Why Job Titles Get in the Way of Growth

They promote division, not collaboration

They promote division, not collaboration.

Photo by Esteban Lopez on Unsplash

We don’t know how attached we are to something until we let it go.

As I finished delivering my keynote, the room wasn’t just filled with applause — the entire floor was covered with small pieces of paper.

“The audience loved your talk, but the cleaning people will hate you,” one of the organizers told me laughing.

I was invited to speak about the democratization of leadership in agile organizations. Our attachment to titles inhibits organizational growth — that’s why I encouraged people to let go of it both physically and metaphorically.

I asked participants to write down their name and job title. All at the same tore their ‘business card’ saying at once: “I’m no longer (their job title), I’m just (their name).”

I’ve facilitated this exercise several times before. However, watching close to 1,000 people letting go of their title-attachment simultaneously was a powerful and energizing experience. We usually don’t rea…