This “Gollum breed”
is a relict from the 1980’s when we as a society
allowed those people to replace the wellbeing of human beings with
profit or share value. The times when you could become a millionaire
over night and where stupid and ruthless people called themselves
business men, making millions by sending companies into bankruptcy at
the expenses of brave craftsmen and suppliers. Well, you might say that you even can become a president with this attitude, but is this what we want?
These characters are still there, mostly in charge somewhere and even worse, trying to force people into some “Culture Change” initiatives with buzz-words like “Ownership, Leadership, Trust, Empowerment”. What these buzz words really mean is what I explain in my trainings and workshops, because on first sight they are the perfectly right things to do these days, but if there is the wrong meaning behind it, they are just handcuffs and chains for the people to serve the Gollum psychopaths. The crowd understands these words mostly right and they appreciate this change. But when the people in charge running this change belief that "Leadership" is a replacement for "Management", you run into a huge problem. Leadership is a mind set, not a function!
Example: We all still hear the buzz word “shareholder value” that often has been set as a business target. We all know these annual shareholder meetings where Gollums explain how cool and good they are and that the business year was a success because the share price went up - blablabla. I for myself, as someone who works with a belief in achievements and not money, with a commitment and a goal to make things and the world better, only focus on my product and the people that build it. From this point of view, I ask myself “WHO is the shareholder?”. This is a person who comes and hugs me when I make profit, so when I have the pockets full of money. When I lose money, he leaves me with a kick in the ass. Have you recognized that this is the business concept of redlight districts and pimps all over the world? Why in heavens name should I place these people into the centre of my business attention or even worse, call them "friends"? Football players don't play football to entertain the crowd. A streaker is sometimes more entertaining than the game itself. They play to play the game and WIN. So the importance of shareholders and stock markets should be questioned, right?
People who still have this money driven focus are the ones I call Gollums, because they will do whatever is necessary to be the favourite suitor of the prostitutes. Because of that, they never will be leaders or only for those with the same mind set. The global attitude, however, has changed.
Here is my advice to see the video from Andy Serkis who made a parody of Theresa May in the Gollum version, what describes this character type pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=156&v=Tjp5OmoDYQM
A Culture Change is needed these days and urgent, because it is a fact that this world and the mindset of the people has changed significantly. Therefore, we need to identify and face the root cause problems, define them and find a cure, so that we as responsible people of this planet with a beautiful view of the future (means the Frodo Beggin’s minds) can cure and protect the world from these Gollums that are trying to chain us like working slaves for the sake of their own profits, no matter if everything else is burning down and destroyed.
“Freedom” is the key word of today and only freedom can ensure that we as a human population will survive on a healthy planet. People of today need the freedom to think, act and develop as they want and only when we create an environment that allows this development, we will develop. That's everybody's business and corporations are the best to start. Look at Tesla or SpaceX, these are positive examples of how it should be made and look like.
Digitalization, Agility
and Factory 4.0
for example can be used
against us as well. It is GOOD when we implement computer technology to
make things easier, better, raise the quality, efficiency and
sustainability of products by reducing the costs for products. It is
GOOD when we become agile and flexible to react fast on changing
conditions and having a factory, where machines are doing the job for us
is also GOOD. But it becomes a problem when Gollums take the lead
for
this because then we will be controlled through digitalization (see the
book 1984), used, abused and replaced with the agility argument by
machines that by fact can produce way faster than human beings. Culture Change is often used in organisations as a manipulation tool
to achieve goals that were up-to-date some 30 years ago, based on old market rules, and to lead people into fake belief. This is a one way street with no benefit for those, who are actively making thing happen.
The main problem with this Gollum future view, especially factory 4.0, and why it will fail is, machines do not buy products! For the individual Gollum this problem is out of scope, because his only goal is to have the treasure, no matter if the rest of the world falls into slavery or burns down. The ring is the only thing they are interested in! Is this the right thinking to hand over power or change cultures to a culture based on trust?
I for myself don’t like the picture that I have giant, hairy feet without shoes, but I confess that I prefer to be a Frodo instead of being someone with a schizophrenia and weird hair situation. Hobbits have a beautiful mindset and it is easy for me to confess that I am a Hobbit!
Talk with us, take a stand, like, share and let us know if you join the army of the good so that we can enjoy our life in The Shíre as happy Hobbits.
Have a smile,
Uwe
