Comfort v Ambition
Applicable to Employees Only
For any employee, ambition is a developmental force that draws them away from coasting along comfortably and feeling self-satisfied. The ambitious state involves a restless desire to make greater efforts in a variety of ways as revealed here. There is usually also an expectation of being commensurately rewarded.
It seems that employees have these contrasting options in regard to achieving within an organization.
Either
- Ambition i.e. taking on recognizable challenges within employment.
Comfort v Ambition is proposed as the unfolding duality in employment work.
This duality applies only to the employee (or «the management» in their roles as employees). The management, if not itself complacent and self-satisfied, usually prefers ambitious employees: striving to achieve, hungry for success, and willing to compete for recognition.
THEE theory
All Structural Hierarchies have an unfolding duality: i.e. an intrinsic tension between a ground (basic or unavoidable) state and a developmental force offering potential. In employment comfort is proposed as the ground state and ambition as the developmental force.
The unfolding duality manifests in a different form within each Grouping (Level), with the ambition pole propelling movement to the next higher Grouping: i.e. the dilemma at each Level is resolved by synthesis to create a new form of comfort at the next higher Level. This in turn generates a new form of ambition.
The system is cyclic because the duality at CG7 is resolved by the form of comfort at CG1.
The Seven Dualities
CG1: Work & Challenge
Enjoy Proficiency v Take Initiative
Detail
You get a position because you and your employer are confident you can do the work involved. So the ground state at CG1 is enjoying proficiency. If you are proficient, work feels easy and natural and can be efficient and effective. If you are not proficient, you are in trouble and need training fast.
The difficulty with sticking within an existing comfort-zone is that opportunities will not be seen or will be avoided if offered. The way out of this is to take the initiative and stretch yourself. If support and encouragement are provided, you should be able to enlarge your zone of activity.
CG2: Authority & Influence
Enjoy Reputation v Seek Promotion
Detail
The tension in doing work-CG1 of proficiency v initiative is resolved by developing a certain reputation. This CG2ground state gives a status or standing in the staff group that makes informally exerting influence easy and natural. So you can enjoy reputation.
However, the difficulty with depending on reputation is that some initiatives will be blocked and some staff will simply ignore you if you lack formal backing. Organizations create a hierarchy of authority and power, and the ambitious way forward is to actively seek promotion.
CG3: Results & Resourcefulness
Enjoy Success v Take Risks
Detail
The tension in exerting authority-CG2 of reputation v promotion is resolved by success, which is the new CG3ground state. Being successful in delivering results through your resourcefulness must feel easy and natural: or your promotion has gone wrong.
The difficulty with enjoying success is that it is what is expected of you, it is what you were promoted for, and what you are paid for. If you are more ambitious, you must go further and take risks. At critical moments, you must make choices that could be highly rewarding but where damage or failure could result if you are wrong.
CG4: Assessments & Tracking
Enjoy Approval v Seek Learning
Detail
The tension in delivering results-CG3 of success v risks is resolved by gaining approval within management reports. This new CG4ground state is associated with making assessments-CG4. It is a relief to win approval. As well as pleasure at being stroked, it means you have nothing to fear from management reports.
The difficulty with enjoying approval is that you will focus on what you know about and have mastered. To develop further you must seek learning and in the real world, you can only learn through experiencing failure. That is what ambition demands.
CG5: Flexibility & Presence
Enjoy Security v Take a Stand
Detail
The tension in making assessments-CG4 of approval v learning is resolved by security, which is the new ground state for offering flexibility-CG5. At times of organizational change, being flexible means that you will enjoy security.
However, security and acceptance will not necessarily take your career in your desired direction, and may even open you up to exploitation. If you are to get what you want, you must at some point take a stand and confront demands. If agreement with management can be reached via negotiations, your status within the organization will then be significantly changed.
CG6: Commitment & Adjustment
Enjoy Identification v Seek Integrity
Detail
The tension in offering flexibility-CG5 between your security v taking a stand is resolved by identification with the organization, which is the new ground state for showing commitment-CG6. You are now able to feel maximally comfortable in your post within a particular organization. (If you don't, you need to find somewhere else where you can feel at home.)
Enjoying identification poses a problem in that the management may not always function to the highest standards. If you are ambitious you aspire to such standards and that requires you to seek integrity in whatever you agree to, and do, at work.
CG7: Incentives & Obligations
Enjoy Credibility v Take Hard Choices
Detail
The tension in showing commitment-CG6 of identification v integrity is resolved by credibility, which is the new ground state for recognizing incentives-CG7.
To move beyond enjoying credibility, it is necessary to expose oneself to its loss. That occurs when you take hard choices. Such choices are beyond everyday risk-taking. Metaphors: betting the company, accepting the poisoned chalice, biting the bullet.
The tension in recognizing incentives-CG7 of credibility v hard choices is resolved by becoming proficient at a new and higher level of sophistication. But this is also the ground state for work-CG1, so we have come full circle.
Meta-THEE Observation: This unfolding duality reveals a pattern not previously noted:
► Read more on the pressures of ambition.
Originally posted: 11-Nov-2011