Penguins represent a paradox of innovation and narrative in organisations. Penguins are considered one of the most sociable species on the planet, and often live as a flock on an iceberg or cliff. Both fear and food reside in the same place – in the water. The fish as food and the sharks as fear.So now, how do you get the first of the flock into the water? The answer: the flock pushes the pengiun closest to the edge into the water to see if it is safe. This paradox is ironically labelled as "co-operation in a competitive envirnment". It is the same paradox we find in organisation when they have to innovate i.e. "great idea Bob, you go ahead and try it!"

When one gets to grip with the organisational narrative of a company, one often finds that they are a company just waiting for someone to be pushed off the edge to change the Story. So, in some cases, when a company has gone through a particularly tough patch the narrative pattern, as an indicator of the culture, is one dominated by a lack of meaning and mistrust in leadership. This organisation is just waiting for a leader to emerge, and will often put one in place, to find out if it is safe to move on and change the Story/culture or not. It is in this space that an organisation is just yearning for a hero to come along and lead them out of the mire. This may sound counterintuitive to my logic above regarding the pengiuns. The truth is however that organisations, as collectives of employees, often do not see their inherent ability to "push" someone off the edge and the leadership, instead of seeing the opportunity, embody the dominant negative narrative without seizing the opportunity to step forward.

Some fo thsi thinking comes from an audio clip of Peter Engstrom's found here.