Floki in the Workplace
The storm hit without warning. Waves crashing over the side of the longship. Oars fighting against dark water. Rain hammering onto shields and soaked animal skins. Some of the crew looked terrified. Others stared silently at the horizon wondering whether the gods had finally abandoned them.
Floki laughed.
Tall, wild-eyed and soaked by freezing sea spray, he stood near the prow shouting above the wind that Thor was merely testing them. Whilst others lowered their heads against the rain, Floki stared into the storm grinning like he had been waiting for it. The gods approved of boldness not fear. He laughed harder as the ship crashed down another wave. Some of the crew muttered that he was insane. Others listened because when storms came Floki somehow sounded more alive than anyone else on the boat.
Every organisation has a Floki.
Not literally somebody shouting at thunderstorms in the office car park. But somebody difficult. Somebody disruptive. Somebody who asks awkward questions in meetings just when everybody else wants to move on to the next agenda item and the sandwiches.
Floki was an eccentric genius when it came to designing longships capable of surviving rough seas and long journeys. He challenged accepted thinking. He questioned tradition. He irritated people by refusing to accept “the way we do things here” as a convincing argument. He was fiercely loyal to the crew and committed to the success of the voyage. But living and working beside him was not always easy.
Loki could turn minor disagreements into full arguments and occasionally pushed people simply because he enjoyed the reaction.
Some people admired him. Some avoided him.
Modern organisations claim to value challenge, innovation and diversity of thought. Right up to the point where somebody actually challenges something.
Then words like “disruptive,” “difficult” and “not a team player” start appearing in conversations with HR. Eventually the organisation decides the real problem is not the danger ahead but Floki himself.
Difficult people often become lightning rods for anxieties organisations would rather avoid confronting.
In my experience in the public sector particularly, organisations often become uncomfortable around strong personalities who do not fit neatly into the culture. Leaders say they want fresh thinking but frequently prefer predictability. Many workplaces celebrate diversity provided it arrives in a reassuringly familiar form.
The problem with groupthink is that it feels very comfortable right up until the ship hits the rocks.
Viking leaders understood something important about difficult people. Spending long periods together in dangerous conditions meant you learned quickly who you could rely on. Floki might argue with people, question decisions and occasionally create chaos simply because he enjoyed provoking reactions. But when storms arrived or problems needed solving, he became invaluable.
Managing difficult talent is one of the real tests of leadership.
Insecure leaders often prefer loyalty to honesty. Meetings become calmer. Conflict disappears. Everybody becomes very supportive of decisions nobody truly believes in. Unfortunately calm meetings do not necessarily produce strong organisations.
Sometimes the person making everyone uncomfortable is also the person noticing risks others are ignoring.
Of course was not always right. Some difficult people are simply difficult. Some enjoy disruption for its own sake. Passion can become arrogance. Conviction can become stubbornness. Viking leaders understood this too. Loyalty mattered. Trust mattered. Even Floki needed boundaries.
Viking leaders could not afford to ignore morale. Resentment trapped in a small boat has nowhere to go.
But the best Viking leaders recognised that crews made up entirely of obedient followers were unlikely to survive difficult voyages or discover new worlds.
Modern workplaces still struggle with this balance. Organisations recruit creative people then slowly sand away the edges that made them creative in the first place. Employees quickly learn which opinions are safe to express and which are better kept private. Over time the culture becomes more polite, more manageable and less honest.
Many organisations remove difficult people long before they remove the problems those people were warning about.
Real inclusion is harder than organisations like to admit.
It means accepting that talented people do not always communicate in comfortable ways. Not everybody thinks the same way, reacts the same way or sees problems the same way. The most frustrating people in organisations are often the people who still care enough to argue.
This is where leadership becomes difficult.
Not writing strategies about innovation. Not launching initiatives about speaking up. Real leadership means creating an environment where difficult conversations can happen without automatically punishing the people brave enough to start them.
When the seas turned black and the wind grew stronger, crews looked for the people still willing to stare at the horizon rather than the bottom of the boat.
Calm seas rarely demanded imagination.
Viking leaders kept Floki on the longship because when things got difficult he could be relied upon to inspire confidence and come up with new ideas.
Blair Mcpherson former Director author and blogger blairmcpherson.co.uk
