This post was co-authored and co-inspired by my brilliant friend Tobey Deys. To read more from her visit her site
Have you ever thought this about someone: they’re like a ‘chameleon’, those little lizards that change their skin color. Chameleons are quite adept at adapting with a rainbow of tints. By blending in with their environment, the little beasts are able to hide from predators. The main purpose for their ability to change color is social signalling. When they’re angry, they turn black and when attracting a mate, they go super rainbow bright. They change color in order to communicate, connect, and evade predators.
So it’s all about survival; not being eaten and ensuring the continuation of the species. Darwin’s theories of evolution and the survival of the fittest hold true in the biological realm and, not surprisingly, in the business world. When you meet someone and suggest that they are ‘chameleon-like’, this comment is generally taken with offense and not because you just called them a lizard.
To be assessed as ‘chameleon-like’ is considered pejorative. It suggests that the person is inauthentic and not presenting as the genuine article. It alludes to the idea that someone will ‘change color’ to suit circumstances and situations and is, thereby, not being ‘real’. But this is not necessarily a bad thing; we are all, to some extent, chameleons. We all Spin, to a greater or lesser degree, to survive.
In the business world, and in our personal lives, we all subtly change our personality to better relate, engage, connect, and/or benefit from another person or situation. The question remains: is this a bad thing?
Spin can be certainly be construed as negative: astroturfing, groupthink, cherry-picking, propaganda. There are many unethical and inappropriate connotations associated with spin. Yet, we all spin. We are programmed to spin because if we don’t, our very survival is threatened.
That waxes dramatic but the truth is, in the business world, not incorporating certain spin tactics can spell demise. On an individual level, we must work with colleagues with whom, for one reason or another, we don’t well connect. In order to be the ‘fittest’, thereby guaranteeing survival, the intolerable is tolerated. Successful salespeople spin by mirroring clients (mimicking speech patterns, body language, and facial expressions) in order to better connect, engage, and sell to them. Brands learn about their customers, building their marketing to best appeal and connect with them. This is not necessarily disingenuous. As social animals, we have adapted to know how to best behoove our survival.
That survival is determined by how well we ‘get along’. Adapting to circumstances, situations, and market forces is a requirement and there is not a single entity, person or business, that is entirely spin-free. The thrill and joy we express when we unwrap the hand-knitted orange and purple sweater from Grandma at Christmas to the commiseration and compassion we express over a colleague’s lost deal (with a hint of schadenfreude mixed in? For most people, probably…) If you need to cancel an appointment or back out on a date because you ‘just don’t really feel like it’, you don’t say that. You deliver a reason – emergency at the office, your car broke down, the cat is ill. The motive behind this is to spare the feelings of your client or your friend. Very few people, if anyone, would actually be completely genuine and say “I don’t feel like it”.
(One reason we love some stand-up comics is that they strip the spin and call things as they really are ~ they say out loud what most people only dare to think. It makes us laugh … and it makes us squirm)
To survive, everyone has to spin, to adapt and adjust. Chameleons drive diplomacy; without them, it would crumble. Spin sells; we like to hear what we want to hear. To think that we can manage and succeed without spin, without a bit of the chameleon, is naive. We want our companies to be genuine, we aim to be honest. But to survive, we need to adapt, adjust, and often that means we have to spin.
Certainly it is a discussion worth having. So we ask…
How much of a chameleon are you? How much does your company spin? How do you feel about it? Is it wrong to play the game?
