There can be a bias in business and in life to fixate on the value of individual intelligence. Of course , those that graduate from Ivy League establishments are waymore enthusiastically employed because of the perception that more intelligent students attend those schools. Indeed, in the right scenarios, it is difficult to over-value individual intelligence. However, when it comes to implementing change, the individual intelligence of the organization’s members can be largely unimportant. Implementing change at the organizational level hinges on unified behaviors instead of the talent of people.
A historic example of this concept would be the movement of large groups of squaddies during battles before the modern time. In the times of Napoleon or the Civil War, the nearly accepted methodology of attack was for two groups of squaddies to face eachother on an open field and to advance on eachother. As long as both groups sticked to this technique, the soldiers involved handled implementing change, which involved moving forward, fairly well. This took place as the mass of soldiers were responding as a unit with tiny individual intelligence being employed for the task.
If one side chose to change the strategy and engage in flank attacks, the situation changed considerably. In flank attacks, the enemy doesn’t approach directly but moves in from the sides. In this position itis probable that at the individual level, the rank and file infantryman knows what’s occurring as well as what has to happen. Regardless of the individual intelligence to recognize the reality of the situation, flank attacks were terrifically successful maneuvers when executed correctly. The success of the flank attack can be imputed largely to the disability of the squaddies as a group to go about implementing change in the way it wanted to happen.
When implementing change in an organization, the same truth applies. Really bright people may recognize the necessity of the change, but lack the ability to enact it at the group level. Their individual intelligence is less important in that situation than the capability of the organization as a whole to engage in unified behavior.
For more information, please see our website: Implementing Change