I recently accompanied the top management team of a luxury brand in their workshop inside a former prison - now beautifully renovated. Spending the night in one of the old cells, I found myself contemplating the invisible prisons many leaders inhabit in their daily corporate lives.
Not of stone and bars - but of ๐๐จ๐ง๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ง๐๐ฒ.
In large corporations, upward movement often requires fitting in. The unwritten code is clear: donโt challenge too much, donโt disrupt the invisible consensus, play by the rules of the dominant culture. Those who conform are rewarded. Those who question too directly are often sidelined or quietly removed.
This creates a prison that looks safe from the inside but comes at a very high cost:
- ๐๐ง๐ง๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ฌ as ideas suffocate in the early stage of fear and self-censorship.
- ๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐๐๐ค๐๐ง๐ฌ as challenge disappears and echo chambers dominate.
- ๐๐๐ฌ๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐๐๐ฌ as organizations lose their capacity to adapt at the speed of external change.
It also leads to ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ค๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด: the people who rise to the very top are often those who mastered the art of adjustment. The price? Organizations end up with leaders who reproduce what already exists - rather than inviting the fresh spirit that could transform the future. What is missing is the courage to actively welcome and give space to the disruptors, those who dare to challenge and bring in a different perspective. Too often, they are filtered out long before they can make a real impact.
The economist Mancur Olson described a similar dynamic on the level of nations in ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ. Prosperous societies, he argued, gradually entangle themselves in rules, interest groups, and procedures - many with good intentions. But over time, these lead to what he called a โdisease of affluenceโ: rigidity, stagnation, and decline in competitiveness. (Reminds you of todayโs Germany, perhaps? ๐)
Corporations follow the same pendulum: phases of bold risk-taking and rapid growth are followed by layers of procedure, vested interests, and self-protection. Success hardens into complacency - just when adaptability is most needed.
In todayโs disruptive world, conformity is not safety. It is fragility in disguise.
Breaking free requires courageous leadership - leaders who invite challenge, cultures that reward thoughtful dissent, and boards that dare to dismantle internal rigidity before external forces dismantle them.
The question is:
- Where in your organization is conformity quietly killing innovation and courage?
- And more personally: where are you still complicit in the prison yourself?