So, here’s the collusion of mediocrity in a nutshell: It is this…an often unspoken agreement to avoid discomfort through avoidance of real honesty and challenge – the result is mediocrity – something less than was there in potential.
I sometimes characterise it like this as well: “I’ll praise you if you don’t challenge me”. Do we have a deal?
And, in a business or organisation, like this: “Stability is all-important, even at the expense of innovation and change”.
In organisational life, I believe this collusion is almost always kicking in. So, how do we go about challenging collusion of mediocrity?
For a collusion to be broken it must first be named. (Calling the thing by its real name)
Once again: The colluders seek calm waters, and seek, either consciously or unconsciously, to create safety and security through non-challenge and superficial tolerance. The result: mediocrity
The collusion often wears the mask of its opposite e.g transformation. Colluders tend to talk the big things down and the small things up. They create a virtue of diluting and hate zones of challenge and discomfort.
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