View from the Margin

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

When we hear or use the word “marginalized,” we often think of negative connotations. We picture the dominant group pushing one or many, against their will, to the outside. This very act of exclusion carries with it a loss or diminution of the marginalized’s power to influence. All they can do is look in from afar and curse their outsider status.

But when it comes to interacting with unfamiliar cultures, being the outsider looking in can bring with this status clear advantages, but only if you can accept the positive quality of the marginalized stigma. Watching the film “The Namesake” this past weekend illustrated this for me.

It is a story about an Indian couple (Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli) who come to the United States for opportunities and end up starting their family in America and raising their two children (Gogol and Sonia), with all the tensions associated with a microcosm of Indian culture existing within a broader, dominant American culture. Gogol is intent on moving beyond his Indian roots and fully embracing the American culture, in one case Americanizing his given name and in another, seriously dating a non-Indian woman (Maxine). It is only the shock of a sudden family tragedy that draws him back to his Indian culture.

One scene in particular stands out in my memory. In it, the local Indian community gathers at the home of the Ganguli family to collectively grieve their loss. Maxine arrives and is knowledgeable enough of the Indian culture to observe certain rituals. But overall, by her words and actions towards Gogol, it is clear she wants no part of being the outsider and tries to persuade him to return, in so many words, to her world. But Maxine’s efforts to pull Gogol back out of his Indian culture just when he has returned to it through his grief is enough to distance them from each other and apparently leads to their break-up.

Thinking about this scene later, I thought about the incredible opportunity Maxine missed by not stepping or staying outside the group. To allow herself to be marginalized, she would have gained a perspective on Gogol and all his complexities that is nearly impossible to see when one is immersed in the cultural context. She, as an observant and curious outsider, would have gained the power of discernment and insight and possibly as well, wisdom uncommon to most people. But it takes courage and self-confidence to be an outsider, to be on the margin looking in.

Going back to my posting from Friday, Schein in The Corporate Culture Survival Guide also talks about this idea of being marginal. In his discussion of what it takes to bring about a transformative change in an organizational culture, he emphasizes the need to have a parallel group that focuses on learning an alternative way of thinking or doing that can be proven to be workable, that can be “sold” to the organization to foster the change. Here is Schein’s explanation for what I would call “the power of the outsider.”

The essence of the concept of a temporary parallel system is that some part of the organization must become marginal and expose itself to new ways of thinking so that it can be objective about the strengths and weaknesses of the existing cultural elements, and how these will aid or hinder the changes to be made.

Fully engaged insiders simply cannot see the culture in which they are embedded clearly enough to assess and evaluate its elements. On the other hand, having an entirely outside assessment of the culture is equally unlikely to be productive because the outsider does not know enough of the cultural nuances to be able to make an assessment. The solution is for the parallel system to include key insiders who then work with consultants to decipher the culture and plan the change program. (p. 131)

Even more significant is the implication this has for leaders of the organization. Schein continues:

It is also assumed that the organization cannot learn anything new if the leaders themselves do not. Leaders need to be made marginal, to have some new insights, and to participate in the parallel system to explore the new learning in a wider context. (p. 131)

Isn’t this wild, that leaders need to be made marginal, to place themselves on the outside looking in? But it’s not one or the other. A leader is highly effective when he or she can straddle the line between outsider and insider; enough distance to gain a perspective and enough immersion to understand the intricacies.

Where do you stand?