Former president Ronald Regan loved to retell jokes from Russia that highlighted the massive economic inefficiencies of the Soviet Union.  He even said once, "Here's one I shared with Gorbachev: 

 

This Russian goes in to buy a car.   And even though you have to pay up front, you don't take delivery for a full ten years, because of the production backlog in the command economy.  So the guy hands over the money and the dealer says, ‘Thanks, come back in ten years to pick up your new car.’  The buyer asks, ‘Morning or afternoon?’  The dealer looks at him like he's got a screw loose.  ‘What the hell's it matter?!  It's TEN YEARS from now!!’  ‘I know,’ says the buyer, ‘but the plumber is coming in the morning.’"

 

The Soviet population coped with the insanity created by the Marxist “command economy” through this type of underground humor.  Everyone knew the system didn't work, yet to merely suggest it wasn't working was a criminal offence called “slandering the Soviet state and social system.”  Since no one was allowed to identify the system’s problems, no one could fix them, so naturally the whole thing was doomed to collapse under its own weight.  

 

And it did.  Here we have a completely dysfunctional system calling itself perfect and labelling suggestions for improvement as “treason”.

 

We may look down on such obvious stupidity, for its mind-boggling inefficiencies yet, ironically, the vast majority of corporations, NGOs and government agencies here in North America are no different – they have replicated all the monumental inefficiencies of the Command Economy internally.

 

A recent Harris Poll found that only 17% of working Americans have a clear idea of what their employer are trying to achieve and why, only 15% say their organizations enable them to execute key goals, and that even fewer work in environments of high trust and open, honest communication. Commenting of the full results of that poll, Dr. Steven Covey noted:

 

“If, say, a soccer team had these same scores, only four of the eleven players  on the field would know which goal is theirs. Only two of the eleven would care.  Only two of the eleven would know what position they play and know exactly what they are supposed to do.  And all but two players would, in some way, be competing against their own team members rather than the opponent.

 

“Can you imagine the personal and organizational cost of failing to fully engage the passion, talent and intelligence of the workforce?  It is far greater than all taxes, interest charges and labor costs put together!”

Personally, I don’t need to imagine it, because I’ve lived it and experienced it first hand.  I've personally experienced the horrendous cost of trying to retain the old Industrial-Age “hierarchical command-and-control” model in the blinding speed of the information age world.

 

• You can’t innovate fast enough to keep up, much less get ahead

• You squander untold intellectual capital and create an endlessly cynical work force

• Hiring and retaining the best talent becomes difficult and costly

• You can’t form, motivate and empower the high-performing teams that your success in the modern environment depends on for innovation and execution

 

On the other hand, what do we know about world class corporate cultures? Simple:

​

1. The pyramid tends to be flatter

2. Informality reigns

3. Everyone is passionately engaged in the company's mission

4. Those who do the work feel motivated, challenged, able to contribute to the max and know their accomplishments will benefit them

5. All this allows the organization to innovate faster than its competition and to adapt easily and with blinding speed to changes in the market place or to any shift in circumstances

Yet most organizations today, like the USSR, are the very opposite of all this.  And most will remain that way until, like the USSR, they either collapse under their own weight or until their own Gorbachev comes along - he's the humble, unassuming guy who isn't afraid to ask all the embarrassing questions and point out that the emperor has no clothes.  He’s the guy who’s not afraid to ask the magic question, "What should this look like?"

​

​

Dr. Symeon Rodger

​

Dr. Symeon's more sedate side has expressed itself over the years as a university professor, a married priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and a bestselling author on the personal transformation methods used by ancient cultures.  On the more "edgy" side, he's a martial arts expert, a certified emergency management expert, and he's trained in counter-terrorism by veterans of the US and Israeli special forces. 

 

Dr. Symeon has written and spoken extensively on leadership, self-leadership and organizational culture, developing a unique approach for helping today's companies and their leaders unleash their vast potential.  

 

In addition, Dr. Symeon has taught peak performance principles to thousands of people worldwide since 2005, earning a reputation for both integrity and for delivering life-transforming programs, presentations and keynotes.

 

Dr. Symeon holds his B.A., M.Div and doctoral degrees from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, St. Vladimir’s Seminary in Crestwood, New York and the University of Toronto, respectively.  He lives in Ottawa, Canada.

​

​