Business is a matter of multiple interactions. No good business can happen unless all those who have to say, and all those who have to do, and all those who have to monitor have made their point.
The synergy of minds is imperative for great ideas to be born. By the same token, the synergy of efforts is critical for the realization of visions and the success of strategies. However, this idealism is not always the case in the Business World. Many times, great ideas come out to be disregarded, mocked, or poorly implemented (do I need to give examples?!). In other cases, great ideas fall into a vicious cycle of arguments and counter arguments; opinions that are with and others that are against; detailed scrutiny followed by another detailed scrutiny of the first one. Bottom line, the great idea loses its glitter and goes into the ‘Dumpster of Great’ ideas AKA ‘The Drawer’.
But why does this happen? Could it be that people dislike great ideas? Could it be that people do not see the huge potential of a great idea? Or, could it be that some people try to burn out great ideas so that those ideas do not outshine their own? Not to venture into trying to answer an unanswerable question, yet, I have observed enough to notice that the biggest enemy of great ideas is the Syndrome that I call “Where the Owner Wants”. Pretty much a familiar concept in the Arab World and most probably all over the globe, the “Where the Owner Wants” syndrome flourishes specifically in the Organizational context and causes a lot of Great Ideas to fade away.
Simply, “Where the Owner Wants” syndrome is a situation whereby the Owner/ CEO/ Director – or any other person with authority over another individual or group of individuals – practices his authority, and in certain cases abuses his power in a subliminal manner to drive his/ her subordinates to agree with him, and do what he wants with minor and mostly no questioning of his idea/s. In the same context, the “Where the Owner Wants” syndrome applies the same in reverse. It applies in cases where a subordinate conveys a suggestion, proposal, or recommendation that has a big potential to boost work, yet, it gets put off by the Owner/ CEO/ Director or the direct supervisor.
In either of the above cases, when a potential for multiple interaction, or a synergy of minds or efforts is put off by virtue of power abuse, argumentation, and light handling, this is when the syndrome of “Where the Owner Wants” makes its impact. It becomes a tool for killing potential, and a nurture house for negative attitude and indifference on the side of subordinates, be it employees or teams. The best thing they will aim for onward is to do whatever their direct manager wants, without challenging the gives, without exchanging ideas, and without optimizing the power of synergy that human beings are the masters of.
In other words, when our Businesses are not thriving as we’d like them to, and our Products are not innovative and seem to be unwanted by our clients; when our Services stand out poorly in front of competitors, and our brand image is invisible; when our ability to attract great talent is very weak, and we are losing very good employee to a more appealing competition, then it is worth asking ourselves: could it be that we are infested by the syndrome of “Where the Owner Wants?”.