Root Cause Creativity

You may have never heard of him, but in the late 90s, Antanas Mockus became mayor of Bogotá. He was part mathematician, part philosopher and a complete creative.

By that, I mean he was blessed with unconventional logic.

In a city plagued by violence and corruption, he fired the enforcers and hired mime artists.

They, in turn, handed red cards to bad drivers to shame them. Onlookers laughed. The mimers applauded the good drivers. A thrill went through the city.

He applied similar ideas to a bunch of challenges during his two terms.

Homicides dropped from 88 to 22 per 100,000. Traffic deaths halved. Water use fell 40 per cent because he filmed himself showing people how to shower to save water on live TV. And 63,000 people paid higher taxes because he asked them if they would like to.

He knew humans; he applied his imagination and creativity to the cause.

Most of us change naturally when we feel seen and respected by each other rather than treated soullessly by a faceless state.

Maddeningly, those with the power almost always do the opposite of what makes humans change. They demand compliance. Their agendas seem to conflict with humanity and joy. What if they created positive contagion that made participation irresistible? Stupidly naive of me, I know.

Similarly, the corporate world.

A psychosis of KPIs, accountability frameworks, and performance improvement plans has afflicted way too many. Measuring everything and still wondering why nothing moves is such a common condition.

You cannot spreadsheet your way to culture.

Many leaders are left to manage with metrics because they have run out of meaning. We do not change because of some memo from HR or a dictate handed down by someone who isn't trusted. We change when we see our colleagues doing stuff that matters.

Opting in feels better when it happens naturally.

People tend to follow what they see —meaningful actions, not just what they are told or hear. Mockus did not fix Bogotá through enforcement; he made good citizenship visibly cool.

What if more of those with the power made the right thing the visible thing, the thing everyone wanted to be part of? Good leadership is invisible until it’s everywhere.

Right now, it's more root canal than root cause.