The Corporate Cowshed...

We spend a lot of time in organisations talking about strategy, values, purpose, and performance, yet we spend remarkably little time talking about the feelings that make these things happen.

In this clip, taken from a reading at the launch of The Emotional Life of Organisations, I use a simple analogy to show that theory isn’t quite the same as reality. You can read endlessly about farming, study different breeds of cows, and absorb all the theory you like, but nothing prepares you for the smell when you actually walk into a cowshed.

👉 Work is the same...

You can read business books, study for an MBA, and keep up with the Harvard Business Review, yet none of that prepares you for the emotional atmosphere, the unspoken tensions, the anxieties, the rivalries, and the politics that permeate every large organisation.

People at work are usually very articulate about what they think they are doing, but far less honest about what they are feeling while they do it, even though those feelings shape behaviour, decision making, and relationships far more than most leaders are comfortable admitting.

This is the first of three short clips from the reading, and it sets up a simple idea, which is that emotions are the invisible current running through every workplace, whether we acknowledge them or not.

If you have ever wondered why rational organisations behave irrationally, this will probably sound familiar.