Words Matter

Correcting a colleague is not for the faint hearted. You need a pound of courage along with a pinch of recklessness, but sometimes you have to suck it up and say the right thing. For example, I have heard co-workers say that a proposal or idea needs to be run up the food chain. Translation: a boss or muckety-muck in the organization must sign off on a proposal before it can proceed. Sounds innocuous? Yes. But, like an iceberg, the phrase carries hidden dangers.

Food chains were originally developed by ecologists to describe feeding relationships. Grass grows. A grasshopper eats the grass. A snake eats the grasshopper. Finally, a hawk eats the snake. Food chains are simple, beautifully linear, and as a metaphor for organizations they stink.

Food chains emphasize rank and hierarchy – who has power and authority, who is beholding to whom, who is higher in the pecking order. Certainly, hierarchy exists in organizations, and no organization can survive without it, but by focusing solely on boxes and titles on a organizational chart a larger truth is missed. I am reminded of the blind man who mistakes the trunk for the elephant. He knows, yet knows little.

A fuller metaphor is needed to describe how organizations really work, and ecologists have the answer. Let’s return to nature, and consider food webs, which are networks of feeding relationships. In a pond grows algae, which is eaten by tadpoles or snails and then the snail as well as water beetles are consumed by frogs while the tadpoles become tasty treats for small fish; both the fish and frog are swallowed by a king fisher, who, like all of us, becomes a culinary delight for bacteria and fungi.

Food webs capture the blood and guts dependence between organisms, and organizations are no different. I can’t do my job without the help of colleagues, including supervisors, nor can they succeed without my assistance. Our efforts are interconnected, and without that interdependency our collective actions would fail. Organizations exist because a goal – whether building a car or treating an AIDS patient -- requires joint action among many people. Although many bosses prefer to forgot their dependence on others, we are all part of and indebted to a web of partnerships and cooperation.

Some might object that the distinction between food chains and food webs is insignificant, too slight to bear the weight of a possible angry confrontation with a co-worker. Hogwash. Words matter. They shape our perception of reality, which influences how we think and ultimately the actions we take or avoid.

So, the next time a cubical mate suggests sending an idea up the food chain, beg off, and offer instead “to spin it out on the food web” or “drop it on a food web to see what happens.” And when you get a puzzled look, smile and say, “Or, we can just ask them what they think.”