I use to have lunch daily with a brilliant, bi-polar masterpiece of a mind. He made it his job to force me to question everything.

Nothing was sacred, leading to awkward moments and beautiful awakenings.

Sometimes we would toil on tales of the future, the coming alpha point of the singularity, the now in action global financial meltdown, and a list of the bizarre, the brilliant and the down right weird.

Each episode added to my understanding of events around me. Sometimes it detracted from me, but that was part of the price of access. I had to give and take.

As with most worthy endeavors, there was a planned and acceptable loss.

One of the most notable conversations I had was a day sitting outside a coffee shop, when a small chickadee bird took refuge under my chair, and then proceeded to hop on my finger when I offered it a perch.

That day we had been deep in discussion on “walled gardens”, not of the verdant variety.

In the day-to-day goings, I had entered a problem in which I, the new guy, was sitting outside the wall.

It wasn’t a synthetic wall in which the barrier was one that I imagined. It was literally spoken to me. I had been in a conversation in which I was clearly told, …”it’s a walled Garden, and you’re not getting in”.

It’s funny that it had been stated, because before a word was ever whispered I knew it to be true.

In life and in business, much of the reality that we live in is not something that can be grasped.

It is the air in a room when enemies co-mingle. It’s the power of a personality, or the peace of friends. It’s the unspoken relationships, or the behaviors of beings.

To be holistic, and bring light to a bit of brilliance told to me by a friend, simply put, it is ‘The Secret Life Of Plants’.

That which is not stated often holds much power.

Enter the “Management Mafia”.

In business walled gardens enter our world when we cannot land a relation, promotion or even influence an opinion.

The ‘Management Mafia’ are often the status quo, the impediment of progress, and more virulently, they are the disease that permeates productivity.

We’ve all met them.

Have an idea that’s not their own, go home. Have a tactic that is not their own, go home. Have a strategy that is not their own, go home. Have a view, belief, variance or grief that is not their own, go home.

It becomes a daunting task to influence the mafia. Just like in the real world, you find those that take to placating bribes.

I call them bitches, or ass kissers. While this tactic works in the short run, it never builds respect, and is essentially going to lead to nowhere.

A corpse to be dumped by the side of the road when they’re done exploiting you.

Unfortunate as it seems, it is more dangerous for the Mafia then it is for you.

By virtue of the wall you cannot get in, they cannot get out. The Management Mafia begin a slow dance to death as the walls where within they live, decay.

Like veal, they cannot grow beyond a certain size, and thus they define that their business cannot grow beyond a certain size. A truly sad site to see.

While most would despair and take to pulling out their hair, it is wise not to fret, as there are ways to influence those within.

While you may not be able to get in, you can certainly feed them.

What this means is that despite the walled nature, the garden still has visitors, and still needs nourishment.

You can spend you energy trying to tare down a wall, or you can surround it.

By surrounding it I mean that you look at the walled garden, watch the ecosystem in which it exists, and identify where the water enters.

To be more clear; essentially you surround the “Management Mafia” with opinions and behaviors that influence those that have access.

Through example, conversation and action, you begin to affect and influence what happens inside the garden.

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I remember getting frustrated because I could not get in. I recall wasting my energy trying to directly influence those that would not listen to me. I spent much energy in the wrong world, with the wrong ideas.

Finally, I realized that I couldn’t make change or effect change until I was invited to do so. By confronting the mafia I was never going to gain my desired outcome.

The only true answer was to get inside the minds of those they listened to. To surround them with the ideas and energies in which I wanted to have them take to.

This meant that much of my work became conversations. Influencing the influencers, as they say.

My desired outcomes took years. Actually, they never happened while I was there. It was the attitudes and ideas that I planted, which grew to my dreams.

I had spent many of my days toiling, when I could of spent them building and growing.

The unfortunate truth is that many of the efforts we put fourth will not have foreseeable positive outcomes until long after we’ve left. True transformation is never an overnight event.

It takes time to craft and create positive change. A deep desire to see efforts through. Sometimes the work we do now is only so that other might progress towards the greater goal.

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As for the ‘Management Mafia’. The way to know you’re in one is simple.

Do you manage lateral, and by this I mean truly lateral. Can you take ideas and criticism from all corners?

Can you take action on ideas and criticisms from all corners?

Is your world singularly focused, on one entity or individual?

Can vision be shared by all, from all, for all?

Is there a path of progress for those that work for you?

Are you willing to step aside and let others grow?

Finally… Do you live in fear of your people, and by this I mean, do you harbor suspicion of your own?

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The good thing to remember about the mafia… No one ever remembers them as the good guys.