The Boss Who Wanted Dragon Status But Ran Out of Puff
Here’s why you shouldn’t seek status.
I was once working with a housing association.
A small frontline team and I had spent several weeks studying the work.
Not in workshops.
Actually studying what customers asked for, and why things went wrong.
Because the knowledge we needed to change the work was in the work.
Then the senior leader called.
“I’ve worked out how to do the playback.”
“We’ll do it like Dragon’s Den.”
“So we get money?” I said.
Cool.
By the time I told the team, they’d started divvying up the loot. One was looking at powerboats.
Apparently there wasn’t any money.
Instead, the frontline team would present its findings to the senior leaders.
They would question.
Challenge.
Decide.
There were two problems with this.
First, there shouldn’t have been a playback.
If the leaders had studied alongside the team, they would already know what we knew.
If you’re there when people learn it, you don’t need a playback.
The second problem took me years to understand.
Then I read Keith Johnstone’s Impro.
He argued that much of human interaction involves movements in status.
We raise ourselves.
Lower ourselves.
Raise others.
Lower them.
And Dragon’s Den is almost perfect status theatre.
You come to me.
You present.
I question.
Except nobody needed reminding who the senior leaders were.
They already had the status.
Imagine instead the leader goes to the frontline, pulls up a chair and says:
“Show me.”
They’re admitting someone several rungs below them knows something they don’t.
Surely that makes them look less important?
No.
Research has found that humble behaviour can increase the status people confer on someone, particularly when that person is already seen as competent.
Perhaps that isn’t as strange as it sounds.
“I don’t know. Show me.”
That’s quite an expensive signal.
You need to feel pretty secure in your position to say it.
The insecure leader needs you to know they know.
The secure leader can afford to find out.
Toyota understands this.
Go to the source to find the facts.
Akio Toyoda once said he wanted to be the president “closest to the production site.”
Because when you get closer to the work, you gain respect.
Psychologists distinguish positional power from expert and informational power.
Knowing useful things gives you influence too.
And you learn how the work actually works.
Meanwhile, the leader upstairs waiting for the playback gets neither.
But go to the frontline.
Pull up a chair.
Say “I don’t know.”
Say “show me.”
And something rather wonderful starts to compound.
You give some status away.
People confer more back.
That knowledge gives you greater credibility and influence.
Perhaps we’ve had status backwards.
The more time you spend at the frontline apparently giving some away, the more you may acquire.
And while you’re there, you might discover how to make the work better too.
Want more status?
Get closer to the work.
Powerboat optional.
