In my last post, I listed three behaviors senior people should consider when trying to encourage collaboration across the enterprise. The third behavior was Follow the Passion. This one I think is the most difficult for most leaders.

Passion is a powerful buzzword. In most contexts, it tends to be thought of as a great thing:

• He is a passionate basketball player!
• She plays that instrument with such passion!
• They are passionate with their children.

So why so often do leaders tend to kill passion rather than cultivate it?

Maybe a quick check of a thesaurus will provide some clues. Many of the synonyms that come up are buzzwords carrying a different, darker kind of power:

• obsession
• infatuation
• craze
• fury

It is hard to take any of those words and use them in a context that someone would take favorably. Try it! It is a good exercise to attempt.

That is the nature of passion. We want it, just without the less comfortable, stingy attributes that seem to accompany it like conflict and emotion. How often have you heard a leader say in one form or another:

Hey Bob, we all like your passion; but can you try to be less argumentative? It makes everyone uncomfortable.

Patrick Lencioni talks about this in his great book, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive (notice how he managed to use the word obsession in the title of his book in a context most people find favorable by coupling it with the word extraordinary). In it, he says cohesive, effective teams engage in passionate debate they fight, not about personalities but rather about business issues. Patrick discusses the leaders role in creating the team cohesiveness so that passionate debate ensues. In contrast, most leaders I meet today tend to encourage an artificial harmony, where arguments are few and disagreements are buried. Passion is not an ingredient in artificial harmony and is therefore discouraged.

Collaboration is a cornerstone to an Enterprise 2.0 foundation. But it comes about not just through tools and techniques, but also through the intentional behaviors of leaders to build an environment that encourages passionate debate, an environment that is counter-intuitive to most leaders today.

Speaking of Enterprise 2.0, I look forward to this years Enterprise 2.0 Conference coming up in Boston, Mass from June 9-12. The companies attending are all looking for ways of fundamentally reinventing how works gets done and Ill be interested how many of them link effective collaboration with passion. My company, nGenera is a sponsor this year so I am able to quote a special promotional code: CMBMEB16. You can use this promotional code to get either $100 off the conference pass or a free demo pavilion pass.