The events this spring and summer across several Middle East nations have been pretty remarkable – a true groundswell of citizens coming together to bring about real change – talk about creating a sense of urgency and forming a guiding coalition (however unorganized). All of which got me thinking… has this ever happened (or could it even happen) inside a corporation?
OK, it’s a crazy leap to make – but think about it. What would it take, and could it even be done? Organizations are not democracies (far from it). And yet, there are similarities between companies and governments (citizens are called employees; laws = rules/values; the police/army might be the various compliance programs or even the “boss-direct report relationship”, etc.). What would an “uprising” by the employees look like? Would it be completely viral and leaderless? Would a small group of brave VP’s carry a list of demands to the C-suite? Would the Board have to be co-opted to “oust” the CEO? How would that even work?
I’m sure some form of this has been done – at the senior levels. Think of a COO who gets the ear of an influential Board member, and starts to plant the seeds of transition (with herself as the logical next choice to be CEO). Or maybe it would be targeted at getting some rules changed, or some new procedures put in place – I suppose that happens all the time (it’s called leading change – and it is supposed to able to work from any level in the organization). But a bottoms-up approach to get the CEO fired? A complete overthrow of the power base in the organization? Wow, that would be incredible, and would probably change corporate life as we know it forever…
Nah, on second thought, it could never happen… the rebels would just get fired. Unless…
Unless the reach and influence of social media has grown so powerful that the right PR campaign could reach outside the walls of the organization… where analysts and business writers started to really take notice. Hmm…something to think about!
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