The cause of many of the ills your organization may be facing are rooted in the process of institutionalizing. This is a process of making rules, creating procedures and locking down the process. In some cases, institutionalizing is smart business (profit or non-profit). For example, the idea of no hand guns permitted or firing an employee for falsifying documents would be something to institutionalize.
Unfortunately, it seems we've swung the pendulum way too far. I would even argue we've done this in our relationships. Think about your marriage, your business partner(s), your church, the homeless guy you pass on the way to the office.
Let me unwrap this a little further. In certain arenas of our culture homelessness and poverty is looked at as inevitable (this idea is part of the institutionalized mindset). When you view people (magnificent art designed by a wonderful God) as "inevitable" you will easily look the other way. But what if you looked at people as magnificent artwork? Kind of hard to look past a Michaelangelo, no? And yes, some people are bad/evil and will never change. That's ok (not really), everyone makes their own choices. My gut tells me that many just want to be seen as valuable and worth a fight.
The above describes how you can take an institutionalized view and change it to a liberated/fluid view.
Here is a list of some things organizations and people should not institutionalize:
- People (see my thoughts above).
- Policies and procedures. Far too often this is a place of insanity in many organizations. Creating these are often practices in fear management.
- New ventures. Don't think that what is new will look like what is old. Be willing to be fluid.
- Business relationships. We've got to stop networking as a part of our business plan (another form of institutionalizing). Network because you believe in sharing, giving and changing the world. If the idea is great you won't feel compelled to take.
- Marriage. Fall in love and keep falling.