“Being aware” is Edgar’s term for seeing the damage that the system does to people.

Quite A Player

Edgar is pretty quiet, but very persistent. He related the story of how he realized that being good to people was more important than productivity or any of traditional metrics.

If you have to do what the boss wants, then you are boxed in. You can nibble at the edges, but the main thing is executing on what boss wants. This doesn’t often show up as brute force, more like well, that’s the way it works.

Instead, Edgar found, that playfulness is key to extraordinary results. People who feel free to be playful also feel free to put their best ideas on the table. Others feel free to collaborate and play with them.

That’s how innovations happen.

Translation

The system and the harm that it does to people and businesses has become visible to Edgar. Not all of it, but probably enough.

His new business has a hierarchy in place, but he feels that it is inconsequential. As his business grows, Edgar will discover that hierarchy may grow and create a bureaucracy around itself. I am hoping that he will not let it go that far, and if he does, that he will figure it out sooner rather than later.