While many people believe our intelligence is the characteristic that allowed humanity to be such an evolutionary success, we at SLI Advisors believe that evolution’s major human breakthrough was teamwork. We are the only species to cooperate with groups of unrelated individuals and that cooperation, more so than our intelligence, is what has allowed us to build the world we have today.
Unfortunately, the mush of group-directed evolution with individually-oriented psychology creates enormous problems for CEOs and their Boards as success in business requires us to override the very components that have made us successful as a species. Put another way, our humanity comes with us to meetings whether we like it or not.
The maxim is that no competitor can do as much harm to your business as your own Board can. While it would be nice to think that we could somehow shoo away our messy inner-monkeys and become unemotional, clear-minded, pure rational beings, the reality is that Boards and the relationship between management and governance is ruled by the complex fears, control issues, and pettiness that are the hallmarks of personal psychology and group dynamics, all heightened by the facts that the stakes are high, the future is unpredictable, and the path to success is often hazy at best.
And if the problems of group dynamics created by evolution weren’t bad enough, the world itself is evolving, meaning last year’s brilliant decision can turn into this year’s company-crushing dud while you’re infighting or sitting paralyzed in your own process.
It doesn’t have to be this way. SLI Advisors are experts in Social Intelligence Strategizing, which provides analysis and solutions for the interpersonal issues that arise in situations with complex power dynamics in order to allow everyone involved to set aside the human issues and focus solely on the business.
One last factoid: evolution has wiped out 99% of all species that have ever existed. So whether you’re a CEO looking to better manage your Board or a Board looking to better manage itself, let SLI Advisors help your business avoid becoming next on evolution’s hit list.