Dominance & Subservience - Today's Governing Principle

The Model of Dominance & Subservience: Why Sustainability doesn't Work!

As outlined in previous blog post, many of today's businesses, governmental organizations, and even private relationships are governed by what I call the model of Dominance & Subservience. This Neolithic model has been with us for well over 2000 years. Governed by a sense of lack - a mindset that there's not enough for every one of us - the model of Dominance & Subservience still to this day dictates many of our behaviors. As a result of this model, we learn from our parents, our educators and society that we must hoard the resources in order to guarantee our personal and our economic survival.

In our culture this resource is money! And as long as Dominance & Subservience rules our behaviors, we will always fall back to unsustainable practices the moment access to money is jeopardized.

It is easy to see that the "accumulation of resources" contradicts sustainability at its core. In fact, it is impossible to create truly sustainable organizations as long as businesses are built on Dominance & Subservience. Why? Because this lack-based model prompts us to act from fear; and where there's fear, there cannot be flow. As a result, this model always leads to struggle and stress. And as long as stress and struggle persist, sustainability remains a fantasy. The results of the model of Dominance & Subservience are reflected in the distressed state of our economy and our environment.

If we want to build companies that are operationally, environmentally and personally sustainable - where financial growth is combined with environmental sustainability and personal well-being - we must break the existing model of Dominance & Subservience. This asks for a new leadership paradigm, which is based on partnership and mutual respect, rather than on domination of resources, or being subservient to a dominator.

I would have to agree that breaking 2000 year old habits can be a challenging task to be added to an executive's calendar. But if we want to create sustainable organizations, do we really have an option? The good news is, that breaking away from this model actually supports much of what today's organizations are aiming for, anyway: increased responsibility and accountability in the team, ability to deal with change, higher employee engagement and leadership mentality on every level in and organization.

It's not them. It's us.

Contrary to what we may think, both parties in this model, Dominator and Subservient, are fully responsible for their role. Breaking away from this model requires that both parties become fully accountable for their contribution to this model: the dominator (in businesses this is typically the boss) for his role, and the subservient person (typically the employee) for his contribution to this model. This contradicts the current modus operandi, where leaders are typically placed in an active or responsible position, while employees are perceived as being more reactive.

This is actually good news, because as we break away from this model, the boss is not the "Bad Guy", anymore. Once an organization changes this model, the leadership team - the top 1% of the organization - is not expending energy and time with managing the remaining 99% of the workforce. As leaders and employees become responsible and accountable for their contribution to this model, everybody inside an organization can align their energies to follow a common goal. As we break away from this model, every person inside an organization becomes a leader on their own account - responsible and accountable for their behaviors and actions.

This is the foundation for a sustainable organization. Only as individuals become fully responsible and accountable, Personal Sustainability can be established which in turn builds the foundation for Organizational, Social and Environmental Sustainability components described in the 4-Tiered Sustainability Model.

In the next blog post, I will outline the governing principles of the Dominance & Subservience model, and which Common Manipulators are used by the dominator and by the subservient to keep this model intact. As we become familiar with these Manipulators, we can break away from the model of Dominance & Subservience.