The Double Accommodation – The Leader’s Conscious Breathing Between Detail and Vision
Discover a fundamental concept for business success: “double accommodation.” Drawing on optics (bifocal lenses) and learning to drive, this episode explores the essential back-and-forth movement that leaders and their teams must master to ensure both the performance and the longevity of the organization.
The Art of Combining Micro and Macro
Double accommodation is defined as a conscious breathing between precision and detail (analysis) and stepping back and strategic vision (synthesis). In a professional setting, this principle shows up as the tension between the technician (oriented toward management, structuring and the pragmatism of details) and the salesperson/visionary (driven by conquest and long-term strategy).
Eve insists that the richness lies in the concomitance of both elements. A company needs structure to make its employees feel secure, and vision to give them drive and inspiration.
Managing Complementarity and Equal Value
It is rare for a single person to excel in both areas at once. The role of the manager and the business leader then becomes to become aware of their own bias (analytical or synthetic) and to surround themselves with complements. The company can even be led by a duo of leaders sharing the same status and the same level of power, each excelling in one of the two areas.
A crucial point is developed: these two functions must have equal value within the organization. Delegating analytical or structuring tasks must not be done with the idea that this function is less “noble” than that of strategy. During performance reviews, it is vital to put the employee’s daily tasks (analysis) back into perspective with the company’s overall vision (synthesis) in order to maintain motivation.
Security, Risk and Homeostasis
The episode also addresses the link between double accommodation and homeostasis, this state of balance and regulation. While reassuring, an excess of homeostasis leads the individual or the company toward dormancy and the halting of movement, because being alive means taking risks.
The challenge is to navigate between the need for security provided by mastered routine tasks and the need for novelty and conquest. The analogy of the skier illustrates this necessity: the comfortable phase on the trajectory allows you to anticipate the turn and to negotiate the imbalance needed to move forward.
Vigilance and the Capacity for Wonder
The discussion ends on the importance of vigilance and the capacity for wonder. For the leader, it is essential to be able to let go of certainties and welcome different ideas. If the members of an executive committee walk in and out with the same idea, the meeting wasn’t productive. Cultivating this openness and this conscious breathing is life-saving for the leader and guarantees the vitality of the company.
Listen to this episode to understand how this “double maneuver” is essential for making your teams succeed, securing your organization, and projecting it into the future!