Seth Godin hits it again. This weekend he gave us a comparison of organizations to the human body.
Most organizations are built around three anatomical concepts: Bone, muscle and soft tissue.
The bones are the conceptual skeleton, the people who stand for something, who have been around, have a mission and don’t bend easily, even if there’s an apparently justifiable no-one-is-watching shortcut at hand. “We don’t do things that way around here.”
It’s an amazingly simple concept that I’m surprised I hadn’t heard before. Because it makes sense. Especially the part about:
Muscles are easily measured, and we’ve built countless organizational tools to find and reward our best producers.
The bones are the critical personnel that make sure things get done. They hold it all together. But it’s the muscles that are best measured. They are equally important to the bones but they get the attention because they do all of the sexy activities.
It bears some thinking when it comes to how organizations are put together and what’s important. Especially because it’s not just about organizations as a while but also functional teams.